ReallYCheapRoadTrips

Ah, the lure of the open road.

America's car manufacturers have nourished a culture with long drives on Interstate highways, punctuated only with pit stops at fast-food and gas station clusters.  Ain't nothing wrong with that.

But the real America is off the Interstate, along those roads that in the 1950s used to be THE main road. They still are dotted with mom-and-pop motels, diners serving "home-cooked" meals, and strange local attractions you'd never see if you had stayed on the Interstate.

In 2010, DirtCheapTravels has been on road trips to the real America in Utah, Nevada, northeastern California (a state totally unlike LA and southern Cal), Oregon and Idaho. Forget four-star dining and chic hotels. This is real travel. We look for inexpensive lodging and eateries where locals go.

We've been to Crater Lake National Park; Crescent Lake, Oregon and surrounding areas, where lava beds are prolific; tiny former pioneer and mining towns in Nevada; and through Utah towns where cattle outnumber human residents.