This week in Traveling Light, I interview Road Trip USA author Jamie Jensen. Among other things, Jensen recommends traveling the “Road to Nowhere” — U.S. 83, which travels north-south across the Great Plains:

“[I]t is a “little-traveled” route through a part of the country where tourism is rare. So it seems natural and unselfconscious; when you visit there’s no sense of having to “buy” a prepackaged image — in contrast to how tourist destinations often feel. Places like New York’s Times Square or San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf can feel like over-advertised, themed shopping centers rather than real places. I love the Midwest because you often get the feeling that you, as a visitor, come into contact with people who actually belong there.

The entire column, which is entitled “The Allure of the American Road Trip,” can be found here.