Motel America: A State-By-State Tour Guide to Nostalgic Stopovers [Paperback]

Andrew Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2006

Andrew Wood is back from his ROAD TRIP AMERICA with his latest cross-country, road-tripping adventure: MOTEL AMERICA. Seeking out the charming, funky, and out-of-the-way mom-and-pop motels, MOTEL AMERICA is your off-the-beaten-path inspiration for vacations and weekend getaways with a retro flair. Wood offers up history, highlights, and loads of fun facts about his favorite sleepovers in all 50 states. From charming owners to offbeat locations, each of these motels is sure to make memories. So pack your bags, bring your sense of adventure, and check in to MOTEL AMERICA.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

* A guide to funky, retro, and off-the-beaten-path motels around the United States from the author of ROAD TRIP AMERICA.

* Featured motels include one where the windows face a working drive-in theater, making your bed the best seat in the house, and another where each room is an individual teepee.

* Learn the inspiring stories of owners maintaining impossible-to-duplicate motels in the face of cookie-cutter chains.

About the Author

ANDREW F. WOOD teaches in the communication studies department at San Jose State University. A noted scholar and public speaker, Dr. Wood’s work has been noted in media outlets including CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and on NPR’s Morning Edition. He maintains an award-winning website celebrating roadside architecture from his residence in Scotts Valley, California. JENNY L. WOOD has been a photographer since 1986. Her photos of motels have been featured in galleries around California as well as on her award- winning website, Motel Americana. Her photography has also been featured in advertisements, on album covers, and in USA Today. She lives with her husband, Andrew, in Scotts Valley, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Collectors Press (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888054913
• ISBN-13: 978-1888054910
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #649,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where are the OPEN motels???, January 10, 2006

By 

J. Shiptoski "MSJ" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Motel America: A State-By-State Tour Guide to Nostalgic Stopovers (Paperback)

I bought this book because I wanted to go for a vacation while staying at vintage nostalgiac motels. I thought, why not pick up this book, this will be the perfect book, after all its subtitle reads: "A State-By-State Tour Guide to Nostalgic Stopovers"

Little did I realize that I would be wasting my money on a book peppered with very FEW motels that are actually inhabitable because either they were torn down, renovated into something else, or vacant! The author decided to spend a whopping two pages on each state's motels,...TWO PAGES on each state? You're kidding me!!?? To boot, he includes great postcard photos of vintage motels, but doesn't give any info about them 90% of the time!! What the heck is up with this guy! "Oh, here's a great mmotel,...of course I'm not going to actually tell you anything about it though!"

So, tell me how the heck are these, "stopovers" for anyone on a vacation looking for NOSTALGIC STOPOVERS? This book is listed under vacations in many bookstores and online bookstores,....it's 90% useless to anyone actually WANTING to stay at a vintage nostalgiac motel for God's sake! I can think of at least five different motels that ARE in service and date back to at least the 1950's if not earlier in my state alone! Well, after reading this little waste of time, I think I may just see about writing my own Nostalgic Motel travel guide!

Great photos, but then again this isn't a coffee table book of photos,....well, its not supposed to be anyway.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a good book, lacks detail and original content., January 10, 2006

By 

Drive-In Kid (Michigan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Motel America: A State-By-State Tour Guide to Nostalgic Stopovers (Paperback)

This book consists of a 4 page introduction which discusses the history of the subject, with the remainder dedicated to 2 page summaries of the motels in each state of the US. The pictures look mostly to be old postcards with a few original photos thrown in. Clearly the research on each state was not thorough. The few motels that are mentioned are seemingly picked at random, with short shrift given to each one.

Giving my own state of Michigan as an example, the authors picked one gem, The Cadet Motor Inn, and a few other motels along the same highway that were either closed or hardly worth mentioning. Although there are several hundred prime examples of the genre throughout the state that could have been featured, the authors chose instead to make disparaging remarks about the area, referring to Detroit as "the beat up capital of America's nearly pulverized auto industry."

We all realize that we have challenging issues facing many of the urban areas in the industrial states, so the author's commentary is un-needed, ill-advised and out of place. I bought this book because it proposes to be a "tour guide" for those interested in Roadside America and its rich history and traditions. Mentioning a few motels on one stretch of road while cautioning the reader to "not stay long," is hardly useful given the hundreds of wonderful, well-preserved motels throughout the country that are not even mentioned.

1 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a long day...a long drive...where do we stay?, May 1, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Motel America: A State-By-State Tour Guide to Nostalgic Stopovers (Paperback)

a road trip full of neon childhood memories...