The Whole of the USA in one Travel Book:Grand Prize #3

Grand Prize #3 AND

The Great American Road Trip

USA Book

Destination: The American Road

Book: The USA Book: A Journey Through America (2009) from Lonely Planet.

This book weighs a ton.  Well not QUITE a ton, but you know what I mean. It is a nice big coffee table book printed on fine, heavy paper to show off the hundreds of photographs.

But after all, it is portraying a great big country. The USA Book: A Journey Through America, published in 2009 by Lonely Planet briefly talks about some categories of interest, and sketches out the country by regions and then it gets down to business. Each state gets four big colorful pages.

For instance, take Ohio. The capsule description reads, “Pay Ohio some respect.  It’s the nation’s seventh-most populous state–stocked with roller coasters, rock and roll, Appalachian parks and party islands–and Ohio decides the nation’s fate with its political votes.” Take that, you snoothy northeasterners.

Pictures include the historic Union Terminal in Cincinnati. It is spectacular, by the way. I’ve wandered around gazing at the wonderful art-deco design and paintings. Other pictures show the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, an unidentified roller coaster. When my husband and I honeymooned in a cabin in one of Ohio’s state parks, we ventured out to go down to Cincinnati to write on their roller coaster. And of course there is a corn field.

Did you know that Ohio is home to eight Presidents? And here’s a myth from the book–Ohio births Presidents, but also kills them. “Tecumseh’s Curse” Tecumseh cursed William Henry Harrison who defeated the Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe (surely you remember Tippecanoe and Tyler, too–the most memorable Presidential slogan until “It’s the economy, stupid”). The curse said Harrison would be elected but not serve. And if you remember your history, he caught pneumonia at his inaugural and died shortly afterward.  But Tecumseh’s curse went on to apply to every Great White Father elected in a year ending in “0″. And the curse claimed many victims, including Lincoln and Kennedy until Reagan broke the curse.

I think you can see from this tidbit that The USA book, besides being beautiful, will inform you and entertain you as you plan your Great American Road Trip. (But, where, Ken is asking, is the Buckeye tree and THE Ohio State University?)

This post is a triple whammy–my daily post about a book that inspires travel, the Wednesday Great American Road Trip post AND

The USA Book is the Third Giveaway Grand Prize.  By the way, that picture looks like the soft cover edition, but I’ll be sending you the HARD COVER edition. When I thought about how much the shipping costs would be, I almost pulled it out of the contest, but all of you who have faithfully posted and tweeted and signed up for subscriptions, deserve a chance at this book.  So go ahead, add another comment, tweet another tweet, and if you have not yet subscribed, go do it for 3 more chances. The Grand Prize Drawings will be after midnight MST Friday January 29  and the prizes will be announced next week. Good Luck. Oh, and if you don’t win, you can always click on that square in the sidebar that says Lonely Planet and go right to their site to buy a copy.

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Tags: BlogSherpa, Cincinnati, Great American Road Trip, Lonely Planet, Ohio, USA, William Henry Harrison