America's Greatest Road Trip!

Key West to Deadhorse: 9000 Miles Across Backroad USA

By: Tom Cotter, Michael Alan Ross

Ride along with author Tom Cotter and photographer Michael Alan Ross as they pilot their Ford Bronco/Airstream Basecamp combination 8,881 miles along the lower 48’s back roads and byways.

Tom Cotter has spent decades ferreting out lost “barn find” collector cars. The process has made him an ardent road tripper, logging thousands of miles every year on America’s back roads. Previous journeys have traced Route 66 in his 1939 Ford Woody wagon and followed the Lincoln highway coast to coast behind the wheel of a 1926 Model T.

Cotter’s journeys led him to wonder: What could be the most epic American road trip? The answer: Key West, Florida, to Deadhorse, Alaska, its thousands of miles recounted in America’s Greatest Road Trip. Cotter and Ross drove across the country, through British Columbia and the Yukon, and finally through Alaska to the literal end of the road. Ross documented their road time in thousands of photographs.

Along the way, the pair met fellow road trippers, adventurers, small-town Americans, world travelers, and rolled through an ever-changing geography from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi Delta to the Great Plains and Mountain states through the Northwest Passage and finally several hundred miles of Alaska’s challenging ALCAN Highway.

Cotter’s observations of Two-Lane America are complemented by Ross’s beautiful photography capturing both the sweep and the detail of life off the beaten path.

Join them on their once-in-a-lifetime journey—you’ll be glad you came along for the ride.

Critic reviews

"(Cotter) spins an entertaining yarn about people met, places seen, and roads driven....all wonderfully illustrated by Ross’ superb photography. Settle into your favorite chair and enjoy as they take you along, too."—Speedreaders.info

“a gem of a book…Cotter and Ross have the right approach: an epic path, the ideal vehicle, choosing to enjoy the trip, and, most of all, interacting with the people and places along the way…a fun read, and Lord knows it might inspire some to head for the horizon just to see what they can see.”

—Tony Borroz, Automoblog

"If you want to read about the ultimate bucket list road trip or get to know the U.S. and Canada and its people, then this book is a great read. We have driven much of the same journey and found his findings and reactions to what he experienced to be spot on."—Classic Motorsports

"This engaging, epic, well-documented trip will appeal to car aficionados, road trippers, and readers interested in travel memoirs, small towns, farming, or Americana."—Sue O’Brien, Library Journal

"If you want to read about the ultimate bucket list road trip or get to know the U.S. and Canada and its people, then this book is a great read. We have driven much of the same journey and found his findings and reactions to what he experienced to be spot on."

—Classic Motorsports

"Great for armchair-travel, but their storytelling and photos just might be the kick-start you need to get out there on America’s roads."—Coast News

Great Read

Great book. All about the people he meets on the “trail”. More about the people he meets than the locations or journey.