Lapping America

Product Description

A Man, a Corvette, and Interstates

Claude Clayton Smith

“This entertaining book is as much about the adventurer as it is about the adventure: where Smith goes is interesting, but it’s what he does when he gets there that’s important. An entertaining learning experience, not only for the reader but for the author as well.” — ALA Booklist

Now more than half a century old, the Federal Interstate Highway System was proposed by President Eisenhower as a security measure in case the United States needed to move large quantities of military supplies through the country. The result has been the Interstates, which most motorists take for granted to get us many miles at high speeds.

Lapping America is Smith’s tale of celebrating the Interstate system by driving the perimeter of the United States: from Ohio to Maine, down to Florida, across to California, north to Washington, then back eastward to his Ohio home—all in a fire-red ‘96 Corvette. Along the way he meets a cross-section of the
American people and talks with them about the Interstates and what makes the system so much a part of the American fabric. This is a funny, perceptive,
beautifully crafted account of a journey many of us may dream of making but never do. Smith takes us along for a wonderful ride.