Only In Your State put together a list of twelve iconic American road trips, and I'll tell you right now, I've driven pieces of most of these and the list is a good one. No fluff routes. No highway slogs where you stare at semis for six hours. These are roads where you roll the window down and slow down whether you meant to or not.

Route 66 is on there, naturally. Everybody knows Route 66, and half the folks who talk about it have never actually driven a mile of it. I have, out through Arizona past Twin Arrows, and I'm telling you the old road earns its reputation. It's not fast and it was never meant to be. That's why it's worth driving.

The Blue Ridge Parkway made the list too, and that's another one I'll vouch for. You want to talk about a road that was built for the drive itself, not for getting somewhere. Crest the hills in October when the hardwoods turn and you'll understand why people come from far and wide to crawl along it at 45. And that's a speed limit I actually respect.

Pacific Coast Highway. Going-to-the-Sun Road up in Glacier. The Overseas Highway running out through the Keys. All of them are on the list and all of them deserve to be. The Overseas Highway is the one that surprises people. You look at a map and think, it's just Florida, and then you're out on Seven Mile Bridge with nothing but teal water on both sides and you quit talking mid-sentence. That bridge alone is worth the trip.

Closer to my own ground, the Ozarks don't usually crack these national lists, and that's fine by me. Highways 19 and 106 down around Eminence, the Current River, the bluffs. Some of the best driving in the country and no tour buses to fight. My fall camping trip is coming up and I've already got the route half planned in my head, mostly gravel, mostly alongside water.

What I like about a list like this is that it reminds you how big this country really is. You can be crossing high desert one week, stuck in beach traffic on the Outer Banks the next, and both trips are worth taking. A fella could spend a lifetime working through these twelve and never get bored.

A few words of advice if you're going to chase any of these. Don't plan them like a commute. The folks who have a bad time on scenic drives are the ones trying to make time instead of spend it. Leave a day loose. Stop at the weird roadside stand, the diner with six cars parked outside at 11 a.m., the overlook with the hand-painted sign. Those stops are what you'll remember in ten years, not the mile markers.

And check your tires before you go. I don't care how pretty the road is, a soft tire in the middle of nowhere will ruin the whole picture. That's just how it is.

Have you driven any of these twelve? I'd like to hear which one. Everybody's got one road they think about in the dead of winter, and mine's a two-lane through the Ozarks with the windows down. Tell me yours.