How to Road Trip Like a Pro: The History Underground's 28-Day Challenge Unpacked!

Scott: 00:01:05

Welcome to Talk with History. I am your host, Scott. And if I sound like I'm coming to you from a hotel room, that's because I am.

Jen and I are out on the road traveling Route 66 this week with the family because we're on the go. We don't have a traditional episode for you today, but we've got something even better.

Recently, Jen and I sat down for a livestream conversation with our good friend JD over at the History Underground YouTube channel. JD recapped his epic 28 day trip across the Lincoln highway where he visited historic spots and released a video every single day.

We mapped all of his travels in our History or Drive app. So he used that to show his audience how he traveled from sea to shining sea in 28 days. And of course, all the history he saw along the way.

That is the easternmost part of the United States to the westernmost part of the United States.

We chat all about his travels, our road trip plans, and we officially unveil our passion project we've been building, behind the Scenes, the History or Drive app.

It's an interactive map tool designed to help history lovers find historic video locations, podcast episodes, and national parks right along your travel routes. So grab your coffee or settle in for your drive. Here's our conversation with JD.

Scott: 00:02:30

Yeah, that was, that was one, one heck of a trip. JD the thing that I, I thought the most, and I'm sure your audience can appreciate this, was how in the world did you do it?

Because I know what it takes me to make like a 15 minute video once a week. And, and I, I applaud you, man. And following you along the way on the map was super cool. Like, congratulations on such an amazing trip.

JD: 00:02:56

Yeah, appreciate that. So, so here was my, in general, my daily schedule is, I would wake up between 4:30 and 5 every morning and would get ready.

Oftentimes what I was doing was finishing the video that I had started the, the night before.

And then if I, if I was going to a place that opened at like 9 o' clock or 10 o', clock, I would try to be on the road to where I could be there right when they opened.

So most days in, in general I was on the road around 7 or 8 o', clock, would drive for 2 to 3 hours, get to the spot where I was filming and, and I'm also hitting spots along the way as well, but then had like my main site where, where I would film and would finish up with that and then I would get back on the road and drive. So on average, I was probably driving five to six hours a day.

Jenn: 00:04:03

Okay.

JD: 00:04:03

Is about what it was. And then I would get to my hotel and before I even took my boots off, I would set up the computer, start transferring footage over.

Scott: 00:04:13

Yeah.

JD: 00:04:14

And while that was happening, would, you know, get my boots off and just sit for a second, let the footage get going. And then I would immediately start. Start editing in general. Would wrap up, depending on how tired I was.

I would wrap up between 10 o' clock and midnight.

Scott: 00:04:33

Yeah.

JD: 00:04:34

And then wake up and do it all over again the next day.

Scott: 00:04:37

Yeah. Yeah, that was, that was, that was absolutely incredible.

Jenn: 00:04:40

Was anyone helping with your driving? Like, did your wife drive or did your son drive?

JD: 00:04:44

No, my. My wife drove one day for a few hours.

And when I was going through Nevada, that stretch where we go on the loneliest road in America, he drove for like an hour or two.

Scott: 00:05:04

Yeah. And I started getting excited when again on the map.

Scott: 00:05:09

Right.

Scott: 00:05:09

Kind of following you along the way. The first couple. Right. You're kind of getting out of the east and then you start really making some ground across the, across the Midwest.

And then, you know, me being a West coast kid growing up in the California area, once you started getting over to Donner Pass and doing all that stuff, I was like, oh, man, I am so jealous. Because that's just that, I mean, that is God's country to me up there. Right.

JD: 00:05:32

Dude, I'm telling you. So here, let me go ahead and just pull the map back up here. But, oh, and another thing that I, I was eating one meal a day is. Yeah, I would eat.

I would eat dinner.

Jenn: 00:05:45

Dinner. Okay. Yeah, but J.D. I don't know how you did it. How did you choose what places to film? Like, how did you, how did you know about the teapot?

Did you look that up beforehand.

JD: 00:05:58

On that one? I. I got onto a website about the Lincoln highway, and they have a whole bunch of little things plotted out.

So if you, if you go and you type in Lincoln highway, it's one of the first websites that pops up on Google and you can go to a map and it'll show you a bunch of, like, little curiosities and, and things like that along the way. So. So I tried to throw in like, some little oddities and little side trips and, and things like that.

So, yeah, that, that was one that stood out to me. What really was painful is I would. So I ended up being about two days ahead of the videos. So, for example, let's pull it up here.

So the day that the video in South Bend, Indiana, dropped for the Studebaker Museum. I was filming at the Dodge House over in Iowa on the Iowa Nebraska border. So I was.

And my, my original plan was to be a little bit further ahead than that, but. But I was, I was just barely ahead. I was going somewhere with that and I just completely got run over by my train of thought.

Jenn: 00:07:29

Was it like the connection like you wish you could have have?

JD: 00:07:33

Oh, oh, yeah. I know what I was getting ready to say. People, People would see the episode and I, I think there was a thought that I was there at that moment.

Scott: 00:07:44

Oh yeah.

JD: 00:07:45

And they would say, hey, you need to go check this out. And I would go look. And I'm like, oh, crud known about that, you know.

Scott: 00:07:50

Yeah, Not.

JD: 00:07:51

Not that I had time.

Scott: 00:07:53

Right. Right.

JD: 00:07:54

Because I was pretty, pretty jammed as. As it was. Let me see. I'm hit. A few comments here, pressed about the quality of your video production with that schedule.

Normal videos are always beautiful and that didn't fall off the whole trip. Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate that. There were a few errors that I made along the way that I'm gonna have to live with for the rest of my life.

Scott: 00:08:18

I saw, I saw you comment that once or twice. Kind of just saying, hey, with the rush and trying to get it out, you know, and doing all that, because that's.

I, I think until, you know, people can kind of. I think they can empathize with, with, with how much, you know, effort goes into doing that.

Especially when you're doing something like what you did for every day, but with how much it takes to just make one video. I was, I was just flabbergasted. I was so impressed that you made it happen and.

Because that's one of those things, you have to just like, you have to be in that mental space for like a month and it's just like, okay, I'm doing this, like. And it's just. I'm not going to take the pack off. I'm just going to keep going. And you just, you set the routine.

Be like, okay, I can rest in, in, in 25 days, in 24 days.

JD: 00:09:05

Yeah, there's one. So the errors that I made, one of them. I can't remember the episode, but the music.

I, I didn't drop the audio levels down on the music and I'm talking and then all of a sudden the music comes in and, and it really competes and you can't really hear what. With what I'm saying and I can't remember.

Jenn: 00:09:33

People will comment on that a Lot. People will, they'll notice.

Scott: 00:09:36

People will notice. Yeah, that's all the time.

JD: 00:09:38

And I saw that and I was like, dang it. And, and at that point I was like, crud, I'm getting sloppy. Okay, So I need to really sharpen up here to, to make sure the other one.

Jenn: 00:09:50

Oh, go ahead.

JD: 00:09:51

Oh, go ahead.

Scott: 00:09:52

Well, I was gonna ask you because along the way, when you got out to my home state of California, you put out some, some, some fighting words about, about In n Out. So I'm not going to ask you why you don't like In n Out because I, I truly don't want to know.

But I am going to ask you what's some of the food along the way that kind of either pleasantly surprised you or you were like, oh man, if I'm coming back through, I would get this again.

JD: 00:10:17

Oh, man. So food wise, Let me comment on the In n Out burger first because I took a lot of, I took a lot of heat for that.

Scott: 00:10:31

I'm sure you did.

JD: 00:10:34

Because everybody, I always hear people from California talking about In n Out burger like it's manna from heaven. So we got an in and out burger and it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. It's not something that if I lived there, I would be nostalgic for or anything.

It was, it was a good burger, but it wasn't like going to Chick fil a or anything, you know. You know, like some out of body experience. But it was good. It was good. To be honest. This is terrible. I ate so little on the trip. Oh, sure.

That there, there wasn't really opportunities to, you know, like, really get into like, okay, what's the best local diner and things like that.

Scott: 00:11:24

Yeah, yeah.

JD: 00:11:25

Most of the places that I ate were just pretty good. I, I wouldn't say anything was outstanding when I was in Forks, Washington, so the last stop on the trip, I got. Yeah, Yeah.

I got an elk burger there and. Yeah. Okay. So I'm, you know, I've, Yeah.

Jenn: 00:11:50

Was it gamey?

JD: 00:11:50

Yeah, it wasn't gamey, but they overcooked it. So venison is super lean, so you can't cook it well done. And they cooked it well done, so it was dry.

So I, I, to be honest, I didn't have anything that, that was just over the moon where I'm like, oh man, that was, that was, that was awesome. But anyway, yeah, you know, if we're talking about the history of the country and westward expansion, Louisiana, like that.

Yeah, I definitely wanted to get a Lewis and Clark site. And I'm looking forward to seeing your video on.

Jenn: 00:12:28

Was so neat. Well, I do. When I do Columbia Snake with American Cruise Line, I do four talks alone about Lewis and Clark because I have to set everything up.

And, you know, we start at Lewiston and we take their whole trek all the way in. So it was very neat to end there and to finish the story. And it was. And I do a lot of it. Sacagawea.

And I do a lot with her name and how do you pronounce her name? Right. I do a lot of that scholarship. But it was neat when you went there. I was like, oh, my gosh. I thought I would hit a spot that JD hadn't hit yet.

Nope.

Scott: 00:13:04

I've got the footage sitting in a folder on my computer.

JD: 00:13:09

Well, that, you know, that's the thing, though. You know, the. The way that you are going to tell that story and, and show it is. Is going to be completely different than the way I do. And.

And people watch both videos and they're gonna get. They're gonna get a more well rounded look at it, you know, so wrapping up the trip. So here we have.

You can see this big, long line going across America.

Scott: 00:13:40

So cool.

JD: 00:13:40

And then. And then we end right here at the westernmost point in the continental United States. Now, you can't drive here.

You actually have to park right out here somewhere. And it's about a three to three and a half mile hike. Oh, to. To get in. To the. The westernmost point. Yeah. So we were in. We started off in Forks.

That was. That's the closest sizable town. It's about 3, 500 people.

Jenn: 00:14:12

Yeah. Because of your favorite book, right, J.D.

JD: 00:14:18

Yeah. I. I knew when I was going to be in Forks, I'm like, crud. I'm gonna get gigged over, you know, Twilight stuff. And my daughter was heartbroken.

Scott: 00:14:33

Yeah.

JD: 00:14:34

And livid.

Jenn: 00:14:35

Y.

JD: 00:14:35

And resentful that we went to Forks and. And she wasn't with us. But I said, we'll take you back because I. I definitely want to go back.

But yeah, talk about the history of logging in that area. Deep, deep amount of pride that. That these people have in the. The culture and the history of logging in that area.

Everywhere you drive, you know, there's stuff about how logging, you know, what's the phrase they have that I saw a bunch jobs grow with trees. There's a lot of pride that they have, you know, with. With logging up there. Yeah. I learned a lot and, you know, found it. Found it very fascinating.

And then. Oh, yeah. Here's a little shout out to the.

Jenn: 00:15:20

Yeah.

JD: 00:15:21

Twilight crowd here. I don't know if anybody. That was just a slow mo shot that I threw in there. I don't know if anybody picked up on it.

Jenn: 00:15:31

They're a Twilight fan. They will.

Scott: 00:15:32

It's funny, I was scanning through the video because when I. When I map your videos, I'll kind of. I'll kind of use YouTube, like the feature where you can ask AI, like, hey, where's he going?

Is there a couple spots? Or something like that? And when I was scanning through it, that's the one that caught my eye. Just because it's an old truck.

JD: 00:15:49

Yeah.

Scott: 00:15:49

Right.

Scott: 00:15:49

And that, like, you gotta love those old trucks. And so that actually. It's funny because that one actually caught my eye.

Jenn: 00:15:54

Yeah. If you're a Twilight fan, you know exactly what that truck is.

JD: 00:15:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott: 00:16:00

But.

JD: 00:16:03

Yeah. So then we get out to the westernmost point, and here's the odometer. So this is from West Quoddy point to the parking lot.

Scott: 00:16:11

Wow.

JD: 00:16:12

At the. At the trailhead. So 5,000, 834 miles.

Scott: 00:16:16

So cool.

JD: 00:16:18

That does not include. So that's when I was at West Quaddy Point is when I reset the odometer.

If you include the trip from the rental facility at Bangor Airport to West Quaddy.

And then where we are at the end here, we drove up into Olympia national park and then over to Seattle where we dropped off the car and took a flight home. It ended up being. Well, here I can pull it up on my phone because I took a picture of it.

The total amount of mileage that we put on the car was 6,228 miles.

Scott: 00:17:04

Wow.

JD: 00:17:04

Is. Is what we put total on the car.

Jenn: 00:17:07

What kind of car did you rent?

JD: 00:17:09

It was a Chevy. Tracks. Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:12

Okay.

JD: 00:17:13

So again, I sent that out to a few people, you know, a picture of it and, you know, some of the European guys, and they were just blown away by it.

Scott: 00:17:22

Yeah, yeah.

JD: 00:17:24

And one of them said, dude, that's like driving one quarter of the circumference of the earth at the equator in one trip.

Scott: 00:17:36

Yeah, yeah.

JD: 00:17:38

And. And then I. I did, just to give them, like, a frame of reference, what the. The trip was like for them.

It would be like me starting in Paris and then driving all the way to Moscow. Oh, my gosh. And then turning around and driving all the way back to Paris.

Jenn: 00:17:57

I would totally do that trip and.

JD: 00:17:59

Then turn around and drive back to Moscow and then drive to Warsaw. That. That is the total mileage that I drove in European framework.

Jenn: 00:18:09

Yeah. Yeah.

Scott: 00:18:09

That's so great. That's, I think that, I mean, that's when we did our road trip a couple years ago when we were, where'd we start from? Was it Norfolk or Pennsylvania?

Anyways, Yeah, I think we ended up because we, we like drove, drove. Right. And so we drove all the way out to Little Big Horn, right up and down kind of the Colorado area, and then drove all the way back.

I think we ended up doing about 5 or 6,000 miles as well.

So that's, you know, when you're driving across the country and you're, you're almost driving back, you know, us is bigger than people think sometimes. And so it's, it's funny to put that in, in European kind of reference.

Jenn: 00:18:44

Good for you, J.D. That's pretty impressive that you did.

JD: 00:18:52

Yeah. Let me come back around, we'll finish this up. I want to come back around to, to this first super chat.

The place that surprised me on the trip is, I'm telling you, Northern California. Yeah, Northern California blew me away just because, well, first those trees, I just couldn't.

You would think that every after you saw a few of them, you would be like, okay, well, yeah, I've already seen a tree. Every single tree. I just wanted to stand there and stare at it.

That and the culture of Northern California was, was such a shock that, that just blew me away. And the Bonneville Salt Flats, my favorite state from the trip. Crude. I, I don't want to say it.

Jenn: 00:19:48

It's a California.

JD: 00:19:51

So embarrassed to say California.

Scott: 00:19:55

You can see you could, you could say it just because I'm on the podcast, but you're just trying to be nice to your guests. That's fine. I accept that. Right. He's saying it just because I'm here. If I wasn't here, JD would say something else.

So don't get offended if JD says California.

JD: 00:20:10

Oh man. Yeah, yeah, I, I, yeah, I, I, Somebody asked me the other day if they're like, was there any spot that really just kind of disappointed you?

And I said that. I'm like, I, I, no, I can't. It was my brother in law asked me that. He said, was there any place you stopped where you were just kind of like, meh?

And I was like, no, I, I genuinely loved and enjoyed every state and, and every place that, that, that I went to.

Scott: 00:20:39

Yeah, yeah. Someone here said you should say your favorite state was just the state of Jefferson there. Yeah, there.

I was like, that's the safest, smartest answer. Right? That's the state of Jefferson. That's. I, I think that's a fair answer.

JD: 00:20:54

I've, I've, I've spent so much of my life mocking and ridiculing California that it, yeah, it just, it just hurts me that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Scott: 00:21:05

I love it.

JD: 00:21:06

And then was there a stop that hurt you to skip?

Scott: 00:21:11

Oh, that's a good question.

JD: 00:21:14

Going through, going through Princeton, New Jersey, and, and not stopping at the Battle of Princeton site. That, that, that kind of wounded me. I was like, oh, dang it, I wish I could spend some more time here.

There's another spot that I, I almost put on my list, and that was the, the 1st Infantry Division Museum up just outside of Chicago. Okay, that, that was another one that kind of stung, that I kind of wanted to stop there, but. But didn't.

Scott: 00:21:53

And that wraps up today's special road trip segment. A huge thanks to JD at the History Underground for having us on and taking the time to walk through our new history and travel app with us.

nd right now, for the rest of: 2026

Thanks as always, for tuning in and supporting supporting Talk with History. We'll be back with our regular episode soon once we're back off the road.

Until then, get out there and explore history wherever you are at historyordrive. Com.