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Road trip routes connections for three generations

After sandwiching three layers of family into two RVs and setting out to look for America and rediscover memories, TV journalist Mike Leonard writes a book to let us in on the fun.

By NANCY PARADIS
Published July 25, 2006

Take three generations of one wacky family, add two RVs for a trip through the United States, and you end up with Mike Leonard's The Ride of Our Lives, Roadside Lessons of an American Family.

Leonard, a long-time contributor of video features to NBC's Today show, wanted to do something nice for his octogenarian parents, who were unhappy in their new home in Arizona. He also wanted to create memories for his own children.

So he decided on a road trip, from the Southwest to the coast of New England, to show both generations parts of America they had never seen and revisit memorable places from their pasts.

This book is his witty and poignant chronicle of that trip: part travelogue, part family reunion, part recall of earlier times. Overall, the book also serves as a reflection of America's culture.

By the end of the trip, readers have learned a lot about the Leonard family, particularly the author's parents. Both have Irish roots, but personalities that are poles apart.

Leonard was astonished that his parents took little interest in the scenery or historical sites they visited, instead reserving their enthusiasm for the rows of strip centers with familiar stores that they encountered.

Each observation, each place visited, afforded Leonard the opportunity to explore and reminisce about the trajectory of his family's history - the triumphs, loves and tragedies.

Leonard's father, Jack, was the first in his family to go to college, and he looked forward to a trip to his alma mater, Mount Saint Mary's College in Emittsburg, Pa. - in spite of his wife's gloomy rant that it's impossible to go back. Her prediction is proven correct when Jack, whose visit was unannounced, can find no one to talk to.

Leonard sums up the trip:

"We had traveled nearly 8,000 miles, passing though 18 states, searching for nothing in particular but finding something priceless."

"The Ride of Our Lives, Roadside Lessons of an American Family," by Mike Leonard, $24.95, Ballantine Books.

[Last modified July 24, 2006, 21:26:23]