There’s nothing like hitting the open road for a weekend getaway. It’s one of the great pleasures of the working man to flee the rat race. It’s our right, our privilege — no, our solemn duty — to clear out the cobwebs so we can return to work Monday morning relaxed and refreshed, our emotional buckets refilled, ready to be the productive worker bees our bosses expect.

And perhaps that’s especially true for motorcyclists. Having the wind in your face, the road blurred under your feet, the peaceful drone of an engine massaging away the stress… no agenda, no itinerary. Heaven.

Until, of course, something unforeseen happens, and you end up wasting valuable weekend hours trying to find your way out of some trashy downtown area, or backtracking because the road you were riding dead-ended into a landfill. And everyone knows you can burn up a lot of time just trying to find somewhere to get a decent meal or a place to bed down for the night.

That’s where travel books come in. The problem with most of them, however, is that they’re the size of War and Peace; they make better kickstand plates than reference guides. Plus, travel books can be heavy and take up precious space in the limited luggage a rider is able to carry.

Thankfully, the Road Trip USA Getaways series breaks the mold. Handy paperbacks that detail specific, off-interstate routes that only take a day or two to explore, these books are informative and easy to use. Four books in the Getaways series focus on specific cities. There are also two regional books, one for New England and one for the Southwest, as well as a larger, comprehensive guide that covers the entire country. Well-written, tastefully designed, and mercifully short, each Getaways guide clocks in at just under a hundred pages, so you can glean the info you need without having to flip through page after page, searching for a certain section, or committing an entire weekend to reading through it. About the size of a road map (included), any of these books can slip right into your hip pocket. The only thing left for you to figure out is how to cut out of work early on Friday. RB

SOURCES

Road Trip USA Getaways $9.95
Avalon Travel Publishing
1400 65th St., Ste. 250
Dept. RB
Emeryville, CA 94608
510/595-3664
www.travelmatters.com