Evans Caglage, The Dallas Morning News via AP Half the fun of getting off the beaten path is finding sights that could never exist on the side of a highly manicured superhighway -- like the 10 Cadillacs buried along old Route 66 by Stanley Marsh III. The cars have become a cultural icon since they were "planted" more than 30 years ago on his ranch west of Amarillo, Texas. Click photo for larger image.

When people travel these days, they're usually thinking about destination. But the road itself occupies a storied position in American culture, and -- even in the age of the Interstate and its ever-spreading standardization -- getting there can still be half the fun.

The Internet is chock-full of ways to find out more about the roads you want to travel, the roads you'll never get to, the roads of yesterday that are gone forever -- plus loads of sites on fun things along the road.

Start on the "Mother Road," as Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica used to be known. The country's most famous highway, it was decommissioned in 1985 and now exists as a series of back roads and segmented chunks of Interstate highway. Roadside aficionados from across the land and as far away as Japan and Germany come to capture something they believe is quintessentially American.

Historic Route 66 offers photos, travelogues, books and maps, and similar visuals are served up at the National Historic Route 66 Federation. State-by-state guides and sites are also at hand with a quick search-engine query.

	Robert J. Pavuchak, Post-Gazette J.R. Manning drove his 1929 Model A "Cabriolet" from Germantown, Wis., to Beaver County two summers ago to join a cross-country caravan heading toward San Francisco to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway, or Route 30, which is considered the first coast to coast automobile road. Click photo for larger image.

Even earlier than Route 66, though, were the Lincoln Highway and the National Road, two more eastern attempts at connecting towns through big-time highways.

A Lincoln Highway fan offers a handy take on the road, including a link to the official Lincoln Highway Association. Also try the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. For the old National Road, "The Road that Built the Nation" is a useful place to start.

If you're seeking out people who love roads more than you do, the definitive destination is State-Ends.com. It's a monument to a delightful obsession. Folks from 11 states -- everywhere from Michigan to Pennsylvania -- have painstakingly documented and photographed where each local highway in their state ends. It makes for fascinating -- and bizarre -- viewing.

Planning a road trip? Look to Roadtrip America for useful tips. And for straight-up information on the national highway system, look to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.

One of the best reasons to travel by road is the weird serendipity of the places you'll find. These are documented affectionately at myriad sites. Among them:

	Jerry Naunheim Jr., St. Louis Post Dispatch via SHNS Russel Soulsby poses for a picture with a German tourist who made a pilgrimage to a Route 66 landmark gas station in Mount Olive, Illinois. Click photo for larger image.

Motel Americana is a wonderfully whimsical site about the roadside motel in America. (Don't miss the link to roadside humour postcards.

Roadside America.com is dedicated to the still-formidable weirdness that pervades American backroads.

Roadside Peek is a one-stop shopping of American road-trip yesterdays.

John Baeder is an artist who specializes in photorealistic paintings of diners and other roadside staples.

Diner aficionados can also explore Roadside Online, a journal largely about diners and their history.

There's also the self-explanatory Roadside Art Online.

Let's wind up with "Taken on the Road: American Mile Markers," an elegant and quirky personal travelogue by a road-tripper named Matt Frondorf, who traveled from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate Bridge. He shot 3,304 snapshots, one for every mile of his trip, and they show the best of the road in America -- a place with possibilities, with people to meet, things to see and a nation to digest.