All Night Long: Road Trip Guys Still Trucking

MIKE PESCA, host:

The great American road trip has passed halfway. Twenty-four hours have passed since we last checked in with them, and Adam Gatherum, Joey Stocking and Josh Keeler are 1,500 miles closer to their goal of driving through all the lower 48 states faster than anyone ever has. They've been on the road since Sunday morning, and are now in - where are you guys?

Mr. JOSH KEELER (Cross-country traveler): We are in South Dakota on I-90.

PESCA: South Dakota? All right, and that is Josh?

Mr. KEELER: Yes.

PESCA: Hey, Josh. So, I guess you're riding shotgun, and as a special treat, Josh's dad Jim, who is in Utah, and headquarters for the whole crazy mission, is also on the phone. Hey, Jim.

Do we have Jim? No, I guess not. Just you, Josh. Hey, Josh, did - I didn't know if your - hey, Jim, are you there?

Mr. JIM KEELER: I'm here.

PESCA: I thought it'd be harder to get the guy who is actually driving cross-country in three days than the guy sitting on his couch, but I guess not. Jim, was this whole trip your idea?

Mr. JIM KEELER: Yes, it was. It was something I came up with in 1993 with a friend of mine named John Bruff (ph). We were on a road trip to Tennessee from Salt Lake City, and we were driving along and trying to, you know, talking about driving, and trips, and road - things to see on the side, and - anyway, one of us, we don't remember who, came up with the idea of how long would it take to go through all 48 states.

And initially we figured probably two weeks. By a couple hundred miles down the road we were thinking, well, maybe ten days, ten days would be, you know, what it would take. So, when I got home from that trip, I went to AAA and got a complete set of U.S. maps, and all the states, and started working on the route.

PESCA: And when did you figure what the record was, because there was no Google then? So, how did you know what time you were trying to beat?

Mr. JIM KEELER: Well, I went to the Guinness Book of Records, and there were three gentlemen from Connecticut who were pilots for various airlines, and the map company in Chicago, Rand McNally, had a contest, and the contest was to see who could, you know, figure out the shortest route. Well, the people that figured the shortest route won the trip.

PESCA: I see.

Mr. JIM KEELER: Rand McNally sponsored them in a Chevy van. They even had a spare engine, you know, extra tires, a big gas tank, the total opposite of what Joshua is doing.

PESCA: And how long did they do it in?

Mr. KEELER: They did in 127 hours and 15 minutes.

PESCA: And so now, Josh, there you are in a Toyota Scion, no extra nothing except two extra guys to take some of the driving duty. What kind of time are you making?

Mr. JOSH KEELER: We're making great time. We've crossed about 4,600 miles. We've got 12 states to go, and we're about two hours from starting our fourth day.

PESCA: And what about - is sleeping really cramped? You guys getting really cranky?

Mr. JOSH KEELER: You know, it hasn't been too bad. One of us is always asleep. The backseat of the car is just big enough for somebody to lay down back there and get some good sleep, and we got somebody driving, and somebody navigating at all times, keeps us pretty busy.

PESCA: And have they invented a brand or flavor of Febreze strong enough to counteract the effects of three guys in a Toyota Scion for three days?

Mr. JOSH KEELER: No. It's going to need some definite improvement in that department.

PESCA: Jim, when you were thinking of the trip 15 years ago, did you account for smell?

Mr. JIM KEELER: Well, our plan was we had a van that was going to be provided by Ford Motor Company. It was a prototype of a new Mercury van, and so we, you know, we were going to put air fresheners all over the whole thing inside.

RACHEL MARTIN, host:

So you did think about it?

PESCA: Yeah. Cherry, pine, whatever - so it sounds like it was much more than a pipe dream. I mean, you had a real car company on board, and what happened? What happened to the dream?

Mr. JIM KEELER: Well, we were getting ready to put the whole thing and all the final details together and my mother passed away, and so I had an estate to take care of and, you know, we considered strapping her to a rocking chair on the top of the van, but then we thought we better not do that.

PESCA: Yeah. And then the makers of "National Lampoon's Vacation" would sue you for plagiarism, yeah.

Mr. JIM KEELER: Excuse me, that's for sure. So, she passed away and so the trip kind of went down the drain, and I never forgot about it. I was still constantly looking at the maps and wishing, and then last September, Joshua came to me and said, hey, Dad, do you still have all those maps, and I said yes, and he said, well, we're going to do the trip.

PESCA: That's awesome. And, Josh, how much change did you make on his original plans from 15 years ago? Did you come up with better ideas, or did you know that some roads changed or anything like that?

Mr. JOSH KEELER: You know, we've known that some of the roads have changed, and there's a few little things here and there, but overall it's pretty much the same exact route, and we've just had to tweak things here and there.

PESCA: And I heard that you had, because you blog, and I read your blog, which is amazing that you could do that from the road, but I heard about some navigational issues around Chicago? What happened?

Oh, I think someone cut out. I think Josh cut out. Yeah, you tell me, Jim.

Mr. JIM KEELER: Yeah, well, what happened was they got up there and they tried to go up Interstate 90, up angled towards Wisconsin, and there was construction going on, and the road signs through that area are very confusing, and so he had some difficulty navigating on up to Wisconsin, but eventually they were OK.

PESCA: And I know you're in mission control and can help them if you need to, but have you had to be called into scramble and find alternate routes, Jim?

Mr. JIM KEELER: Not alternate routes, but I've been on top of the weather. So I've been sitting here at the computer probably getting as much sleep as they are.

PESCA: Yeah. Maybe not stinking up the den as bad, and Josh, you're back with us now?

Mr. JOSH KEELER: I am.

PESCA: So, one quick question, any of the places that you've passed through that you said, you know what, I'd like to come back here and check it out for more than, you know, just the toe touch, or just the drive through and see the highway?

Mr. JOSH KEELER: Yeah. We've seen a few different places that have been pretty interesting.

PESCA: There goes the phone.

MARTIN: Josh is in a mountain pass.

PESCA: We got to tell the Verizon Dakota people. Jim, Jim...

MARTIN: Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?

PESCA: Jim, I'll leave it with you just to say this sounds like a great father-son-bonding experience even though you're a thousand miles away. Is that right?

Mr. JIM KEELER: Well, it's a tremendous experience. I'm greatly honored by what he's doing and I...

PESCA: And when he's done, you'll get him a new phone, right?

Mr. JIM KEELER: We're going to buy him a new phone so he can talk to people while he's on the road.

PESCA: All right. Jim Keeler, who Josh was - is for a second there, but his son and two of his friends are going cross-country on this amazing road trip. They have a blog, and we'll link to it from our blog. Thanks a lot, Jim.

Mr. JIM KEELER: Thank you very much, and have a good morning.

PESCA: All right.

MARTIN: Thank you.

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