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[The Gray family's] station wagon odyssey from sea to sea totaled 17,000 miles, counting side trips. Near the village of State Road, Delaware, the author’s family chats with a State trooper. From the July 1961 issue of National Geographic Magazine, by Ralph Gray/NGS.

Cross-country road trips are often seen as a rite of passage for young travelers. Since our September issue covers the shorter Drives of a Lifetime, we delved into the NG archives to see if an article had been written on the cross-country experience–and we struck gold. Back in 1961, Ralph Gray wrote a 60+ page article for National Geographic on his family’s road trip across the United States, from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, along Route 40. Here’s an excerpt from the article, titled “From Sea to Shining Sea”:

Ahead of us a continent of geography and an epic of mankind awaited exploration. U.S. 40, a concrete cummerbund girding America’s sleek midriff, would be our guide.

Driving from sea to shining sea, we would rub elbows and perhaps bumpers with people in four of the most populous states–California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio–and in the second smallest, Delaware.

We would relive history in Maryland, see steel mills in West Virginia, and visit fat farms in Indiana. Missouri’s cities would rise above her rivers, and horizontal Kansas would end in vertical Colorado. From the vast emptiness of Utah and Nevada we would plunge into the anthill activity of Pacific coast cities.

U.S. Route 40 was an extension of the first federally funded national road, which led from Cumberland over the Alleghenies to Ohio; at the time, it was the only road leading over the mountains. Congress appropriated money for the project in 1806, and the highway was completed in 1852, ending in Vandalia, Illinois. It traversed 609 miles and cost $7 million. According to Gray, “when the Bureau of Public Roads set up the Federal system of numbered highways in the mid-1920′s, the National Road became a part of U.S. 40. By coincidence, this coast-to-coast route now crosses and recrosses the 40th parallel.” Today, Route 40 ends near Park City, Utah, at Interstate 80.

Have you been on a cross-country road trip? What route did you take?

Eco-tourism or green travel is becoming a new catchword in travel. But this doesn’t mean you need to rough it. You could stay in a tent or go backpacking or canoeing, but just little everyday things can make any trip more eco-friendly. You can stay in cities or in the countryside; sleep in a big hotel or a B&B…. but you do need to think about what you can do to protect the environment. I’m talking conserving plants and wildlife but also other resources like electricity and water.

There are more and more of us traveling every year. With so many of us out there, it’s more important than ever to think about how travelers impact the environment.

Making your travel “green travel” is a great way to protect the environment for people who visit after you do and for our children. You don’t necessarily have to pay more to travel this way. You might even find that your travel will be more rewarding, more authentic… let you get closer to the people and places you travel to…. and cheaper!

So let’s list some green travel tips….

Try to choose a green hotel. See if you can find out what kind of recycling program they have. Do they use energy efficient lighting? Low flow toilets? Water saving shower heads?

Check to see if guests have the option to reuse hotel towels and sheets instead of having them laundered everyday… then reuse them! Keep your showers short.

Turn off air-conditioning, lights, heat, television, etc. when you leave the room.

Bring your own toiletries rather than using the prepackaged ones at the hotel. Leave theirs behind. All those little bottles use lots of plastic, and who needs a whole drawer full of these once you get home?

Pack a water bottle that you can reuse. (Don’t keep buying them. Most plastic water bottles don’t get recycled.)

When renting a car, get the smallest most fuel-efficient car that you can be comfortable with. (Even consider a hybrid… it’s more and more possible to rent hybrids these days.) And try driving slower. If you go 60 mph (100 Kilometers per hour-KPH) or less, you’ll use less fuel… and just maybe you’ll see more. Get maps and directions for the most direct route. No reason do drive around lost and waste gas.

Walk to use public transportation when you can. Stay at a centrally located hotel. Walk around to see the sights; in the countryside, hike or bike if possible.

If you’re walking a beach, consider picking up trash along the way. If all visitors did this, all of our beaches would be so much cleaner.

You don’t even need to follow all of these suggestions for green travel. If you just choose one or two during your trip, the earth will thank you.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-tips-articles/environmental-concerns-and-green-travel-tips-979619.html