Advice to the American family setting out on the road

William Least Heat-Moon, best-selling author of "Blue Highways," "River-Horse," and most recently "Roads to Quoz," shared his insights on the American road with CNN. I found this last part quite interesting.

CNN: What advice do you have to the American family setting out on the road?

Heat-Moon:

• Go with a loose sense of destination.



• Don't go farther than your time easily allows, and try to move reasonably slowly.



• We're a nation of speeders: speeders in all sorts of things; we invented fast food.



• But speed and good travel aren't comfortable or useful companions.



• Speed is anathema to deep travel.



• If you want to learn the territory between your place of departure and where you end up, you have to have time and use it wisely.



• Speed corrupts travel far more than bad Chinese food.