© jan albers | all rights reserved
Geneva, Ohio
Some 1,500 acres of grapes are grown in the Geneva area. Conditions are ideal in the narrow stretch from the Lake Erie shore to about 10 miles inland, since the lake protects vines from damaging frosts on either end of the growing season.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
The Checkboard Diner, on Housatonic Street in Pittsfield, Mass., apparently had at least two previous incarnations as diners: Miss Pittsfield and Lizi’s Miss Pittsfield, after being moved to the town from its original location in nearby Dalton. It now appears to be destroyed.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Idaho Falls, Idaho
When you’re on the road, you often want to pull off for a cup of coffee or a bite to eat. Once you do, the road starts to beckon again almost immediately.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Leesville, New York
Leesville, New York, was one of the most western posts on the First Great Western Turnpike, built as a toll road from Albany, the state capital, to the frontier town of Cherry Valley in the late 18th century. Commerce didn’t come cheap – drivers (of a different sort) paid 3 cents per dozen to move their sheep and swine along the road. No tolls were collected from people going to or returning from church or the grist mill, or from those who were on military duty or on journeys within the town where the tollgate was located.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Geneva Ohio
The Geneva (Ohio) Grape Jamboree celebrates all things grape. Held the last weekend of September, it features wine tasting, various competitions (including waitresses balancing glasses of wine while racing down Route 20) grape stomping, and two parades, as well as the crowning of Miss Grapette.
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Waterloo, New York
Three blocks away from the excitement of Main Street.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Becket, Mashachusetts
The West Becket Cemetery includes the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers. The headstones, tilted this way and that by time, seem to mimic the surrounding hills and Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Albany, New York
This is as urban as it gets along Route 20 in New York, as it passes through the state capital of Albany. Here it runs along the Empire State Plaza, home to the offices of state legislators and executive branch agencies. More compelling, perhaps, is the egg-shaped structure called, appropriately enough, The Egg, a performing arts center that descends six stories below ground level.
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Modern-day Albany is a far cry from its early days. It was first settled as the Dutch trading posts of Fort Nassau (1614) and lays claim to being the longest continually chartered city in the United States (chartered in 1686).
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Freeport, Illinois
The Accidental Highway 