BEDFORD, Pennsylvania – For the briefest of moments, a line of vintage Rolls-Royce automobiles chugged along the curving Cumberland Road. They passed over the Cumberland Run a handful of times and wound themselves down the mountains, away from Pennsylvania and toward the city of steeples, Cumberland. The sight gives the bystander a moment to imagine what it looked like in the early days of American road tripping.

These 1922 Rolls-Royce vehicles, which included the New Phantom and the Silver Ghost (some of the first cars designed expressly to be owner-driven rather than chauffeured), were not what many Americans owned. But they help you understand what men like Henry Ford knew: No matter what class you fell in, everyone wanted the freedom and adventure that automobiles provided.

The vintage convoy of luxury automobiles passing leisurely down the road exemplified just that. Just watching the joy the occupants had with their tops down, scarves flowing in the crisp mountain breeze, waving to farmers along the way, was a reminder that Americans still love their cars and road trips. They still do, more than 100 years after the first assembly line was introduced in 1913 and massive scaling made automobiles affordable to most people.

Since the first American road, the Lincoln Highway, opened in 1913, Americans have found that their relationship with their nation and the roads that connect us north, south, east, and west is almost patriotic in concept.

Whether you are on the road for hours or days, whether you stay in your home state or visit multiple others, there is a breadth of history, scenery, and experiences that connect all of us, whether we stay ensconced with our families in our cars or stay in campgrounds with a community fire ring, or at a motor lodge, or if you just take a day trip to the local state park. One of the most interesting things we could do this summer is take a road trip, large or small, to experience the country for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

This is exactly what Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, his wife, Rachel Compos-Duffy, and their nine children did in intervals of........

© Townhall