Only true adventurers are willing to take the leap into unknown territory, bypass the expected exits, and go off course in hopes of discovering a hidden gem, a forgotten relic, or a treasured piece of America’s history. They are the wanderers, eager to take the path less traveled or venture to deserted areas to explore what busy intersections and newly built highways pushed aside.
This is all-encompassed in the book The Great American Retro Road Trip: A Celebration of Roadside Americana, released on June 24, 2025, in which author Rolando Pujol honors the country’s many roadside attractions from coast to coast. He’s the said adventurer and explorer who devoted decades to uncovering the nation’s quirkiest roadside finds, personally visiting each one, and the sole photographer of the snapshots that appear in the book.
The Spark That Fueled the Fire
Pujol’s fascination for retro eateries, entertainment, landmarks, and the like began decades earlier when he first started archiving these unique sights. His passion eventually led him to launch The Retrologist, a brand he shares on his Substack newsletter and social media, highlighting America’s roadside culture via photos and essays, in April 2012.
“As the years went by, The Retrologist became a bigger and more critical part of my creative life,” Pujol told us in an interview. “I found that all vacations, weekend trips, and any time off were devoted to supporting it. I’d be bored to death sitting on a beach for a week — I’d rather be ‘Retrologizing’ down some country road.”
Pujol’s curiosity about the rarely seen corners of America isn’t a surprising feature, as he has spent the last 20 years working in TV and media. Most recently, the journalist has merged his interests, often producing and reporting segments on roadside America for WABC-TV Channel 7 and the ABC Localish franchise, which is his day job.
“I feel my instincts for these stories bring a layer of texture to our day-to-day reporting,” Pujol explained. “These are stories that won’t lead the newscast but might have more meaning for a great many more people than the top story.”
The Retrologist Turned Book Author
His over 93k Instagram followers, who dub Pujol “The Retrologist,” would agree, as would the many who are eager to read his literature. Pujol said the book was a natural step on his retro journey after years of fans urging him to write it.
“What has fueled my The Retrologist project has long been love — love for these places and, as I explored them, the people who keep them going. That’s what drove me to start documenting these nostalgic haunts,” Pujol said, reflecting on how the platform evolved.
Although he considers the project a lifetime in the making, given that much of the documentation was done before signing the contract in the summer of 2023, it took six months to complete the manuscript through writing, research, travel, and editing. However, balancing the finalization of the book with his demanding work schedule and caring for friends and family was a particular whirlwind.
A Forever Treasure
It’s also not lost on Pujol that the industry is a fragile one, as a number of the hotspots featured in the book shuttered less than six months before the finished product was sent to the printing press. It’s unknown why these vintage locations closed, but for Pujol, it shone a light on the ever-changing world, especially with the advancements in technology and digital content, which further underscored why a physical book was the ideal platform to share his story.
“A book—a physical, real thing you can touch, feel, and leaf through and that is reproduced in the tens of thousands of copies—is forever, or at least, as close to forever as humans have figured out to preserve words and images, thoughts and ideas,” Pujol shared. “These stories and photos deserve to be told, shared, and remembered, and honoring them in a book both supports them and also casts a broader net of awareness, both noble goals.”
Inside the Pages
Readers will instantly find a captivating story just by combing through the book’s colorful and picture-filled pages. It’s also easily navigable, as it’s divided into regions: the Northeast, New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, South Central, the Midwest, the Heartland, the Desert Southwest, the Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest, and California, which has its own dedicated chapter.
Additionally, the book is broken up into categories such as Roadside Quirks, Roadside Eats, Mainstays of Main Street, Sweet Shops, and other engaging sections that spotlight the distinct character found throughout the country’s 50 states.
“Throughout the organizational and writing process, I strove to maintain a narrative that propelled the journey forward, with transitions and asides supporting it, so that it was not just a listicle of places and some pretty pictures alongside it,” Pujol shared about combining all these memorable places into an over 300-page keepsake.
“The reader, I hope, gets the sense of being on an adventure and can discern the logic behind why these places are clustered together,” he added, noting that the book would grab the attention of even those just leisurely flipping through with its easily readable style and format.
Formulating the Story
As for the destinations, Pujol said he’s been researching them for years, discovering these nostalgic locales through various mediums, including checking online compendiums, perusing Flickr and Google Street View, gathering tips on social media, and, of course, actually traveling to these places. His strategy? Poke around, take unexpected exits, go down alleys that he, and most likely many others, might otherwise skip.
“All these multiple flows of information are fed into the maps I use to keep track of the thousands of locations,” the journalist explained. “Whenever I hear someone mention a place in passing, or I see it in the background of a news report or movie, I’ll add it to the maps. The process is exacting and endless.”
Though his personal intrigue led Pujol to these locations, he went into reporter mode immediately when his boots hit the ground. He directly spoke with store owners, employees, and others with knowledge of the site. The writer also thoroughly researched newspaper archives and numerous online and printed sources to provide a wealth of content at each stop.
Give the People What They Want
The featured locations particularly appeal to road trip enthusiasts. The folks who enjoy hopping on the open road with no agenda (unless they’re using the book as their road map, that is) and finding hidden luxuries—like the Enchanted Highway, a 32-mile stretch of massive metal structures in Regent, North Dakota, or Cadillac Ranch, an artists’ sanctuary of buried cars in the sand in Amarillo, Texas—off the beaten path.
Pujol found that his online audience appeared hungrier than ever for this kind of storytelling during the 2020 global pandemic, when staying close to home was the favored form of travel. As Pujol added more content to his feeds, he caught the eyes of some prominent accounts and publications, who encouraged him to compile it all in a book.
Fast-forward five years, and the Great American Retro Road Trip was born and is highly anticipated by Pujol’s devoted followers. It’s an opportunity for the New York native to showcase his life’s work, especially by sharing some of his “old friends,” such as Salvation Mountain and the Cabazon Dinosaurs in the desert, as well as the world’s oldest-operating McDonald’s in Downey, California.
Another Great American Road Trip
Pujol even has ideas for a sequel depending on the response from the first edition, which would potentially feature Alaska and Hawaii, the only two U.S. states excluded from the book, simply because he “never managed to get there.” He’d also like to delve deeper into American fast food and the evolution of some chain eateries.
For now, Pujol’s attention is centered on his online platforms and the first book, which he said complement each other, though the book vastly contrasts any other travel guide. “The one thing that makes this book different from others that cover similar turf is the sheer breadth I cover and the unabashed joy that leaps from the pages,” Pujol shared.
“The book is a mood. It’s an immersive adventure that I hope fills you with longing for a road trip and stirs the same kind of love in your soul that I have for these quirky manifestations of the American spirit and ingenuity.
“In a time of considerable division, I hope this book can remind us of all we have in common as Americans. I reckon we have a lot more in common than we don’t.”
The Great American Retro Road Trip is available for purchase via Hachette Book Group and other online book retailers.