You should remember that many truck stops (in the USA) are associated with small diners that often serve great food, albeit not of the gourmet type. In these small diners you can often find the best apple pie or whatever happens to be the specialty ( remember Mels diner?) Beyond this, there is not much tourist value in these locations.

Rest stops in America can be dangerous at night so beware!

I read an article recently about the advent of people staying in Wal-Mart parking lots in their RV's, its called boondocking. Here they find a clean location that costs nothing and seems to be friendly towards RV's--where the Wal-Mart employees wake the RVers up when the coffee in on! I expect that a future book on Wal-Mart locations throughout the world is coming. I also hear that Wal-Mart is tent friendly! It cracks me up.....

I have a bevy of links on weird road side attractions since i am a road trip junkie:

Hidden america: http://www.hiddenamerica.com/

Castles in america: http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/index.htm#ny

Roadside america: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/index.html

Covered Bridges Worldwide: http://www.atawalk.com/template.cfm

Historic Traveler: http://history.about.com/?once=true&

Trail database: http://www.hejoly.demon.nl/

real truck stops in USA: http://www.petrotruckstops.com/

http://www.deliver-it.com/truckstops.html

RV Boondocking guide ( including Wal-Mart's ) http://www.telusplanet.net/public/waters/index.htm http://www.rv.net/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/CFB/1/TID/138830.cfm

Happy to provide info to anyone about Road Trips in the West :)

Amelia Hesson Los Angeles http://www.meyerandassociates.com