Richard Ratay

Don't Make Me Pull Over

An Informal History of the Family Road Trip

by Richard Ratay

Part pop history and part whimsical memoir in the spirit of National Lampoon's Vacation - Don't Make Me Pull Over! is a nostalgic look at the golden age of family road trips - a halcyon era that culminated in the latter part of the twentieth century, before portable DVD players, iPods, and Google Maps.

In the days before cheap air travel, families didn't so much take vacations as survive them. Between home and destination lay thousands of miles and dozens of annoyances, and with his family Richard Ratay experienced all of them - from being crowded into the backseat with noogie-happy older brothers, to picking out a souvenir only to find that a better one might have been had at the next attraction, to dealing with a dad who didn't believe in bathroom breaks.

The birth of America's first interstate highways in the 1950s hit the gas pedal on the road trip phenomenon and families were soon streaming - sans seatbelts! - to a range of sometimes stirring, sometimes wacky locations. Frequently, what was remembered the longest wasn't Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, or Disney World, but such roadside attractions as "The Thing" in Texas Canyon, Arizona, or "The Mystery Spot" in Santa Cruz, California. In this road tourism-crazy era that stretched through the 1970's, national parks attendance swelled to 165 million, and a whopping 2.2 million people visited Gettysburg each year, thirteen times the number of soldiers who fought in the battle.

Now, decades later, Ratay offers a paean to what was lost, showing how family togetherness was eventually sacrificed to electronic distractions and the urge to "get there now." In hundreds of amusing ways, he reminds us of what once made the Great American Family Road Trip so great, including twenty-foot "land yachts," oasis-like Holiday Inn "Holidomes," "Smokey"-spotting Fuzzbusters, 28 glorious flavors of Howard Johnson's ice cream, and the thrill of finding a "good buddy" on the CB radio.

A rousing Ratay family ride-along, Don't Make Me Pull Over! reveals how the family road trip came to be, how its evolution mirrored the country's, and why those magical journeys that once brought families together - for better and worse - have largely disappeared.

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What they're saying

— Publishers Weekly

"With smartphones and rear-seat entertainment systems, the family road-trip experience has changed dramatically, writes Ratay in this enjoyable reminiscence on what they used to be . . . [His] informative, often hilarious family narrative perfectly captures the love-hate relationship many have with road trips."

— Kirkus Reviews

"A useful juxtaposition against the modern vacation....a lighthearted entertaining trip down Memory Lane."

— Chevy Chase,
star of National Lampoon's Vacation and Saturday Night Live

"If only this book were available to Clark Griswold, he and his family might well have stayed home. Don't Make Me Pull Over! is an encyclopedia of road trip adventures. I can't wait to read it."

— Andrew Ferguson,
national correspondent for The Weekly Standard, former White House speechwriter, and author of Land of Lincoln and Crazy U

"A book with a title as good as Don't Make Me Pull Over! has a lot to live up to, and somehow Richard Ratay manages to deliver. It's a memoir, a work of popular history, and a love letter all in one. Books this wise are seldom so funny; books this funny are rarely so wise."

— John Hodgman,
New York Times Magazine humor columnist, former Daily Show Contributor, and New York Times bestselling author of More Information than You Require and Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches

"Don't Make Me Pull Over! captures all the adventure, bonding, desperate conflict, and existential self-interrogation that is only made possible by hours (and hours) on the road with your family. Read it, but probably don't read it while also driving your family around."

— Ken Jennings,
New York Times bestselling author of Maphead, and record-breaking Jeopardy! Champion

"Richard Ratay's impressively researched book isn't just a road trip across America—it's a trip back in time. Suddenly I was eight years old again and bouncing around seatbelt-free in the back of a Ford Country Squire station wagon."

— Rob Erwin,
author of Lost with Directions: Ambling Around America

Reviews

Maureen Corrigan's Review on NPR's "Fresh Air"

About

Rich

It all began when Rich's parents met while vacationing at a golf resort/dude ranch in Mississippi in 1958. Walking to the 18th green, his dad spotted a vivacious brunette and...

Eh, perhaps that's going too far back.

Let's fast-forward a bit to when Rich was born, the last of four kids (by a suspicious margin of time) to two mostly attentive parents in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in journalism.

Rejecting the call to cover important events that shape people's lives and instead try to sell them products like hamburgers and cable TV, Rich embarked on a career in advertising. Over his more than 25 years in the industry, Rich has written hundreds of ad campaigns for major national and regional brands in cable television, tourism, sports, healthcare, automotive and more. His work has won countless awards, including dozens of ADDY's and two EMMY Awards.

In 2009, Rich wrote, directed and produced the feature-length documentary film, "The Distance: A Triathlete's Journey". Having not learned a thing while documenting the trials and tribulations of three ordinary people training to compete in an Ironman triathlon, Rich became an Ironman himself the same year.

When not staring at the walls trying to come up with an idea for his next big ad campaign or book, Rich can be heard on the airwaves and on podcasts commenting on Green Bay Packers football on "The PhilCast" with co-host Phil Cianciola.

Rich lives in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, with his wife, Terri, their two sons, and two very excitable rescue dogs.

Hear him talk in person about life on the road at:

To schedule a book signing event or talk, or podcast, TV or radio interview, contact my publicist Mia O'Neill at mia.oneill@simonandschuster.com.

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The Distance

A Triathlete's Journey

by Richard Ratay

Testing athletes on a grueling 140.6-mile course of swimming, biking and running, the Iron-distance triathlon is one of the greatest challenges in all of sports. But for non-professionals with jobs, families and other commitments, the journey just to get to the starting line can be even more challenging. Documenting the nine months leading up to raceday, "The Distance: A Triathlete's Journey" examines the enormous impact that training for the race has on the lives of three very different amateurs preparing for their first attempt at the ultimate endurance event. There's the mother of triplets who struggles to find the balance between training and family demands. The newlywed who learns his first child is due just two weeks before raceday. And the student, who tries to stay committed to his goal despite the ever-present temptations of college life. Shot by EMMY Award Winning Creative Director and triathlete Richard Ratay, "The Distance" captures an inside view of the full Iron-distance triathlon experience like never before, offering a gritty, honest and very revealing look at the daunting personal challenges involved-for the participants and their loved ones.