SKOKIE, Ill., June 2, 2008 -- Marshes crawling with tangled grass and sunbathing alligators make Florida's Everglades a tourist favorite. But fascinating wildlife isn't the swampy region's only draw. Nestled among the cypress trees, the Big Cypress Gallery invites travelers to delight in the black- and-white landscape photography of southwest Florida photographer and author Clyde Butcher.
The gallery -- also Butcher's studio and home -- is just one of 26 unique places highlighted in Rand McNally's 2009 Best of the Road awards program.
This year's picks are found along five spectacular road trips across the U.S. and Canada -- amid the tallgrass prairie of Jefferson City, Mo., hugging the sparkling shores of Hawaii's Big Island and tucked along the coast of Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound. With vacation season in full force, travelers can find all of the Best of the Road spots in the 2009 Road Atlas, now celebrating its 85th year.
Fortunately for atlas owners, almost all of the trips are around 200 miles, allowing for shorter trips closer to home -- an advantage given that gas
prices exceed four dollars a gallon in certain areas.
Experienced travel editors at Rand McNally -- America's largest andmost-trusted map maker -- traversed the country to personally select the routes and tourist attractions featured in the Road Atlas' eighth annual awards
program. Each trip has a theme -- from romance to history -- and includes other destination suggestions for that theme outside of the featured trip.
Recognized "must-see" spots in the 2009 Best of the Road trips include:
* Encore Bed & Breakfast: The innkeepers of this 19th-century Boston townhouse inspire guests' future travels with tales of their own on the "Charming Coastline" trek from Provincetown to Boston.
* Bridal Cave and Thunder Mountain Park: Travelers can explore the cave unearthed in the 1800s by the Osage Indians and learn the legend of the Indian wedding that took place there on the "Exploring the Ozarks" tripin Missouri.
* North Woven Broom Company: Harry Potter fans can purchase handcrafted brooms from the same Pacific Northwest company that created promotional brooms for the book series along the "Three States, Two Countries, One Adventurous Drive" route.
* Parker Ranch: Tourists can be a cowboy (or girl) for a day -- ridinghorses, wagons and ATVs at this Hawaiian ranch on the "Circling the Big Island"trip.
* Columbia Restaurant: This century-old Tampa favorite serves up a mean Spanish bean soup on "Florida's Cultural West Coast" drive.
Atlas + Randmcnally.com = Perfect Road Trip Companions
An invaluable guide, the Road Atlas can save travelers time and money.Used in conjunction with other navigation tools, it helps prevent drivingsnags that GPS systems or online directions can overlook. For instance, the RoadAtlas alerts drivers to major road construction projects that could disrupttheir trips, such as recent closures of I-64 in St. Louis and I-40 inKnoxville, Tenn. The atlas also grants travelers the ability to veer off course and map alternate routes at a moment's notice -- and because Rand McNally makes thousands of map updates with each new edition, drivers can rest assured
that the new atlas contains the most accurate information available.
Randmcnally.com makes a useful complement to the Road Atlas, providing Best of the Road trips from years past, maps and directions, and awealth of other trip-planning tools.
In addition to reliable maps of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and PuertoRico, the Road Atlas features vital travel information, including a mileage anddriving times map, emergency numbers, and lodging and rental car contacts. The Road Atlas is printed on pages produced from responsibly managed forests
and manufactured through an elemental chlorine-free method.
The 2009 Road Atlas is available nationwide in June at retail stores andon http://randmcnally.com. Its suggested retail price is $13.95.
About Rand McNally
Rand McNally is North America's largest commercial maker of national and
local maps, street guides and atlases. The company's print andelectronic products include America's No. 1 Road Atlas, The Thomas Guide map books, custom-made wall maps on the Web, wireless navigation solutionsand online maps, directions and trip planning at http://www.randmcnally.com.
Rand McNally offers the most trusted tools to discover, map and navigate
your world. The company leads the way with innovative products and services for the consumer, business, education and commercialtransportation markets. For more information, visit http://www.randmcnally.com or call (800)333-0136.