The dream of driving the Pan-American Highway, the world’s longest road, was becoming a reality. After a decade of contemplation, years of planning, and months of Spanish lessons, I sat quietly in my driveway, waiting to leave. I was surrounded by four seasons’ worth of clothes, protein bars, spare car parts, and a whole lot of uncertainty. Had I prepared enough? I turned on the engine and headed out.
For Americans, the term 'highway' evokes visions of something fast and expansive. A thoroughfare lined with guardrails, lights, and signage. However, by definition, a highway is just the main road linking significant dots on a map. The Pan-American Highway stretches over 19,000 miles, from Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina. It is largely an unmarked collection of asphalt, gravel, and cultivated mud that reflects the terrain and the economy of each country it passes through.
The idea of a road connecting North, Central, and South America had been discussed for decades, but it gained real momentum in the 1930s. Over a dozen countries worked together on the project, with Mexico being the first to complete its segment in 1950. Meanwhile, in the United States, the passage of the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act accelerated the construction of the interstate system. For Americans, cheap gas and an expanding road network transformed postwar life, centering it around the automobile. The cross-country road trip became a staple of summer vacations. Long before terms like "vanlifers," "roadtrippers," and "overlanders" existed, a culture of highway exploration had already emerged. In 1961, an American named Danny Liska set off from his home in Nebraska and became one of the first people to complete the Pan-American Highway.
The summer I turned 12, my family piled into a minivan and left Kentucky, driving west. The trees got smaller and the hills got bigger. After a few days we made it to Mount Rushmore. It was the furthest I’d ever been away from home. When we turned back, I still remember thinking, what else is out there? What would we see if we kept driving? That curiosity has stuck with me. I set out to drive the Pan-American Highway because I wanted to go past all the familiar places I’d been. I wanted an adventure.
