“Ride With Me” audio cassettes

[briantroutman]

My childhood hometown library had a selection of audio cassettes available to check out, and in addition to the novels on tape and NPR-friendly music albums, they had a few titles from a series titled "Ride With Me" . These tapes were to be played on a particular Interstate traveling in one direction–border-to-border–within a single state.

I remember checking out their tape for I-81 southbound in Pennsylvania–although as a young kid, I was listening at home rather than from I-81 as intended. You were to start the tape at the NY/PA border; the narrator would go through an introduction, then call attention to something along the side of the road and start talking about its connection to history. Then they might switch to another person speaking the words of a Pennamite fighter, a coal miner, etc. as the history unfolded. Periodically, the narrator would instruct the listener to "turn the tape off now, and turn it back on at mile marker (whatever)"  to keep the driver and tape in some semblance of synchronization.

This tape is where I first learned about Centralia, by the way.

Because of the titles I recall seeing (I-80 PA, I-95 CT, I-95 VA), I assumed that the Ride With Me series was a Northeast/Mid-Atlantic affair, but in searching for a picture of one of the tapes, I could only find I-10 - East Texas (pictured below)–quite a ways from the Northeast in every sense.

Does anyone else recall these tapes, have any of them, or know what other titles were in the series?

[GCrites]

I've got one called "The National Road... A Ride Through Time". It's not from the "Ride With Me" series. You are supposed to cue up the first tape in Wheeling then drive west to the Indiana state line where the second tape ends. I got it at a thrift sore for 90 cents. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to play it during the proper road trip.

[Max Rockatansky]

We had a couple when I was a kid.  My Dad thought it was great entertainment for me and my sister...if not a chance to learn something.  That went by the wayside once we got the portable VHS player for road trips.

[hm insulators]

I'd never heard of those.

[Pete from Boston]

Funny, I was once considering making these, not really knowing they existed. I have picked up a couple of national park area CDs like this since.