Touch and Go! Welcome Centers along America's Interstates
When you cross a state border along the Interstate Highways, you’re welcomed by a Welcome Center. They are large Rest Areas with a building. You can use the restrooms, buy something from a vending machine, and get information about things to see in the state. Outside are parking spaces and often some picnic tables spread around a green area. Inside, there are smiling hosts welcoming you with glossy brochures, flags, stock photos, and slogans. I feel that, in some ways, Welcome Centers are a metaphor for America—much like Hollywood and Disney. That is the official America—the way America wants to present itself. Along the highways everything is homogenized, organized, monotone: the same motel chains, the same fast-food places, the same Welcome Centers. People moving along the highways, locked in to their thoughts or cell phones. They make a short stop and then move on. It’s a parallel reality. Leave the highways, and the real country starts. Everything is very different there. Welcome Centers, in that sense, are a kind of façade. For this project, I travel along the highways and spend a whole day at each Welcome Center, and in some ways become part of the place. I don’t leave the highways; I only focus on what I see and what they want to show me. I’m searching for anything interesting in a place designed to hide it—and, frankly, a place that can be pretty boring. That monotony is exactly what fascinates me; I’m looking for the odd moments that break through the façade.
Why me? For me, Welcome Centers are a symbol of travel through the USA. They are deeply intertwined with my memories of being on the road. I am half-American but was raised in the Netherlands, speaking English. I have a deep connection to the USA, but I can also see it from the outside—from a more neutral standpoint. I have had a lifelong fascination with being on the road. I did several road trips through the USA in the 1980s and 1990s. I hitchhiked and traveled with drive-away cars, sleeping in or on the car in Rest Areas or Welcome Centers. Now, a few decades later, I started thinking about it again. I became fascinated by the idea of being welcomed at state borders, while at other borders, people are no longer welcome. I began wondering how much life on the road had changed.
Why is it worthwhile? As I mentioned, Welcome Centers are, for me, a symbol of travel through the USA. But the fantasy of the road trip is based on a general nostalgic narrative and on the experiences and memories of my travels long ago. In reality, traveling along the highways has changed dramatically. The feeling of freedom that once defined road trips is mostly gone. The highways have become controlled passageways, where you can only use the limited amenities of food, gas, and motel chains—unless you leave the highway system. I would like to know how much it has changed and what still remains. Perhaps we need an updated narrative about travel through the USA. Welcome Centers are the perfect place for me to find out.
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