Get Your Motor Runnin’

Tuesday July 12, 2011 | Filed under:

Perhaps the greatest road trip book ever written is Jack Kerouac’s 1957 On the Road. Followed in no particular order by Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck and Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon.

And whether you’d vote for Thelma and Louise, Easy Rider or even The Wizard of Oz as greatest road trip movie of all time, I think you’d agree all these books and movies share a common love of the open road and a thirst for adventure. Those same themes will be thoroughly explored over the next week or so during Counselor’s 3,000 mile 2011 Summer Road Tour.

Three Counselor editors are trucking cross-country on a mission to visit as many companies on the magazine’s upcoming Best Places to Work List as possible. You can follow every pit stop and diner drop by clicking here for tweets, blog posts, videos, photos and stories from the road.

You can also follow Andy Cohen, Melinda Ligos and Joe Haley (the Tin Man, Lion and Scarecrow?) via a live map tracking their stops at more than a dozen industry companies across the country. Their mission is to discover why they’re great places to work, find out what makes a winning corporate culture and take part in whatever summer craziness comes their way.

The road crew left this morning in a rented SUV packed with cold drinks, trip T-shirts and road tunes loaded on the iPod. Today’s stops: Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

Let me know what you think of the trip as it unfolds – and what your all-time favorite road trip book or movie is – by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.