The Backroads Tour & Podcast
COMIN’ HOME TO THE BACKROADS U.S.A.
Launching Late June 2026
This isn’t a nostalgia project. It’s a working mission.
Get back out on the backroads. Interact with the people still earning their living behind the wheel. Document what’s being lost before it’s gone completely.
Truckstop setups with free coffee and real conversations about safety, courtesy, and what it means to carry a professional image. Young truckers put behind a machine with no jake brake and no cruise control — just engine sound, a mountain grade, and the skills they either have or don’t.
Weekly episodes. Real stories. No filters.
Free coffee and real talk at truckstops across the country. Highway safety, driver courtesy, respect for the motoring public, and what it means to carry a professional image on the road.
Destinations that actually welcome big rigs — documented with directions, hours, and parking so the next driver doesn’t have to guess.
Young trucking influencers take the Americruiser for a 45–60 mile run. No cruise control. No jake brake. Engine sound and grade judgment only. Then we talk about what that was like.
Roads that existed before the interstates. CB radio culture. Driver hand signals. The language of the highway that’s almost gone.
Good food, good parking, clean showers, honest shops, 24-hour service. Field-tested reviews from someone who’s been doing this forty years.
Career in entertainment and specialized hauling. Maintenance tips, fuel economy, truck detailing, and the habits behind forty years and four million safe miles.
Old vehicle restoration, boondocking, scenic RV routes, camping spots, roadside repair knowledge, and honest product reviews — tires, tools, and everything in between.
43 years on a Harley. The best motorcycling roads and destinations in the country, from someone who’s actually ridden every mile of them.
Truck shows and events across the country — continuing to support the sponsors on the Kenworth and the community that keeps this industry moving forward.
John Highley has spent four decades earning a living on the American highway. Forty years of professional driving, four million safe miles, a career running through entertainment hauling and specialized transport — work that doesn’t leave room for error.
The Backroads Tour isn’t retirement. It’s a shift in purpose. With the roads changing, the culture changing, and a new generation coming up in the seat, John is heading out to document what’s still there worth seeing — and to be honest about what’s already gone.
The Americruiser 2 is the platform. The podcast is the record. Truckstop setups, tourist stops, truck shows, mountain grades, two-lane roads most drivers never take — those are the content. The people met along the way are the story.
The road doesn’t have an end date.
Launch day notification and weekly episode drops. No spam. Just the road ahead.