Valerie Bromann - Silly America's Road Trip Expert - Writer & Road Tripper at Silly America

Writer. Road Trip Expert.

Greetings from Silly America! I’m Valerie Bromann, the founder and head road trip expert here at Silly America. But you can call me Val.

I am a website manager, content creator, and writer from Chicago, Illinois (currently living in Dallas, Texas). As an avid road tripper who has visited hundreds of roadside attractions, I always pull over for a world’s largest thing. Founder of the blogs Silly America and Route 66 Road Map and author of The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book, I photograph and write about all the weird tourist destinations I visit and offer road trip planning advice and inspiration based on my own travels so you can hit the road for yourself.

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Barbadilla: the Giant Armadillo in Buffalo Gap, Texas

About Valerie Bromann

I love taking road trips and am always ready and willing to hop in my car and go anywhere for anything. My favorite part about hitting the road is finding the best roadside attractions in America and marveling in their greatness. I love world’s largest things but I also love retro motels, vintage service stations, truck stops, muffler men, museums, and really anywhere I can pull off the highway to explore!

My fascination with roadside attractions started early on. I grew up in Brookfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago known for its zoo. From the dolphins on the water tower to the tiger statues at the train stop to the iconic Cock Robin sign at my favorite ice cream place, everything around me had a wondrous animal theme. While running errands or shopping my family frequently drive past a local diner with a cow statue on the roof and the now dismantled Spindle (AKA cars on a spike, a popular roadside attraction made famous by the movie Wayne’s World).⁠ Not even to mention my close proximity to the famed Route 66. I was always surrounded by kitsch.

As a child, I wrote a “bucket list” that included “travel the country to see all the world’s biggest attractions and stopping at every sign pointing to the best pies in America’.”⁠ I always dreamed of that true Americana experience that could only be attained by car travel. And now, as a full-fledged adult with a car and a drivers license, I am making that dream a reality! So I started planning road trips and going wherever I could to see the world’s biggest, weirdest, and silliest roadside attractions (and find the best milkshakes… I guess some tastes change).⁠

I’ve now visited over 1,000 roadside attractions across 36 states and am constantly on the lookout for the next BIG thing!

The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book

Everything You Need to Have and Record an Epic Road Trip!

Enjoy fun games and challenges to pass the time on your next road trip and have a keepsake to look back on for years to come with this entertaining must-have for your next vacation.

The road trip you’ve been dreaming of starts here! Journal about your stops and get to know your fellow passengers with activities and exercises designed to pass the time and bring you closer together. Instead of “Are we there yet?” you’ll find yourself asking, “We’re there already?”. Complete with prompts you can turn to while driving between locations, this journal will one day be a memento of your life-changing trip.

The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book is written by Silly America’s Valerie Bromann and is published by Adams Media/Simon & Schuster. It is available now at your favorite bookstore!

Learn more about The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book