Combining little known historical nuggets and amusing personal recollections, DON’T MAKE ME PULL OVER! harkens back to this road tourism-crazy era when the whole family piled into the station wagon for endless hours of driving with only car games, magnetic chess, and Mad Libs to keep everyone occupied. Readers will relate to the hilarious anecdotes Ratay offers of families barely escaping vacation calamity: kids “forgotten” at rest stops, noogie-happy older brothers, gas tanks turning bone dry in the boonies, squabbling with siblings over drive-thru French fries, battling Space Invaders in the motel game room, Ratay recounts his family’s own highway misadventures in the 1970s when he — the youngest of four kids — staked his claim to the family’s car rear window ledge while his dad spewed PG-rated profanities while steering the family land yacht across thousands of miles, stopping only on rare occasions for bathroom breaks and burgers. Packed with history and fascinating tidbits, DON’T MAKE ME PULL OVER! reveals: The first motorist to cross America by car — on a bar room bet! — when roads barely existed The history of the station wagon and why carmakers still slap fake wood paneling on some vehicles Why the average Stuckey’s had as many as 50 billboards pointing to its location The location of the only Howard Johnson’s restaurant still (occasionally) in operation Why Pop Rocks, Bubble Yum, and Candy Cigarettes were the go-to road trip rations The location of the first waterpark
