Heart of Virginia Report - The Great American Road Trip|ABC 13

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Heart of Virginia Report - The Great American Road Trip

posted 10:56 pm Thu September 06, 2007 - Across the ABC 13 Viewing Area

tags: heart of virginia report • road trip

People go on road trips all the time, but not many document them and make a show out of it. Unless of course you're part of the new media generation. For our Heart of Virginia report, four local guys who set out to tell a story of their weekend trip from Smith Mountain Lake to Durham -- just because.

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ABC 13 - Heart of Virginia Report - The Great American Road Trip

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Dan Portnoy - "There's a romance to road trips that started with Jack Kerouac back in the 60s and since then the road just calls to people."

And now, in the 2000s the road has called on the next generation. It started with Dan Portnoy. He runs an online music program called the Drop. So why not move on to video and take some friends along?

Portnoy - "I grabbed 3 buddies, we jumped in the car and went to Durham."

Among them, Won Novalis and Justin Snyder, the 20 somethings run Abandon Films at Smith Mountain Lake. Then there's Tim Grahl. He oversees four well traveled websites on mountain biking.

Tim Grahl - "I'm not a big guy on road trips, don't like getting in the car hitting the road, um I just wanted to hang out with Dan and the other guys and see what they were doing."

What they did was travel back roads, hitting a variety of sites, and meeting different people, all caught on film.

Portnoy - "Oh yeah, we met a few along the way as soon as Mitchell's Store down in just off the beaten path down to Martinsville."

They're releasing their trip in episodes, where else? The internet. Maybe it'll catch on, but if not…

Grahl - "If someone wants to sign on and let us do it again, and go to different places and go across the country that would be pretty neat, but for me the trip was worth it and if it stops there then at least we still had a good time."

Dan tells me the Discovery Channel plans to give it a look. They're doing 5 weekly episodes, about 8 minutes each. The first one started this week online, or you can catch it this Saturday Night at the Riverflicks movie in downtown Lynchburg.

We have two links for The Great American Road Trip. Click here for the first one. Click here for the second.

If you know someone who is truly unique with what they do or what they've accomplished, or an unusual place to visit, we'd love to hear about them for our Heart of Virginia report. You can call the station at 434-528-1313 or just click here to send it.

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