Q&A: Living for the road

Heather Storm is one of America’s more famous road trippers. But she’ll be flying in for Saturday’s Gearhead Gathering, because work’s leaving her a little too busy this time.

“I have a great new project I can’t release yet that I’m excited about,” Storm said. “It’s a digital series. I’m still working on a digital series, ‘Drive Yourself Local.’ Those will both be on my YouTube channel. That’s why I’m in Detroit shooting things. It’s a summer full of work.”

Storm, former host of “Garage Squad,” said some of her favorite sights and sounds are of things along the way — including the time she planned a detour because of a town called Truth or Consequences; “We saw the name and it sounded interesting. So we headed north … and we had an awesome night.”

Her plans for the Gearhead Gathering are to hang out for a few hours signing posters, taking pictures and chatting about cars, and she also plans to take some pictures of cars she likes “so people can live vicariously through me” on her various social medias; she’s locked down HeatherStormLA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and her YouTube Channel is listed as Heather Storm.

First car: I can’t remember the year. I want to say 1983 Oldmobile Bonneville. That car was a dark purple color. My aunt handed it down to me. It wasn’t my pick; it’s what a first car is supposed to be. I beat the hell out of that car being in Montana. That got handed down to my brother.

Q: What’s the first road trip you remember?

A: I think going down to Florida for Disney World. Before we moved to Montana, we lived on the East Coast. And we would go down there. Very exciting. Everything we did as a family was road trips. We never flew anywhere. Sat in the back. Fought with my brother, duked it out. (My) dad played a lot of 70s rock (on road trips). I know this as an adult, but he was cooler than I thought. He had Dark Side of the Moon, he had Jim Croce. He would play that all the time, and me and my brother would make fun of it.

Q: What’s your favorite road trip?

A: I like taking road trips and having an idea of where you’re going, but letting it unfold. It’s important to have a destination, but how long it takes to get there or what you do is what makes it.

Q: What’s a road trip you still want to make?

A: I’d like to cruise up on the Oregon coast. I’ve done the southern trip (along the coast in California), but I haven’t gone up north.

Q: You’ve answered this a little bit, but what type of planning do you put into a road trip? Do you know you’ll be in City A at 7:45 p.m., or is it more of a four-hour window thing?

A: What I’ve learned is usually when you’re planning a trip, you’re overambitious with how far you should get in a day. You didn’t factor in any experiences to stop in a cute town, or whatever ends up piquing your interest along the way.

Q: You’re obviously partial to your ’65 Mustang, but do you have another dream car?

A: I like a lot of different vehicles right now. Because I’m in Colorado, I like the older Broncos. The 70, 71 Broncos, those are really cool. Cars are for fun, but they’re for function. In some places, a ’65 Mustang it’s great for traveling America. But it’s not so great for the mountains.