In early 2026, I read an influential article about Artificial Intelligence. In the last part of that piece, the author told us to stop just reading about AI and "do something with it." I thought that was practical advice, and I took it to heart. So I did something. And just like when I decided to collect every model showrod ever made and build this groovy website to celebrate them, I went deep.
Over 500 hours later, I published my first-ever iOS app. It's called the Route 66 Centennial Guide, and you can purchase it here on the App Store for seven bucks.
It's completely built with AI. I used (and am still using) 8 different AI tools to create and maintain it, and now, other apps as well.
My micro-enterprise, PDR Heritage Roads, has a Facebook page where I regularly share posts about my apps and the historic roads I highlight. Here is what it's all about:
PDR Heritage Roads creates curated, story‑driven travel apps that celebrate America’s most historic roads, starting with the Route 66 Centennial Guide and expanding to routes like the Pacific Coast Highway, the Lincoln Highway, and the Natchez Trace Parkway. Each app highlights historically and culturally significant sites, combining careful research with professional audio narration and custom, period‑correct high‑resolution imagery that users can download and save as part of their own digital road‑trip collection. Our goal is to preserve the character of these legendary routes while giving modern travelers a richly illustrated, immersive way to experience the stories behind the pavement.
Compared to other travel apps, my apps have both a navigation component and a deeply researched narrative about the history of each POI (258 sites in all across 8 states) on or very near that historic road. Don't like reading that much? No problem--just tap the button to play the entire story with professional narration through the speakers in your car.
While that's important, it's not my favorite part. Being a car-centric guy, I created an AI-generated image for each site, featuring a classic vehicle in the foreground. More often than not, the image was sourced from archival photos and recreates the site in an idealized state at its peak. I think that's an added benefit since many of these sites are 70-100 years old, and are either unrecognizable from their heyday, or just completely gone today, lost to time and progress. Oh, and for us car-people here's a fun fact: I repeat no vehicles throughout all my apps, so you know every site you look at has a unique featured vehicle (and it includes an occasional boat, historic plane, ATV, or bicycle).
Did I mention that each image is 4K and you can download it to your Apple Photos and repurpose it as you see fit?
Finally, my apps have an active navigation component, an ability to save favorite sites, and a mapping feature to overlay your favorites in Apple or Google maps and get a sense of what lies ahead.
Enough explanation. Scroll down to see thumbnail images below of my Route 66 app in action. Oh, and one more thing--AI did not write this narrative. I did! (worth saying these days!) -- PDR
NOTE: Click on the images to supersize them, then use the back arrow on your browser to return here.
