Joe Tennis poses next to a road sign along U.S. 58. "I have spent most of my life along this diverse route," he writes in his book’s introduction.

Photo courtesy Joe Tennis

Want to go?

• Joe Tennis book signings
• Thursday: 4 to 8 p.m. at the Pulaski Public Library, 60 West Third St., Pulaski. As part of the library’s Author Fair, with seven other writers. 980-7770
• Friday: 4 to 7 p.m. at Books-A-Million, 2705 Market St., Christiansburg. 381-6246.
• Saturday: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 4478 Electric Road, Roanoke County. 776-2960. 3 to 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Spradlin Farms, 110 Conston Ave., Christiansburg. 381-4923.

On a map, U.S. 58 looks like a long string stretched across Virginia's widest girth, from Virginia Beach straight through to Tennessee.

But when threaded through the juicy legends and historical landmarks that fall along its path, it becomes a collection of stories told by Bristol writer Joe Tennis in his latest book, "Beach to Bluegrass: Places to Brake on Virginia's Longest Road."

Tennis, a Radford University graduate, published his first book, "Southwest Virginia Crossroads," in 2004. It showcases major attractions in the region.

"Just a few months after 'Crossroads' came out, I was ready to start something else again," said Tennis. "As I went along, I noticed that I had this big interest in things on the coast where I'd grown up and things back in Southwest Virginia that I had just written about, like the New River and the Roanoke River."

At first, Tennis, 38, thought he might pen a series of vignettes about the state in general. But when he was visiting his parents in Virginia Beach in 2005, he got the idea to connect the stories to a road. He decided to drive U.S. 58 the whole way back to Bristol to gain inspiration for his book.

"I started driving down the road, and it didn't seem very interesting to me at first because I didn't know anything about it," Tennis recalled. "The Piedmont wasn't that interesting just yet until I got around Martinsville and Patrick County and started seeing the mountains and the beauty of the road at Lovers' Leap and up in that area where the foothills begin. Then, I started saying, 'No, no, no, there is something about this road.' "

Tennis researched historical events that happened within 10 to 20 miles of the route. He learned that Adolph Coors, the namesake of Coors beer, fell to his death from a window of The Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach and is thought to haunt the place. He learned about the bloody trial of Floyd Allen at the Carroll County Courthouse and the 1929 tornado in Rye Cove.

Readers can travel east to west through the 58 chapters of the book, passing through four geographical categories: Hampton Roads, Piedmont, Blue Ridge and Southwest.

Driving directions are included for the adventurer who wants to visit the places in person. All of the photos in the book were taken by Tennis, save a black-and-white image of J.E.B. Stuart.

It's not the first time U.S. 58 has intrigued a writer. In 2002, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published a six-month series of stories about a reporter's and photographer's trip along the road, from Virginia Beach to Cumberland Gap.

"One of our deputy managing editors at the time had lived and worked in Martinsville for a few years, and he always had the idea that 58 was a rich road for a series along those lines," said Richmond Times-Dispatch features reporter Bill Lohmann. "He and I talked about it at one point, and I thought it was a great idea, so we took it and ran."

Lohmann and photographer Bob Brown published a story about the road every Sunday for six months. They discussed composing a coffee table book from their travels afterward, Lohmann said, but the idea never took flight. A fan of Tennis' work as a features reporter with the Bristol Herald Courier, Lohmann is eagerly awaiting a copy of "Beach to Bluegrass."

U.S. 58 is unique in that it takes the traveler from the big city of Virginia Beach through Southern, general-store towns through the natural area of the Dismal Swamp and across four Interstate highways, Lohmann said.

"It seemed to me to be very representative of Virginia," he said.

For Tennis, "Beach to Bluegrass" was a way of rediscovering an old friend.

"I have spent most of my life along this diverse route," he writes in the book's introduction. "As a kid, I rowed a boat on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk. As an adult, I've paddled the New River in Grayson County. I've climbed both Mount Rogers and Mount Trashmore. I've watched the sunset over Buggs Island Lake and the sunrise over the Blue Ridge."

Tennis said his son, John Patrick, was almost born on the road as Tennis raced his wife to the hospital. The book is dedicated to him. Tennis and his wife, Mary, also have a daughter, Abigail, who accompanied him along many of his research-gathering road trips.

Copies of the book are available at Coffee Buy the Book in Pulaski, Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Christiansburg and Roanoke, Books-A-Million in Christiansburg and the Floyd Country Store. Published by The Overmountain Press, they are $17.95 each. Tennis, who has penned three books, will host a flurry of book signings this weekend.