Quick Take on the Story
In Go See America: 118 of the USA’s Greatest Hits (According to a Guy Who Visited Them All)}, Matt Tory gathers more than destinations. He gathers perspective. The book moves across national parks, cities, historic sites, and lesser-known landscapes, offering short, accessible entries rooted in firsthand experience. It is not a comprehensive encyclopedia, nor a glossy bucket list assembled by committee. It is one traveler’s lived relationship with place.At its heart, the book asks a simple question: what if the extraordinary is already near you?
You can read my full Four Eye Books review of Go See America here.
Watch the Full Conversation
Watch the full conversation below, or continue reading for curated highlights.
Why This Conversation Mattered
This conversation mattered because Go See America resists spectacle.
Matt is not a travel influencer. He is primarily a filmmaker and writer. That distinction shapes the book. His instinct is narrative rather than instructional. The entries feel cinematic and conversational, less like directives and more like recollections.
In an era when travel is often framed as distant or aspirational, his work gently redirects attention toward what is nearby. It invites readers to reconsider familiar landscapes, not as routine backdrops, but as places worthy of curiosity and care.
As someone who lives in Sacramento, California, within driving distance of Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Pacific coastline, and ancient redwood forests, I recognize how easy it is to overlook what is close at hand. During our conversation, Matt noted how many people nearby have never visited Yosemite, even though it is only a few hours away.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the whole world,” he said.
That tension between access and attention lingered throughout the discussion.
Highlights from the Conversation
On the RV That Began It All
“When I was seven years old, my parents took me out of school for a couple months and said, ‘We’re gonna go see America.’ We got in an RV and just went.”
That early cross-country journey shaped everything that followed. By his teenage years, he had visited all fifty states. The book feels rooted in that origin story: curiosity without pretension, exploration without performance.
On Writing Without Expectations
Matt shared that he wrote the book without any real expectations for what would come of it. He wasn’t trying to build a platform. He simply wanted something he could point to when friends asked where they should travel.
“If that happens to you for one place… that was my goal.”
That modest benchmark feels honest. The book is not asking readers to overhaul their lives. It is asking them to notice one new possibility.
On Avoiding the Bucket List Mentality
“I wasn’t really trying to make another bucket list book… I’ve never actually seen a book from the perspective of someone who had been to all these places themselves.”
Many travel books are collaborative compilations. Multiple contributors. Polished summaries. Glossy overviews. Matt wanted something different.
“More as a friend than… a teacher teaching you about something.”
The distinction matters. The book does not lecture. It feels like someone recounting a road trip across a kitchen table.
On Accessibility and Intention
“I wanted it to be places that someone could… get in your car and go see today.”
Accessibility became a quiet organizing principle. The destinations are reachable. They do not require helicopters, extreme backcountry skills, or luxury budgets. That emphasis reframes travel as participation rather than spectacle. Adventure becomes less about distance and more about willingness.
On Slowing Down
“When you most enjoy a place… it’s when you have some time to just sit and enjoy it.”
We spoke about the temptation to turn travel into a checklist. Matt acknowledged that instinct in himself. But he also described how the most meaningful moments often come from unplanned time: lingering longer than expected, noticing angles others rush past. The book carries that rhythm. It encourages presence over proof.
On Impermanence
As Matt was finishing the manuscript, Hurricane Helene devastated Chimney Rock, North Carolina. Landmarks he had written about were destroyed.
“If there’s something you want to see… do it. Because you don’t know how long it’s gonna be there.”
He considered removing the chapter. Instead, he kept it. He also reflected on Glacier National Park, once defined by hundreds of glaciers, now reduced to only a handful. “These things are not set in stone,” he said. Travel, in that framing, becomes a form of witnessing. Not to conquer a place, but to see it as it is, in this moment.
On Rediscovering What’s Near You
“You can get in your car and go a few hours away… pretty much wherever you are and see something cool.”
The book’s thesis may be this simple. Not that you must travel widely, but that you reconsider what is already within reach. If a reader closes the book with even one new place in mind, Matt considers the project successful.
About the Author
MATT TORY is a writer and filmmaker who has written and directed a wide range of films and streaming series – including the comedy series The Beech Boys as well as the mockumentary We Make Movies, which was called “one of the best films of the year” by Cinescape Magazine. He spends most of his time creating things that aim to make people laugh, feel encouraged, or – on a good day – both.
Learn more at Matt Tory’s official website.
Purchase Go See America on Amazon.
Watch The Beech Boys on Tubi.
Behind the Interview
Each Four Eye Books interview begins with a curated set of thematic questions aligned with the Four Lenses framework: story, big ideas, time and place, and personal reflection. Authors are invited to select the prompts that resonate most, allowing the conversation to center on the ideas that matter most to them.
This conversation continues Four Eye Books’ exploration of how place shapes perspective.
Closing Reflection
What stayed with me after our conversation was not a specific landmark. It was a posture. A reminder that wonder does not require distance. That landscapes shift. That access does not guarantee attention. Sometimes the most transformative journey begins with a short drive.
Explore more author conversations on Four Eye Books, where story meets reflection and place becomes part of the narrative.
Turn the page, take the trip—what new perspective awaits?