Celebrity Drive: Joe Mantegna, star of CBS's "Criminal Minds"
Favorite Roadtrip
"Twice, I drove to California from Chicago," Mantegna says. "Once in 1957, we just bought the '56 Chevy, and my dad's brother lived in California. We didn't have a lot of money; we never took long vacations."
The 1957 road trip would be the only vacation Mantegna can recall that wasn't an hour away from Chicago. He was 10 years old. "There was no air conditioning in the car either back then. It was a three-week trip. And it was great. I'll never forget it, because we stopped at all the places - Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, San Francisco."
The family journey was along the legendary Route 66: "There was no I-nothing then," Mantenga recalls. "It's very sentimental to me."
In 1978, he took that same road trip, only this time, it was a one-way journey to Los Angeles. Mantegna, his wife, fellow Chicago actor Dennis Franz, and another friend drove out together. He and his wife towed their old BMW while driving their friend's car. Franz and the friend drove out a few days later in the moving van.
"Ironic, Dennis also had a little Opel GT, but the car was so small that we stuck it in the moving van," Mantegna says.
After relocating to Los Angeles, Mantegna and his wife drove from the beach back to the Valley for some adventure. "We left Leo Carrillo Beach and I saw a sign that said Mulholland. I said, 'Mulholland Drive, the way out here to Pacific Coast Highway?' And we were in the Opal GT then. I said, 'Let's try it.' Thank god we had the Opel GT, because part of Mulholland was like a dirt road. I mean you'd need like a dirt bike. But the Opel is so small that it was able to make it."
Mantegna is now eyeing a new Audi TT for his commute to work. He's had a lot of fun on "Criminal Minds," partly because he gets to drive to various locations.
"Like this week, we shot all four days Monday through yesterday, up at Lake Piru. Now I had never been there before. So I took my Opel. And at Lake Piru, if you've ever been up there, you get there and you think you might as well be in Montana or Texas or something. So that was kind of cool."
"So we have to go far distances sometimes," he continues. "My Opel doesn't have air conditioning. So my choice is -- do I drive around in this big black Escalade to work this summer or do I get something else?"
During the recent writer's strike, Mantegna was able to do a little more work on his 1947 Buick and is looking forward to entering it in more shows. But he's glad to be back at work.
Fans of the CBS show can look forward to new episodes beginning April 2. "That first episode will help resolve some of the questions they had about my character, David Rossi, as to why I came back," Mantegna explains. "Above and beyond that, we're very excited about the season. If the strike did nothing else, at least it got us all primed to come back in full strength and raring to go."