Through painstaking detail and emotional recollections, Bruce Springsteen has entrenched New Jersey culture in the minds of fans the world over for decades. That trend shows no signs of abating.

The Boss's new, critically acclaimed autobiography "Born To Run" debuted at the top the New York Times Best Sellers Thursday morning. With a writing style steeped both in intrigue and candor, Springsteen romanticizes the Garden State in the book in a way few other writers ever have.

But the rock n' roll adventures don't need to end with the final page.

Bruce's local brethren (like us) can visit many of the old haunts mentioned in the book. Over the course of a single day, we visited his past homes, the bar where he had his first drink, the scenic spot where his father spent countless hours -- all with the intent of trying to see "Born To Run" through Springsteen's eyes.

Let's take a drive.

Bruce's Bradley Beach apartment

Within an hour of finishing the book, we were already on the road and headed toward the Springsteen residence nearest to us: his garage apartment on Fifth Avenue in Bradley Beach, where he lived with then-girlfriend Diane Lozito -- his muse for "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" -- around 1973 and wrote "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "(Sandy was) a good-bye to my adopted hometown and the life I'd lived there ... I used the boardwalk and the closing down of the town as a metaphor for the end of a summer romance and the changes I was experiencing in my own life."

WHAT WE SAW: The pale yellow house two blocks from the beach is one of the plainest structures on an otherwise well-kept, quiet block. It's easy to imagine a scruffy, 23-year-old Bruce and his gal wandering the nearby boardwalk.

Springsteen's former home on Fifth Avenue in Bradley Beach, where he wrote "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)." (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Bruce's first drink

From there, it was 20 minutes down Route 35 -- an artery to and from many of Springsteen's favorite locales -- and a stop at the long-standing Osprey nightclub in Manasquan, where buddy "Big Danny" Gallagher brought a stressed Springsteen in 1972 for the first drink of his life: a shot of Jose Cuervo tequila.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "A small shot glass was slammed down onto the bar in front of me and filled with a golden liquid. 'Don't sip it, don't taste it, just swig it down in one quick gulp.' I did. No big deal. We did another. Slowly, something came over me; I was high for the first time."

WHAT WE SAW: The old, stucco-coated Osprey is smack-dab in the middle of the Manasquan beachlife, at the corner of Main and shore-hugging First Avenues. But now it's closed for the season, and we can only imagine where in the venue a 22-year-old Springsteen cautiously knocked back his first shot.

The Osprey nightclub in Manasquan, when Springsteen was taken to have his first drink ever - a shot of Jose Cuervo tequila. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

His father's favorite place

We left The Osprey and drove just two minutes down First Avenue, past many homes still recovering from Sandy, to the Manasquan Inlet, where Bruce's father Douglas was a ritualistic visitor (accompanied by his children), and where Bruce himself would come years later to reflect, and again climb out onto the jetty as he did as a kid.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "(My father) would sit for hours alone in the car watching the boats come in from the sea ... we'd step rock by rock out along the dark Manasquan jetty ... we'd stare out into the pitch-black nothing of the Atlantic ... we'd listen to the ocean waves crashing rhythmically on the shore far behind us."

WHAT WE SAW: We understand why Doug Springsteen came here to relax; the waterway that separates Manasquan from Point Pleasant Beach, where fishing boats speed to and from the Atlantic Ocean, is pretty serene. Children fished gleefully off the sidewalk and into the inlet, unknowing that 50 years earlier, a hard-working, mentally ill factory man had parked just behind them, in hopes of calming his volatile mind. Carlson's Corner, where Bruce and his sister Virginia ate hot dogs, still stands.

The jetty at the Manasquan inlet, where Springsteen's father Douglas would regular visit to think, and where Bruce would return on his own years later. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

BRUUUCE! and The Jersey Freeze

Something fortuitous happened on the way to our next stop, Bruce's childhood ice cream shop the Jersey Freeze in Freehold. While on Route 9, and listening to the song "Born To Run" -- keeping the mood, ya know -- the car pictured below pulled in front of us, in all its bumper-sticker serendipity. We knew we were headed in the right direction.

A driver on Route 9 in Howell, who clearly loves BRUUUUCE. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "You had your choice of two flavors ... count 'em ... two ... vanilla and chocolate. I didn't like either, but I loved those waffle cones. The guy behind the counter who owned the place would save me the broken ones and sell them to us for five cents or slip me one for free. My sister and I would sit on the hood of the car in silent ecstasy."

WHAT WE SAW: The classic Freeze is now split in two; one side serves ice cream, the other is a fast-casual restaurant, slinging burgers, fries and sandwiches. The colorful dining room was full with families -- the kids were home for Rosh Hashanah -- and you could imagine the Springsteen clan rolling in, and little Bruce munching only on the cones.

Fiona Orgen holds a vanilla-chocolate cone, the only flavors available where Springsteen used to stop by Jersey Freeze ice cream shop in Freehold. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Bruce's Freehold homes: 39 1/2 Institute St.

About a mile from ice cream, up Manalapan Avenue and Lincoln Place, was the cramped, shotgun-style 39 1/2 Institute St. home in Freehold Borough, where Bruce, his parents and sister moved when he was around 5 years old -- a place he initially hated. He'd live there until high school.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "No hot water, four tiny rooms, four blocks away from my grandparents. ... I was roaring with anger and loss and every chance I got, I returned to stay with my grandparents. It was my true home."

WHAT WE SAW: First, a NO SOLICITORS sign on the door -- do Boss fans regularly come knocking? The house number on this sliver of the white, multifamily building is oversized, perhaps another way to keep gawkers at a distance.

39 1/2 Institute St. in Freehold, where the Springsteens lived while Bruce was in elementary school and junior high. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Bruce's Freehold homes: 87 Randolph St.

Like Springsteen said, four blocks away was his first home, his grandparents' home at 87 Randolph St., a stone's throw from Saint Rose of Lima catholic church.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "I am 10 years old and I know every crack, bone and crevice in the crumbling sidewalk running up and down Randolph Street. On these streets I have been rolled in my baby carriage, learned to walk, been taught ... to ride a bike, and fought and run from some of my first fights."

WHAT WE SAW: Concrete. The house was torn down years ago to make room for a church parking lot. The "great, towering copper beech tree" Bruce used to climb, located 50 yards up the street, is gone as well.

Saint Rose of Lima church in Freehold, the centerpiece of Springsteen's early childhood. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Bruce's Freehold homes: 68 South St.

The last Freehold stop was Springsteen's final family home in town, 68 South St., where his father would eventually decide he'd had enough of the east, and left with Bruce's mother Adele and baby sister Pamela en route to California in 1969. Here on South Street, a teen-aged Bruce fully embraced the guitar, joined his first band The Castiles, grew out his hair, argued with his pop, and once his family left, he and his band turned the home into a "hippie frat house."

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "We moved and had ... hot water! In the half (of the house) we didn't occupy lived a Jewish family. My mom and dad, no racists or anti-Semites still felt the need to caution my sister and me that these were folks who ... DID NOT BELIEVE IN JESUS!"

WHAT WE SAW: Like the Institute Street abode, 68 South is one-half of a two-family, off-white, relatively rundown structure. But unlike the previous two homes, 68 South is on a bustling main road, pushed up against a New York Fried Chicken and Pizza restaurant (formerly a Sinclair gas station when the Springsteens lived there). At least this home was a little closer to Federici's pizza, a Bruce favorite to this day.

68 South St. in Freehold, where high school-aged Springsteen lived. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

His Colts Neck horse farm

We left Bruce's first, working class neighborhoods and snaked through the suburbs into much more affluent Colts Neck, where Springsteen currently owns and occupies a nearly 400-acre horse farm, near the cross of rural Laird and Muhlenbrink Roads -- 50 years later, Springsteen lives just eight miles from his early homes.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "I'd always wanted some land near my home town. A piece came up that I'd biked past since my thirties. I'd looked down its beautiful lane and often thought ... someday. The woman who owned it was an artist and she lived there until she died. It came up for sale. Patti and I looked at it for a long time and then we bought it."

WHAT WE SAW: Not very much; his home, purchased around 2006, is set far back beyond a gate. But the farmland and the homes surrounding it are absolutely beautiful, especially now in autumn; a slow drive through the town's winding, tree-lined roads is highly recommended.

The house that birthed 'Born to Run'

We continued east, further through Colts Neck, Tinton Falls and into Long Branch, where a bungalow that housed a pivotal bit of history awaited -- 7 1/2 West End Court, where Bruce wrote his life-changing single "Born to Run." On the way we passed his old coffeeshop, the quirky Inkwell, with its Mad Hatter characters painted outside.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "I wrote 'Born To Run' sitting on the edge of my bed in a cottage ... I was in the midst of giving myself a crash tutorial in fifties and sixties rock n' roll ... at night, I'd switch off the lights and drift away with Roy Orbison, Phil Spector or Duane Eddy lullabying me to dreamland."

WHAT WE SAW: A pale blue, well-kept cottage you'd easily miss in a blink. We wondered how many of these tiny homes you could fit on that immense Springsteen horse farm. Next door a new house is being built.

7 1/2 West End Court in Long Branch, where Springsteen wrote the song "Born to Run." (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

A solemn Sea Bright

From Long Branch, we snaked up along Route 36, to the Sea Bright municipal beach, near where Springsteen came to get a better view of Manhattan's crumbling skyline on Sept. 11, 2001. Living in nearby Rumson at the time, he'd driven across the Shrewsbury River Bridge where he saw "torrents of smoke" and to the beach where he sat alone.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "We live along a very busy air corridor ... the low buzz of airplane engines is as much a part of the sound tapestry at the Shore as are the gently crashing waves. Not (Sept. 11). All air traffic grounded. A deadly "On the Beach" science fiction-like quiet unfolded over the sand."

And as he was leaving the beach: "a car careening off the bridge shot past, its window down, and its driver, recognizing me, shouted 'Bruce, we need you.' I sort of knew what he meant."

WHAT WE SAW: On Monday, an afternoon with some clouds shielded the New York skyline from the bridge and beach, but as we sat there, among a few "local summer" loungers, we could see that day all over again, and the panic of watching it from the edge of New Jersey, only 15 miles away by boat.

The beach at Sea Bright, where Springsteen sat on Sept. 11, 2001. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Long nights in Convention Hall

From Sea Bright it was south down Route 36 and Ocean Avenue, through the wildly extravagant neighborhoods of Deal and Loch Arbour, and into Springsteen's sandy motherland, Asbury Park. First stop: Convention Hall, the cavernous old arena where teen Bruce saw The Doors, Janis Joplin and The Who, and where in The Boss himself has played and rehearsed more than 50 times. During tour rehearsals in 1999 and 2002, fans crowded outside the venue to hear the echoes of E Street.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "As we slogged away for weeks on the Convention Hall stage in isolation, trying to pump life into our much-vaunted songbook, there'd been only one thing missing: you," Springsteen said, after a section about letting those listening fans outside the rehearsals inside in 1999.

WHAT WE SAW: On this day the venue was closed, only the red-and-blue marquee and main entrance inside the Grand Arcade was visible. But what surrounds the 85-year-old hall is the revitalization of once-shabby Asbury Park -- shops, restaurants, and people -- long removed from the "My City of Ruins" tribute Springsteen wrote around 2000.

Outside Convention Hall in Asbury Park, where Springsteen saw The Doors, and would later play himself more than 50 times. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Meeting Clarence in Asbury Park

Then it was down off the boardwalk, where Springsteen has always strolled, first as an unproven troubadour, then as big man on campus and to this day, under his self-described baseball cap disguise. A few blocks away lies 911 Kingsley St. former location of The Student Prince venue, where Bruce first met and jammed with his legendary sax man Clarence Clemons, in 1973.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "(Clemons) approached the stage and asked if he could sit in ... He took his place to my right and let loose with a tone that sounded like a force of nature pouring out of his horn. It was big, fat and raw, like nothing I'd ever heard before."

WHAT WE SAW: The Student Prince building is now the very popular pizza restaurant and bar Porta. It's entirely renovated, but if you listen closely you can still hear Clemons' thunderous steps underneath the thump of the Porta speakers.

911 Kingsley St. in Asbury Park, formerly the Student Prince venue where Springsteen met Clarence Clemons. Now its the popular pizza spot and bar Porta. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Jamming at the Upstage Club

One last stop before the sun went down, on bustling Cookman Avenue in downtown Asbury Park, where Bruce first broke into the city: The Upstage Club. There he met future E Streeters Danny Federici, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez, Garry Tallent and lifelong Jersey Shore pal Southside Johnny Lyon, all of them jamming till the sun came up.

WHAT BRUCE WROTE: "When I walked into Upstage, I walked in cold. No one had ever laid eyes on me or seen me play. I'd heard you could jam there ... the club's unusual opening and closing times made it a mecca for musicians on the Shore scene."

WHAT WE SAW: The concrete building, on the corner of Cookman and Bond, is currently unoccupied, one of few storefronts on the revamped, ultra-popular drag not to be reopened. Most recently Extreme Sneakers filled the space in the late '90s.

The Upstage Club in Asbury Park, left, where Springsteen met many future E Street Band members and Southside Johnny. The building is currently unoccupied. (Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier. Find NJ.com on Facebook.