Road Trips

Where have you been?

Have you traveled with your family? On your own? For business? For pleasure? Some of each? Did you go to visit family in another city or state? Did you want to go, or have to go?

Did you go with expectations? Of what you would see, or of how it would be? How did those turn out? If you had a bad experience, did it color your memory of the whole trip? If you had one great moment, did it save any number of tribulations?

What do you remember? Were you paying attention? Do you remember things that relate to your age, especially if you were a child?

I remember our one big road trip as a family, when I was ten. This was high summer, 1960. We drove from Appleton, WI, to California to visit relatives. I am aware that, since memory is a goofy thing, bits of other things may have jumbled in. I remember US Highway 30, and that we didn't go through Omaha but somewhere north of it. I remember a sad cheap motel in Fremont (?), Nebraska. I recall getting up early and driving for an hour before breakfast; I remember driving in the dark with the brights on, and the gradual dawn. I remember, for no reason at all, Grand Island, Nebraska, and the road west. Signs for some attraction, "Harold Warp's... (something about cars). We went through Estes Park, CO, and I remember the cold, mineral-tasting water at a restaurant and staying at a motel along the Big Thompson River as it flowed out of the Rockies. We went through Rocky Mountain National Park, and we made a side trip to some old lodge called the Bald Pate Inn, which was a place my parents had been to, perhaps on their honeymoon. I remember pulling up next to a cattle truck at a stoplight in Greeley, CO, and catching a little spray when an animal took a whiz. We closed the windows as fast as we could crank!

The car was a 1956 Ford sedan, which had been my grandfather's car. I also remember that we had a 1957 Studebaker sedan, two-tone copper and black, which we sold when we received Grandpa's car (Grandma didn't drive). For this long trip, we got a Coleman gallon jug, which we kept filled with ice water; there was a cup inside the top but we used the top, too, to drink from. It had a little spout on the side. I think that similar jugs are still sold. Not that it was hot on that trip but I still think of Coleman jugs as sources of blessed cold water. We got some metal screens that you could clip to the window frame to block the worst of the sun. These were great: left side of the car westbound, right side eastbound. I don't recall if we used cartop carrier bars, or had stuff on top. But I remember my favorite accessory: a burlap bag, almost watertight. It held about a gallon, and we hung it on the front bumpers. As we drove, the wind from our passage cooled the water, not to cold, but to cool enough to drink or to pour into the radiator. Very few cars had air conditioning in those days - this one did not.

Did we go to Denver? No. Did we go to Salt Lake City? No. We went to Delta, Utah, and the only reason we stopped there was to get my glasses repaired. Did we drive through some wonderful mountain scenery? Yes. My father saw the rail line and talked about the wonderful VistaDome route in the Denver & Rio Grande that ran from Denver to Grand Junction. Did we take it? No.
Did we go to Las vegas, or even Reno? No. We stayed in Tonopah, NV. ("I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonopah. I've driven every kind of rig that's ever been made, took all the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed. So if you give me weed, whites and wine..." a song lyric, the only other mention of Tonopah I've ever heard). We showed up on the east side of Yosemite National Park. One of the highways on the way to the park had the best set of up-and-down hills - roller-coaster-like - that I've ever seen.

I do remember driving through Yosemite, but only enough to plant a wish to go back that I was able to fulfill with Wendy and Laura. When I was ten, it was all mountains and waterfalls and huge trees. I have as clear a memory of the road over the coast range, through Mount Madonna County Park and down to Watsonville. This was the first serious twisting mountain road I remember, and I've driven it on my own just to be sure. Then we went to Aptos, CA, near Santa Cruz, and I met my Aunt Fran, Uncle Bob and most of my cousins for the first time.

TBC.