It’s a long trip

[jimbo1096]

My granddaughter and her husband with their two babies are on their way to visit his folks in Kentucky for a vacation. He’s in the military at Fort Polk. As he was pulling down the driveway, he said it’s only another 876 more miles to go. I just looked at him and said it takes longer than that to get across the state of Texas. He had no comment.

 

[Mobuck]

876 miles used to be a daunting journey.
My Grandmother's sister and family lived in Denver CO so every 2-3 years, Grandma and Grandpa would load up the kids into whatever vehicle Grandpa had and head west. The pics I've seen showed a late 20's touring car with boxes strapped to the fenders (I still have one of those handmade 'chuck' boxes BTW), a couple of spare tires, and kids hanging from every portal. These trips took 3-4 days each way and they camped along the road at night.
I don't travel as well or as comfortably as I did when younger but in the past 2-3 years have made over 800 miles per day on our trips to NM. Lots of days, I put on 300 work miles w/o leaving the state.

 

[Papalote]

I used to hunt in west Texas. 610 miles one way. I thought that was jut a drive, not a trip. Closest way out of the state from my house is Louisiana. 300 miles unless you include Mexico. It's only 100 miles away but no one goes there any more!!

 

[arfmel]

My grandpa was a geologist for Skelly Petroleum in Oklahoma. He traveled to various drilling locations back in the 1930s when lots of rural roads were still dirt (or mud). He once told me he considered it a good day if he only had one flat tire, and that he carried a tube patch kit and tools to break down the tire from his wheel alongside the road. And a tire pump like you’d use for a bicycle to inflate the tire after you fixed it.

We have it easy today.

 

[Kevin]

876 miles used to be a daunting journey.
My Grandmother's sister and family lived in Denver CO so every 2-3 years, Grandma and Grandpa would load up the kids into whatever vehicle Grandpa had and head west. The pics I've seen showed a late 20's touring car with boxes strapped to the fenders (I still have one of those handmade 'chuck' boxes BTW), a couple of spare tires, and kids hanging from every portal. These trips took 3-4 days each way and they camped along the road at night.
I don't travel as well or as comfortably as I did when younger but in the past 2-3 years have made over 800 miles per day on our trips to NM. Lots of days, I put on 300 work miles w/o leaving the state.

My dad is 91, my grandpa lives to be 94 and died back around the early 1990’s. But my dad tells me stories about when he was little they went on road trips from Oklahoma to out west.

Same sort of trips, some big old car or truck with plenty of spare tires and then they would just stop on the road at night and sleep in the truck or whatever right there in the middle of the road.

I don’t know if that would have been fun or not, but definitely an adventure either way.

One of those chuck boxes from an old touring car would be pretty neat.

 

[Mobuck]

Yes sir, that box is a family heirloom.
The last trip my Grandma made to Colorado, I was 17. Dad and I shared the driving and made it in one longish day. Granny didn't realize we would make it in a single day(I don't think she realized that we'd been running 75 mph for several hours across Kansas).