Road Trip, ca.1949

[Bob Wright]

Sometime around 1949 or so we; my mother, father and I; went to visit my oldest sister living in Suitland, Maryland. Dad did the driving, and it was his ambition to drive 500 miles in one day, driving a '48 Nash Ambassador.

Dad and I sat in front, Mom in back. Also in back was a red steel Coca Cola ice chest, with a jar of iced tea, cold drinks, and sandwiches for lunch. Lunch was a some roadside park just past Nashville. We stopped at a tourist home outside of Bristol, Virginia. Dad had made his 500 miles!

Rising early the next morning, we left before daylight, just as the day was dawning. Fog and smoke made a haze in the cool, damp early morning, with the smell of bacon frying. The folks were just putting out their handmade quilts and other crafts along the highway. We were in the Smokies. I wish I had the map to know just which route we took, all two-lane highway, some gravel stretches where paving had yet to be done. It was a grand time for me, never having traveled further than middle Tennessee at the time.

Every time I see one of those old ice chests, I think about that trip.

Bob Wright

 

[RugerHound]

A wonderful story! And in 1949, 500 miles was no walk in the park! In fact, it was a heck of a lot of work! No freeways... Two lane roads that slowed down every 25-40 miles for the next town. Get stuck behind some slow poke for ever & a day...

Ahh the good old days!

 

[coach]

I remember those red coca cola ice chests. Nothing like sticking arm down in the ice to get a small bottle of coke on a hot day.

 

[Big Old Boy]

Nice story I bet you were on Rt 11 out of Knoxville to Bristol.

 

[Coop]

Oh my!

I cannot go back that far enough. However, my family and I made several trips from southern LA to Prescott, AZ to visit family in the early 70's. We used to leave So. Cal. about 4:00 AM and drive across the Mohave Desert before the sun became really nasty. Morning sun rise on the desert was stunning, and my kids (in their 30's and 40's now) still rave about it today. Those were good times. My wife and I still get out to Prescott from Pittsburgh to visit family. Now we fly.

 

[WAYNO]

Great story!

My road trips were a few years later. The mid fifties. We'd all pile in our 49 Chevy and drive from Portland to Salem to see my Grandparents. I-5 did not exist up here, so we traveled the Super Highway 99E! I remember a little zoo along the way that had a picture of a skunk on their billboard. Boy I wanted to stop there! Ironically, I now only live about 10 minutes from what was this little zoo, and the building still remains, boarded up.

When my Dad was teaching one of my older sisters how to drive, we were on one of these road trips when my Dad told my sister to pull into the next gas station. She did what she was told, but she pulled into the pump island at about 50 miles per hour. One of the few times I remember our Dad ever being upset. What remains of this gas station is still intact, and I sent my sister a picture of it a while back. She very much remembers the episode.

Here's the gas station...


WAYNO. :mrgreen:

 

[graygun]

The halcyon days of youth...we probably didn't realize how rich they were at the time.

I know about Suitland Md...lived not far away many years ago.

 

[Jeepnik]

Two trips my family used to take regularly were to Bakersfield and Disneyland.

To go to Bakersfield, you took various two lanes till you reached the Grapevine. You made darned sure you checked the gas, oil, tires and especially the radiator before you headed up. Those that didn't would be seen pulled over, on the way up, with their hoods up. There were regularly spaced water barrels. Coming down the back side into the "valley" (it was called this long before the San Fernando Valley stole the title) all you could see was the 99 as it stretched north.

Disneyland was a hoot. Dad turned left out of the driveway, right about 100 ft down, the left another 100 or 200 ft. Then is was straight until you turned left into the Disneyland Parking lot. Funny, it didn't seem to take any longer then than it does now taking our modern freeways.

 

[Fox Mike]

Nice story I bet you were on Rt 11 out of Knoxville to Bristol.

That then cut off and pick up US 29 into DC and Suitland.

 

[Muley Gil]

"We were in the Smokies."

Actually, you were travelling in the Great Valley of Virginia, with the Blue Ridge mountains on your right (the east side of the valley) and the Alleghanies on your left (left side of the valley).

The Blue Ridge mountains start in Maryland and then go south into Virginia. When you cross into Tennessee/North Carolina, the mountains become the Smokies. Cross into north Georgia and they become the Blue Ridge again!

 

[Rancher Will]

Comments about old road trips always remined me of my first one. In 1936 My parents, two brother and I, left Oklahoma in the depression and dust bowl. My parents lost their farm that my dad had bought after he came back from WWI. We left that farm with everything we owned in and on an Essex auto. My dad Just drove away and we never looked back.

We camped nights on the ground in places with a little wood from dead trees or brush, slept in blankets on the ground and my mother cooked over an open fire every night except one night in a little city park fireplace in Brush Colorado and in a fireplace just built by the CCC boys in a little park outside of St Regis, Montana. That city park in Brush is still there and from time to time when I go by I have memories of the night we stayed there in 1936.

My dad looked for work along the way every place where he got chance but didn't find work until we got to Idaho. In Wyoming when my dad inquired about work we learned that if we stayed in Wyoming my parents would be arrested since my dad was married to my mother who was full blood American Indian. I think it was in the 1960's when the Supreme Court abolished the laws prohibiting cross race marraige in the states.

One more memory, to keep this short, on our trip we saw and drove on only one paved road. The Lincoln Highway for a few miles east of Cheyenne was concrete paved into Cheyenne and, as I remember, only a little way West of Cheyenne.

I could probably write a book about our experience leaving our home in the Indian Nation and traveling to Idaho in 1936.

 

[graygun]

Heck of a life Will and you have good recollection.

 

[claimbuster]

We would make an annual trek to OK City every summer from central WI in Dads '49 Studebaker Champion. From Rockford, Il on, it was all US 66. Long time ago. If a motel room was more than $9 we wouldn't stay there.

 

[Fox Mike]

In the late 40's my Mom, Dad, my little brother Jim, and I traveled down the two lane US 301 from Mayo MD. to St Pete FL to visit my grandfather. I remember the roads through Georgia were crowned and had swamps on both sides. We used to race the trains as they ran along parallel the highway. We sometimes almost hit an unbelievable speed of 70 MPH. I fondly remember the South of the Border and Burma Shave signs, motor hotels (they were generally small cabins), and real service stations.

 

[vito]

In 1949, when I was only 6, my "rich" uncle and his family, including my two cousins, left in their brand new Mercury for a road trip to California, from NYC. I think that they were away for about six weeks, traveling to LA and then back to NY. I was so envious of my cousins, getting to go on this great adventure. Growing up in a working class household, a trip from NYC to a bungalow upstate NY, about 2 hours driving away, was the only "adventure" I ever had. And in those days my Dad would make sure the car was checked out, had a fresh oil change, and new tires before embarking on this two hour, maybe 100 mile ride. I think that this was what triggered my desire later to ride a motorcycle and to explore new roads and places whenever I had the chance. Funny thing is that my still surviving cousin had almost no recollection of their big trip when I asked her about it a few years ago, and she was about 10 years old at the time.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Don't remember the year, but I DO remember we were taking Route 60 headed to California. (Probably from Ponca City, Ok.) We were in a Three car "caravan" with my grand parents in one auto, my Dad, Mom, Brother and I in another one and my Uncle Jim, Aunt and cousins in the third Auto. We stopped for the night in PIE TOWN, NM and all of us kids shared one double bed sleeping cross-wise on it. In the morning in the "Cafe" the donuts were either Stale or frozen because they went "KLUNK" when dropped on the saucer. Some where in the Mojave, one of autos broke down and we got to enjoy a tumbleweed fire for warmth while repairs were made.
Lordy Day that was a LONG time ago.

 

[No-1]

First trip I remember was in our 1955 2 door Plymouth wagon. My dad's goal was 700 miles a day. Don't know if we made that many miles or not. We had a Colman camp cooler in the back and all our Xmas presents. I set a dumb record a few years ago New Ford F350 Dually diesel 22' car trailer with the prototype Shogun (Ford Festiva with SHO Taurus motor in the back seat https://www.google.com/search?q=shogun+ford&biw=1280&bih=685&tbm=isch&imgil=AMsxoHXvrazoKM%253A%253BFjXsillBO6yZUM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fhooniverse.com%25252F2012%25252F04%25252F09%25252Fspotted-ford-festiva-shogun%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=AMsxoHXvrazoKM%253A%252CFjXsillBO6yZUM%252C_&usg=__wP_ivLKHln3h6eKFawk_kAmxSW4%3D&ved=0CCcQyjc&ei=6X0rVKGHDc-sogS9nYDgAg#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=AMsxoHXvrazoKM%253A%3BFjXsillBO6yZUM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fhooniverse.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F04%252Fford-fiesta-shogun-yellow-1-700x525.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fhooniverse.com%252F2012%252F04%252F09%252Fspotted-ford-festiva-shogun%252F%3B700%3B525 ) 1300 (Tulsa to LA CA) miles non-stop except for fuel. By the time I wanted to stop we couldn't find a motel with any vacancies just kept going checking every big town. Got within 200 miles and decided why bother stopping now.

Seeing America is so much better from behind the wheel than 30'000 feet. Soon I retire and we've bought a Bluebird Wanderlodge for the great circle of America we've been planning.