America's Transportation Award

8/29/2009 5:43:03 AM

My best road trip was not in a car, but on a bicycle -- Oberlin Ohio, to Seattle Washington, in 1980, right after I graduated from college.

I would like our nation to stop thinking of 'road trips' only in terms of cars - we need to start relying on muscle-power to transport us around.  Burn calories, not hydrocarbons...

8/28/2009 2:22:17 PM

There’s a stretch of road where nostalgia pulls at the memories of my summer vacations to Florida’s east coast.  Nestled in rural Clay County, there lies the most peaceful scene imaginable along State Road 16 in a small town named Penney Farms.  Live Oak and Magnolia trees line the roadway in a processional canopy a hundred years in the making.  Each summer we drove through the town where Magnolias and Gardenias added brilliant white blossoms to the evergreen panorama and produced a fragrance that will forever be etched in my mind.  No wonder Mr. J.C. Penney thought it would be a wonderful place for foreign missionaries to retire.  He constructed a French-roman architectural style retirement center in the center of town, which further accentuated the lovely landscape.  Sometimes when I have had a stressful day, I picture myself slowly driving along State Road 16 with my windows rolled down, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the most peaceful place on earth, Penney Farms.

8/28/2009 2:21:14 PM

When I was a kid, my rather large family (five kids) piled into a rented RV in Connecticut and drove my big brother to college in Idaho. We did a lot of driving at night to make good time. 

One night, my brother pulled over to the side of the road (in Montana near Billings), woke up my mother and me, so that we could smell the sagebrush. 

It was incredible. A kid from the densely populated, hilly New England standing in this vast fragrant prairie. And not another car or truck in sight.

6/28/2009 12:45:11 PM

My favorite road trip happened a few years ago from Port Gibson, Mississippi to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with my Mom and my little boy. We woke up late that Saturday morning with nothing to do and said let's go for a drive today, and we set out driving around different areas of our county (Claiborne, MS). We ended up in another county (Warren) in the city of Vicksburg, MS where we stopped to get a meal. I was behind the wheel and when I got on the highway I just started driving and we ended up on the Gulf Coast. So I said, “Mama let’s drive until we get to some place interesting; how about Florida?”She said, “Okay let's go see your brothers in Fort Lauderdale.” Neither of us had ever been to Florida so we were elated. We called home to let someone know where we were headed and (without a map) we just kept driving. Of course we got lost along the way. That is what I believe made it so much fun. We stopped at interesting places along the way. We HAD to do some shopping considering we had packed nothing. It took us almost 3 days to make it to Fort Lauderdale because we stopped so many times to enjoy seeing things we never knew existed. We got hotel rooms along the way to rest and ate food we had never heard of in Mississippi. My Mom is passed away now; but she talked about that forever she had such a great time on her first and only “road trip”. 
It was a great trip!

6/23/2009 11:42:00 PM

Will be driving from San Francisco to Chicago in September. Will report back on differences between US and Australian Roads.

6/20/2009 5:40:44 PM

Our absolute best summer vacation trips involved pulling a 5th wheel trailer behind and camping up the Oregon and Washington Coasts & on up into Canada (seeking cool weather & beautiful sights).  Then a ferry ride with 5th wheel attached over to Victoria & a visit to Butchart Gardens & other areas of interest around Victoria.  Second best would be camping our way to Yellowstone National Park & touring all over (best trip we were there 2 weeks before the fire was declared out of control & we saw an amazing variety & number of animals; FYI...it still has not recovered & will be a bizzillion years before it looks good & the animals can be seen again).  My family has GREAT memories.

6/15/2009 4:05:28 PM

Leaving Gainesville, FL, on US 441, you drive across Paynes Prairie.  
Payne's Prairie is a 14,000-acre natural wet prairie and lake ecosystem, forming a park preserve at the edge of the ever-growing university town. The prairie was described by noted naturalist William Bartram in his Travels. John Muir crossed north Florida as well. More recently it was mentioned by renowned University of Florida scientist Archie Carr in a chapter in The Wild Heart of Florida. 

You may see wild bison, horses or hundreds of bird species (including migrating sandhill cranes).

It is great to cross Paynes Prairie on the way to Micanopy (where Doc Hollywood was filmed) along the Old Florida Heritage Highway.

6/14/2009 8:28:50 AM

Last February (2009) I decided to drive to CA from my home in WV to visit the grandkids. I took my Miata and had a blast. Tooling along on the second day as I approached Kansas City I saw a sign that said, "take this exit to see Harry Truman's home." I took the Independence exit and was soon facing his front porch where I'd seen so many pictures of him and his Bess. I was moved. 

I was concerned about snow the whole way because I chose to drive northerly so I could stop to visit Kitty in Boulder. After seeing her I got up the next morning drove north to Cheyenne and then across southern Wyoming. It was amazing. Cold. The altitude on I-80 reaches some 8500 feet and the winds can peak at 70 mph during the winter. The guy who took care of one rest area was truly grizzled attesting to this severe weather. 

The road carried me through Salt Lake City but then I left the Interstate and dropped down to US Rt 50 at the NV border and spent the night in a casino-hotel. Traveling Rt 50 the next morning I began to see the great ranges of the west lined with 8-12K foot snow-capped mountains. I had no idea of the scale of the west. No matter how many times I'd seen it from the air ..I just didn't get it. Soon I was approaching Reno and then the Donner Pass on the way to my daughter's. I'd been conscious of weather in this area and we talked several times about the possibility of snow. Driving up the Donner Pass began like a trip up any WV mountain ...but this one never stopped. It had been warmer down low but I had to put the top up because of the sudden temp drop. Then I began to see snow and a big electronic text sign across the road talking about unsettled weather up on top and the requirement to carry chains. (Not!) The roadway was wet and soon fresh fallen snow at the edge of the interstate was higher than my little car. The story of those people long ago on their journey through the Donner Pass was continuously on my mind. I was fearful of ice on this salt-free mountain road. Ouch! But I made it to the top and found a snow crew made up of more of those weather-beaten faces, clones of that guy back in WY. These guys were grizzled looking sons of bitches sitting on big front loaders and such, chained up tight, and just waiting for the new snow that was due to begin. Whatever the problem these were exactly the men you'd want at your back. Terminators. But I'd made to the top and I breathed a genuine sigh of relief. Then came the new warning signs regarding the decent: 6% grade for the next 40 miles. "Truckers, don't even think of using your brakes ...gear down and go slow, its the only way you'll make it." As I read these signs I knew from experience going down is often more difficult than going up. I dropped from 7700 feet down to 58 feet at the foot of the mountain. My son-in-law, a civil engineer for California's Dept. of Transportation, told me the roadbed had been poured in 1959 and has never been resurfaced. It is filled with continuous pock marks the size golf balls and tennis balls because of the use of chains. 

I was lucky and soon was safely in Sacramento. After a good visit w family I hit the road once again for the return trip. I left Sacramento I went to Yosemite, King's Canyon, Sequoia and then to Joshua Tree and another nat park in Tuscon, Saguaro, filled with an amazing assortment of caucuses. I'd toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West back in Scottsdale. My friend Michael flew out to Phoenix and I picked him up there for the rest of the return trip to WV. We set the GPS to "avoid freeways." Michael questioned me when I filled the half-empty tank but soon learned the next gasoline might be one hundred miles away. We drove to El Paso and traveled two-lane roads across to Beaumont, Tx, over a thousand miles of Texas. We stopped in Del Rio to pay our respects to Wolf Man Jack and drank a beer in a hundred (plus) year-old bar in Moravia, population 29 where we saw smiling blond Texas women with their men dressed in cowboy hats, jeans and boots. But later that night we ate crayfish in French-Cajun setting of Lake Charles, Louisiana. 

The next day we observed Katrina damage along the south coast beginning in Cameron. We checked out the bayou country and spent a night bar hopping in and around Henderson. Lots of fun. We were on the road the next morning driving to Tuscumbia, Alabama to see the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. We'd thrown out the road map and instead allowed the GPS guide us diagonally up Mississippi steering clear of freeways. The next morning, and completely out of time, we drove home via the Interstates. What an amazing trip. 

It wasn't so costly because of the little car coupled with older motels. I drove back a mile from most any exit and found a clean $40- 60/night place. Thanks too to the GPS for motel and gasoline locations. I drove two ten-gallon tanks of gasoline a day and tried to steer clear of "road food," (peanut butter crackers and a pop). I drove mostly 500 mile days and then 750 long miles once by myself. That took it out of me! The people are friendly everywhere. When you travel alone everyone knows you're a stranger and they become ambassadors to make sure you see the best of their community. It was truly great. 

I think of my trip as introductory to the US because I had so little time, sixteen days. I plan to do more car travel and revisit so many places that deserved more time. I'll set aside air travel when I can. Our nation is very large!

6/12/2009 10:30:16 AM

Perhaps it is common knowledge that a combination of cough syrup, hiking and chocolate cake is not the best remedy for the common cold. Then again, perhaps not. Either way, it was something I inadvertently found out for myself when I was moving between jobs and decided to turn a long one-day trip into a week-long meandering journey from Oregon to Southern California. The cold started just as I was leaving. The chocolate cake was an impractical parting gift. The hiking was something I wanted to do lots of during the week. 

Common sense would have dictated that I cancel most plans and focus on getting to my destination, but, as with many great road trips, the potential for adventure trumped common sense. So the days took on a unique and blurry quality. As it turned out, the chocolate cake was the only food I could keep down. I would have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After a slice, I would muster my strength, to, say, climb at Castle Crags, then drive until I needed to stop and take a nap. After a few days of this, I began to suspect that the non-drowsy cough syrup I would drink to alleviate the symptoms exacerbated by getting wet and chilled from, say, climbing at Castle Crags, was a contradiction in terms as I found that I needed to take a nap every 50 miles. 

Southern Oregon, Mt. Shasta, chocolate cake, Lake Tahoe, cough syrup, the Sierras, naps, more cake, Mono Lake, lots of naps, Death Valley, more cough syrup, the Mojave Desert, the cake melted, I arrived, more sleeping, the symptoms abated. It had been a long, strange trip. So, maybe cake and cough syrup weren’t the best remedy, but they were a remedy - just not one I recommend.

6/10/2009 3:09:38 PM

Well, this isn't my favorite summer highway trip, but it is probably the most memorable. 

One day, in some long ago summer, I hitched up my old ski boat to take it to the marina 20 miles away and trade it in. (The dealership there said they'd give me a couple thousand toward a new one - awesome!)

Well, about a mile from my destination and freedom from this money-sucking albatross, er, boat, I hit a small dip in the road. Suddenly, the boat came off the hitch, sheered away the safety chain, passed by me on the highway and became airborne before finally lodging itself between two trees.

Adding insult to injury, I had to call the marina and tell them that yes, I was still interested in the trade in, but they'd need to come free it from its current landlocked position.

My lesson from this short summer highway excursion: Never buy a used ski boat trailer, or better yet, never buy a used ski boat.