Let's Do A Road Trip

Discussion in 'Tall Tales & Fabrications' started by Bill Boggs, Jul 18, 2018.

  1. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    !8 July 18


    Every now and then I’d like to have my old car serviced up and take off on a road trip. I’d like to visit Arizona again. On the morning of my choosing to embark on such an adventure I’d head due north to Fargo, North Dakota. I’d take two and a half or three days to get up there, stopping along the way wherever I chose, site seeing, shopping, doing whatever my mood dictates, Nuntilfinally arriving in Fargo.


    Over breakfast I’d decide if I wanted to turn right or turn left when I left
    Fargo. If the coffee was good I’d have a second cup before loading up the car and clearing out of the motel. Since I want to visit Arizona, I turn right toward St Paul and on to Wisconsin.


    On the way to Madison I’d stop and visit my brother in Wisconsin Dells. Ken has had a bad knee injury and is experiencing some difficulty getting around, my sister in law is in a nursing home, so I’d not tarry long. What can you say after you say hello?


    It’s a short hop over to Chicago and I’d hurry through the city and make my way up to Cleveland. From Cleveland I’d look for the back roads, avoiding th Interstates where ever possible. I’d make my way ever so carefully up through New York and on into New England where I’d travel way west of the coastal highways, through the several states up to Banger, Maine. This is the turn around point unless something interesting posed up.


    I make my way down to DC where I plan to spend three or four days doing the town. Where I stop and what I’ll do along the way is immaterial. I can’t ask my traveling companion what she’d like to do because I’m traveling alone. Just me, myself, and I. I’m heading for Jacksonville, Florida.


    Traveling alone I’m not inclined to drop down to DisneyWorld so I turn west and drive over to Mobile. I’ll spend some time in Mobile. I want toes the sights, explore some of its history, and enjoy the food. I plan on gaining ten pounds in Mobile before heading to New Orleans and then on out to El Paso. Finally I’m in sight of Arizona as I follow Interstate 10 to Tucson and on up to Phoenix.


    I’ll pause in Phoenix, remembering the times as a sixteen year old I hitch-hiked from North Texas to San Diego and on up to Camp Pendleton, getting a job along the way of driving an old flatbed truck with another truck strapped down on its bed and top heavy, driving this rig for a man who was trying to avoid ports of entry which was a mandatory stop for trucks back in those days. The brakes went out twice in the mountains on that trip and I manhandled and geared it down which is no small chore for an experienced truck driver. I still remember coming out of the hills onto the bridge over Hoover Dam where a car was parked on the bridge and a man and woman and little girl were walking about. I set down on the horn and passed them safely but i know I scared those folks and I myself was frightened half to death as I tried to control that old truck at speeds too fast for a top-heavy truck with no breaks and a steering wheel with too much play.


    On up to Flagstaff. Flagstaff where my roommate and I on the way back from Las Vegas met some folks in a cafe at lunch time, talked for an hour and decided to spend the night where we went to a dance with them, partying until the wee hours. What fun.


    We spend another night in Arizona. then turn back east for Santa Fe, Amarillo, OKC and home. What would have happened and where would we have gone had we turned left instead of right up there in Fargo I’m not sure. We’ll have to leave that for another trip.


    It’s been over a month and my quest for the open road is fulfilled. I’ll be content for a while. But I’ll be saving my pennies and looking at maps, and at some point I’ll feel the yearning agin for the open road. It was a good trip but would have been more fun had I a traveling companion, someone to talk to, someone to share the excitement a long and exciting road trip of this duration can generate. Would have been twice the fun.


    Until next time.
     
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  2. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    I was there with you all the way...imagining the fun of that road trip witcha Bill :D
     
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  3. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Sounds wonderful, Bill! I am out of your loop, but I used to do road trips all the time. I now incorporate trains into our trips. While you don't have quite the same route options with the trains, you can sleep while you are moving, still see the scenery as you go, can incorporate your lodging into your trip as you move, and stop and get off whenever you choose, then, when you have driven around in your rental car, get back on the next train and continue on down the tracks. We are trying to formulate a trip for this Autumn, and our son's wedding has been affecting our choices. We are thinking of flying to San Francisco, boarding the train in Oakland and riding to Omaha, then renting a car and hitting Iowa, Oklahoma, then heading south to The Gulf since my wife has never been to Louisiana. We would then fly to Seattle to visit our daughters and families, and back to Alaska. The plans may change, however. We are becoming "free Spirits, but are limited somewhat by obligations at home.
     
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  4. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    You must get terrific gas mileage, Bill.....I didn't see you stop once, along the way! What's your secret?
    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    After we got married, my wife and I drove from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico across the South, then north to Maine. We drove through much of Maine since we were talking about moving there, then to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see my family. From there, we went to New Mexico to visit her family, and then back to Texas.
     
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  6. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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