Confessions of a Drugstore Car Guy

If you recall, I was getting all nostalgical about cruising of the teen-age variety; circling the streets aimlessly on weekend nights. Actually, if memory serves, the circling had a definite purpose; it was just unfulfilled more often than not! In any case, my memory wandered to a different sort of roads after a while.

I Googled dangerous roads just to see what I’d find. 1st up, a story about Dateline NBC’s search for the most dangerous roads in the U.S. Except their story was not about dangerous roads, it was about the dangerous drivers who utilize otherwise safe roads. Almost all of the hits I got in that initial search talked not about roads that, for whatever reason, were dangerous but about the danger of being on the road with other drivers. They’ve found the danger and it is us!

Well we all know that, as good as we are, all those other idiots out there are terrible drivers. But that’s not what I was interested in. I wanted to know about roads that were dangerous event if there were no other vehicles on them. I’m not sure if a really dangerous road is dangerous if no one is driving on it. It takes two to tango, right? My daddy used to say if we had some eggs we could have ham and eggs, if we had some ham.

What started this whole dangerous road thing was my recollection of some roads I’ve driven on, or been driven on, in the past. Some really hairy stretches of road come to mind. From my own experience, the most dangerous roads are:

1. Nevada 305 between Austin and Battle Mountain – straight as an arrow, just begs to be driven at excessive speed and a right across the path of every form of potential roadkill you can imagine, from field mice to elk.
2. Salt River Canyon, U.S. 60 where it crosses the Salt River northeast of Globe, Az. Switch-backs, drop-offs and breathtaking scenery; enjoy the view at your peril.

You know, maybe they were right, it’s us that make the roads dangerous, not the roads themselves. Take my two examples; both Nevada 305 and U.S. 60 are good roads that become dangerous when drivers don’t keep their minds on their business. The roads I’ve driven that really are intrinsically dangerous shouldn’t be roads in the first place; that’s what makes them dangerous. And that’s why they’re not paved and come with warning signs. My favorites are:

1. Dugas Rd./Forest Rd. 68E from Interstate 17 to the Childs/Irving Power Plant on the Verde River. It took us several hours to go a couple of miles, all in 4WD/low range. The road climbs down the canyon from the Mogollon Rim to the Verde River, dropping 2000 ft. in elevation, seemingly all at once.
2. Castle Hot Springs Rd. northwest of Phoenix, approximately 35 miles (mostly dirt, some riverbed) thru scenic desert to an amazing palm treed oasis resort in the middle of nowhere. Not particularly dangerous unless you make the trip in a Volkswagen with a wife that’s nine months pregnant.
3. A hundred other tracks across the desert where any number of disasters could befall you with just a little bad luck or poor judgment. It’s always too hot, too sandy, too rocky, too steep, whatever, to not be dangerous. Which makes it so much fun!

Roads themselves are not dangerous until you add inattentive or idiotic drivers or hazardous conditions. Our Interstate highways are great but I-68 from Hancock to Morgantown scares the pee-outta-me when it gets foggy. I-95 scares me when I consider the goofs I have to share it with. I-10 thru the desert scares we when a dust storm come along that zeroes visibility AND sand-blasts the car but doesn’t stop other drivers from going, or stopping.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR!

It’s not news to anyone with allergies but, like, spring has sprung! My gutters are filling up with blossoms from the cherry tree and helicopters from the maple trees, the ground’s so wet it squishes as I walk across the lawn and, although the grass is way too tall, it’s also too wet to mow. It’s a good thing I’ve got the new cruising’ season to take my mind off these yard-work difficulties.

As I opened my garage door the other day I was greeted with another taste (smell, actually) of spring. I got a blast of “old car smell” from my ‘56! You know all about “old car smell”, it’s kinda like “new car smell” but with experience. Even the Russians, sentimental as anyone, know what I’m talking about.

"When a person goes to an exhibit where there is a humble Pobeda or Moskvich -- the one that dad or grandad used to drive -- he asks to get in the car," Sorokin says. "And when the smell hits him, he immediately gets tears in his eyes as he remembers his childhood. He has a nostalgia for that time." This according to Radio Free Europe’s web-site in a story about modern Russian nostalgia for the “good old days.”

Like Oldsmaniac, in the ClassicOldsmobile.com Forum wrote, “Old car smell comes with the old car...usually everything cloth will take on the smell and the only way to rid is total reupholstery of the seats and new carpet. Old vinyl too will smell on dash and door panels. Any trunk matting or insulation on the trunklid underside will smell...To use a freshener or mothballs will only blend the smell and maybe worse than just the old car smell...Its not an easy remedy. For me I sorta like the old car smell.”

Me too! That odor, which brings to mind junk yards and the cars we drove in high school, is an integral part of the old car experience. In my research I read that new materials and techniques are making “new car smell” a thing of the past. Old Car Smell is already a thing of the past!