Confessions/Roads Scholar BOGO

I’ve been making plans for a road trip. We haven’t been out west for over a year and it’s time. This trip will combine several destinations and we’ll be gone for just over a month. I tend to do a lot of planning for trips like this because, to tell the truth, I like that almost as much as I do the trip itself.

My father always spent time planning our family trips and we took one just about every year. In those days he had to do it the old-fashioned way, with road maps and a note pad. He always had a collection of road maps handy and we’d pick-up new ones in each state we traveled thru. My travel agent is the world-wide-web.

Back in the day we got to a town in which were going to stay the night and found a motel by neon “vacancy” sign. My parents based their choice on availability and their reaction to the looks of the place from the parking lot.

Yesterday I booked rooms in six different cities and states on-line. Before I chose a place I looked at photos of the property and read reviews. I considered which properties were most convenient to my planned route, what restaurants were near-by as well as what the rooms cost.

After a couple of hours of surfing I have confirmed reservations for rooms in Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. I know how to get from my route of choice to my room of choice. I know how far it is between stops (an average of 573 miles) and the accumulated mileage (5159 miles). MapQuest even estimates fuel expense based on miles traveled, mpg and average gas prices ($688). How did we live before the Internet?

One of the first family trips I planned was to Colorado Springs from Phoenix back in 1971. I didn’t make lodging reservations for the one night we planned to spend on the road to Colorado because I knew we’d find a place the old-fashioned “vacancy” sign way.

There wasn’t a room available between Cortez and Colorado Springs, however, (it was Rodeo Season) and we wound up driving straight thru (777 miles according to Google maps). We arrived at 0-dark-30 the next morning and my son, who was only about a year old at the time, was sick. Elayne wasn’t happy and I haven’t left home without reservations since!

Not long after the Colorado Trip I was involved in planning another trip, this one to include the entire family, a four wheel drive caravan to Alaska! We’d all get together for Sunday dinner at my in-laws and B.S. about what we’d need to make the epic trek up and down the Alcan Highway to Alaska and back.

Around this time my Uncle Donald retired from the Alaska State Highway Department and moved to the desert near us. Naturally we invited him to our Sunday dinner and planning session. Well, Donald confirmed our notion that a lot of planning was required to drive to or from the lower 48 (that what Alaskans call the rest of the country). To illustrate he recalled the time he was unpacking the trunk of his car following a drive from Anchorage to Seattle and found he hadn’t brought a spare tire.

I know planning people will tell you that it takes careful planning to make sure you’ve got all the essentials and to eliminate the non-essentials. That’s hogwash! The more/better the planning, the more junk you’ll have, period. Uncle Donald would not have had room for Aunt Irene’s crafts (gifts for everyone in the family) if he’d planned for a flat tire. He didn’t have a flat so he didn’t need the spare!

On a couple of occasions my friend Bunkie and I traveled together. He was as opposed to planning as I was addicted to it and we worked well together. I’d do all the planning I wanted and he’d either go along with my plans or completely ignore them. When you make a plan it’s really hard not to stick to it. When you don’t do any planning at least you don’t have to worry about the plan not working. I suppose winging-it is just another way of limiting your opportunities to be disappointed.

Back in the Day

A few weeks ago I checked-out a car show at the Boonsboro American Legion Post, getting a twofer in the process; hanging out with some neat cars and their people while making my debut at the Post to which I’d recently transferred my membership. The weather, for a change, moderated and it turned out to be a great day.

There were several El Caminos in attendance and they, coupled with the “remember the war” vibe that hangs around Legion Posts, reminded me of the U-2 chase cars I watched doing their thing at Bien Hoa Air Base in Viet Nam.

The U-2 can’t land by itself because of its extreme wingspan and a bicycle (two wheels in a row) landing gear. They use “pogos” (small wheels on flexible steel legs) to support the wing tip upon landing. This requires someone to put the pogo in place when the plane touches down.

Hence the El Camino chase car and a guy in the back to handle the pogo install! The El Caminos were 1968 SS396 models that earned their keep running down the U-2s as they landed. Watching these USAF hot rods going from zero to gotcha in half the runway convinced me I really wanted an SS396 El Camino when I got back to the World!