Legacy (the Reason)
#1
12-10-2003, 02:36 PM
Legacy (the Reason)
- Copied from the General Forum, before it gets buried..
There is a mystique about travelling by car and truck in the "modern" world, and it goes all the way back to whoever that first group was that decided to get away from whatever tribe they belonged to and see what was over the horizon...
The interstate highways are a relatively new system, and some were named after Presidents. In other countries they have been named after other impressive figures, but it all amounts to the same thing: A tremendous undertaking in order to make far reaching travel possible to the common man.
As in You and I.
Once upon a time in California, there was a trail that was named "El Camino Real" (the Kings Highway) and remnants of it are still there, although they have been paved over and 'modernised'. Another famous one is the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH to some). If you look even deeper, there is in the California back country an old road that is still marked on some maps as the "Old Overland Stage Route" and you can retrace it by car or truck if you feel adventureous enough....
If you do, picture if you will in your minds eye the traffic on it some eighty years ago. The dust from iron hooped wooden wheels, and the creaking and groaning of the coaches on it - seperated by days between them, rather than carlengths. Places along the way where water could be found, not slurpies or hot coffee - bagels and sub sandwiches. In the old days, if you were lucky there was a well and hopefully it wasn't dry at that time of the year.
Horse neighing and snuffling, and people gathering scrub for them to eat with what few oats were packed along...
Everyone learns in school of the famed "Golden Spike" that joined the east and west in this nation, but little seems to be out there on the net about the first roads and highways. It was once little better than the Donner Expedition for those who wanted to travel from the eastern states to the "Wild West". But now we take for granted the cheery sight of a bright yellow "Waffle House" sign popping above the horizon as we roll along at sixty five or seventy. Truck stops are the mecca of an interstate vagabond, and for a few days we, the otherwise home-bound urbanites who seldom think much about "The ROAD" are treated to a new world and an adventure, as we simply relocate ourselves...
We may be going off to college, we may have orders to a new base, we may have a job in a new city, but whatever the reason the experience is the same. Something new in our lives, but also something very old...
Route 66 is famous now, for having preserved much of the appearance and attractions of what was once the good old days, nineteen fifties styled diners, and odd tourist attractions... Interstate forty has a lot of that on it, but it is more of a commercial truck route, and there is almost always construction taking place on it.
Elsewhere, on the east coast - you can still find most of "Old Route One" which runs from Florida all the way up to Maine. Some parts of it are no longer used, some parts are now little better than some old wheel ruts through the woods, and there are a few very olde gas stations out in the middle of farm country or woods here and there. Antique pumps, with broken glass all that remains of what was once a globe full of "Product" for sale to adventurous "Motorists". -Those odd people who operated horseless carriages...
This is the stuff of legend and legacy, of exploration and imagination. When you drive down the highway, I challenge you to picture what once was! Like a 'yesterday dream', all of that is still there, or traces of it anyway. And I for one am still in love with it.
The "ROAD" sings to me, and I want to follow it's voice...
~Greywolf
There is a mystique about travelling by car and truck in the "modern" world, and it goes all the way back to whoever that first group was that decided to get away from whatever tribe they belonged to and see what was over the horizon...
The interstate highways are a relatively new system, and some were named after Presidents. In other countries they have been named after other impressive figures, but it all amounts to the same thing: A tremendous undertaking in order to make far reaching travel possible to the common man.
As in You and I.
Once upon a time in California, there was a trail that was named "El Camino Real" (the Kings Highway) and remnants of it are still there, although they have been paved over and 'modernised'. Another famous one is the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH to some). If you look even deeper, there is in the California back country an old road that is still marked on some maps as the "Old Overland Stage Route" and you can retrace it by car or truck if you feel adventureous enough....
If you do, picture if you will in your minds eye the traffic on it some eighty years ago. The dust from iron hooped wooden wheels, and the creaking and groaning of the coaches on it - seperated by days between them, rather than carlengths. Places along the way where water could be found, not slurpies or hot coffee - bagels and sub sandwiches. In the old days, if you were lucky there was a well and hopefully it wasn't dry at that time of the year.
Horse neighing and snuffling, and people gathering scrub for them to eat with what few oats were packed along...
Everyone learns in school of the famed "Golden Spike" that joined the east and west in this nation, but little seems to be out there on the net about the first roads and highways. It was once little better than the Donner Expedition for those who wanted to travel from the eastern states to the "Wild West". But now we take for granted the cheery sight of a bright yellow "Waffle House" sign popping above the horizon as we roll along at sixty five or seventy. Truck stops are the mecca of an interstate vagabond, and for a few days we, the otherwise home-bound urbanites who seldom think much about "The ROAD" are treated to a new world and an adventure, as we simply relocate ourselves...
We may be going off to college, we may have orders to a new base, we may have a job in a new city, but whatever the reason the experience is the same. Something new in our lives, but also something very old...
Route 66 is famous now, for having preserved much of the appearance and attractions of what was once the good old days, nineteen fifties styled diners, and odd tourist attractions... Interstate forty has a lot of that on it, but it is more of a commercial truck route, and there is almost always construction taking place on it.
Elsewhere, on the east coast - you can still find most of "Old Route One" which runs from Florida all the way up to Maine. Some parts of it are no longer used, some parts are now little better than some old wheel ruts through the woods, and there are a few very olde gas stations out in the middle of farm country or woods here and there. Antique pumps, with broken glass all that remains of what was once a globe full of "Product" for sale to adventurous "Motorists". -Those odd people who operated horseless carriages...
This is the stuff of legend and legacy, of exploration and imagination. When you drive down the highway, I challenge you to picture what once was! Like a 'yesterday dream', all of that is still there, or traces of it anyway. And I for one am still in love with it.
The "ROAD" sings to me, and I want to follow it's voice...
~Greywolf