Your first cross country road trip without your parents?


Just you and your friends or you by yourself?

 

o man do i. in a 1950 ford. on route 66. 80 was a not yet road. still made san dieago in 4 days stopping every night.

 

Nope. I was only 3 years old...

 

Yeah...last summer.
Borrowed my father's Focus and set out to visit some friends in the four corners area (CO). Made Denver in three days from central MA (2000 mi) then lost the fuel pump. Took half a day to get it fixed, and I still had 500 miles to go that day...

My father flew out to meet me and we drove home together, which, honestly, was a heck of a lot more fun than driving by myself all day. With two of us, we actually stopped places (Arches NP, Little Bighorn, Theodore Roosevelt NP, etc.); by myself I just drove all day.

Never drove fast, and got almost 38 mpg out of that little car with the A/C on.

 

Sure, I was 15, and my buddy was 16, he was driving a 1964 Stude station wagon. 289 3speed on the column. We were headed for No. Wis from the south end of the state for a 3 week fishing vacation with his uncle that lived in a cabin up there. Well we got lost, and ended up driving across a railroad bridge that spanned a wide river. No roadway, just ties, pitch dark. Luckily, no train was coming, as we had decided for some reason that we should be on THAT side of the river. So, by the grace of God, we made it up there, caught tons of fish, did some farm work for another uncle for gas money, even lassoed a 15lb snapping turtle, which got turned into soup. Huck Finn, and Tom Sawyer never had it so good.

 

i had to make the trip no choice. uncle sam said you will report by! to san diago."navy" after boot camp so it was also winter when i made that trip. route 66 was only two lanes , one each way in many spots. 80 was being built in some spots.
i remember making a wrong turn in flagstaff got on 89a some how and winding up in oak creek cayon. what a site way back then. not like now. i was only 17 then.

 

Yea,

Like it was yesterday. 1973, 17 years old, just before I entered the Navy....driving from Montana to home to Colorado in a 64 Jeep PU. Had all my stuff in it. Left my uncle's house in Powell, WY on a Sunday morning loaded up with some fried chicken and a couple of sodas.

Somewhere outside Meeteetsee, maybe near Worland, the water pump failed. Wasn't too worried, figured somebody would stop soon. Stop...ha, hardly anyone passed by for 6 hours. Drank the sodas, ate the chicken and tossed the bones in a pile shooting the flies that landed there with a shotgun...just for entertainment.

Monday morning.....folks start driving by....figure I'll be outta here soon.
Drank the mouthwash, out of anything else....which is why I refuse to have Scope mouthwash in my home.. to this day.

Nope, nobody stops. I decide to take to the gully behind me, still withinview of the jeep, and look for a rabbit or two for food and ah, take care of some business.

At last, the first car stops...I finish up my business, and step out from behind a tree to find two guys going through my stuff. Racking a round in the shotgun helps them to decide to thieve another day.

Next guy coming by stops...a salesman for Hughes tool company; he is on his way to a couple of drilling rigs to sell some drill bits. Says if I am still there when he comes back through that afternoon he will take me to town for a part.

Highway patrol stops. Offers help. I say, nope, this guy is coming back by.

Semi truck with a flat bed offers to put my jeep on his trailer and tow me to Craig, CO.

Come afternoon, the same guy stops. Tows me about 30 miles to the first town. No water pump for a 64 Jeep. Drives me to the next town...aha, a Jeep dealer....I go up to the parts counter...no water pump...I start to leave...oh, wait a 64 PU...yea, I have one here.

We go back to the Jeep, fix it and the guy will not take any money and darn near refuses to let me buy him a meal.

 

Summer of 2002. Got a job in California, San Francisco area, drove my 1967 Ford F100 Custom Cab(390, 3 speed/column, no ps. pb or ac) 2500+ miles on Interstate 10 and the highway north from LA to SF without any trouble. Worked there for about 3 months, went to a nice car show and some other sites, then drove back home the same 2500+ miles with no problems. That is a nice riding truck. Unfortunately I rolled that truck at Christmas time thanks to another vehicle, but all I need is another cab and it will be back on the road.

 

Yup 1981, with my 68' mustang.
went from denver to seattle on the northern route through Jackson Hole,Tetons,
Yellowstone,and Glacier in montana. My dad said take your time, (he paid for it).
So a roll of copenhagen camera and lots of film and 2 weeks later seattle.

 

I'm assuming you don't mean on a bus...

Lit out of San Diego in a Datsun 1200 and ran into the first cute little situation just before the first rest area/scenic overlook on I-8.
Something smelled funny... Someone drove up alongside, and the passenger was pointing back down the road. I looked in the mirror, and there was pink smoke boiling along behind me, looking like the Red Baron was being shot down...

The auto-trans fluid had boiled over through a vent, and dripped all over the exhaust pipe (no cooler in that car). I pulled off up ahead until things cooled down.

Once on the desert side, the coolent temperature ran too high. I drove with the windows down and the heater and defrost on full blast, even though it was in the hundreds out there. Once the sun went down things got a lot better.

Somewhere between Sentinel and Gile Bend I saw a utility body truck with it's flashers on. Looking in the rear view I couldn't figure why the hazards were on, but the light bar was off, so I hung a U through the median, drove back, hung another U and stopped.

It was a local mill-wright named Atilla, he'd run out of gas. We went on to the next fuel pit, got him some giddy up juice, and while we were yackking I mentioned the overheating. He led me to a water tank, and we flushed the crud out of my tiny little radiator, then we sat down and had a few beers and talked for a couple hours I think.

He offered me a job, and the dumbest thing I've ever done was to keep on going to Maryland instead of taking him up on it.

I could write a book just on that one trip!

SOmewhere in Texas, two older guys were at a rest stop standing alongside a Karmann Ghia. Said the starter had never worked reliably since the transaxle had been rebuilt, and they were ferrying the car to one of the gentlemens sons in California.

The story was that the tranny shop had even swapped out the starter for a brand new one, but it just didn't always work.

I rolled under it, jumped it with a screwdriver, and knew the starter was not it.

Then I looked at the wiring harness connector - jammed full of dirt and grease, not to mention loose as a goose. I cleaned it, crimped it a little tighter, reinstalled it.

She fired right up, three times! Easiest twenty bucks I've ever made, I turned down the money at first but they insisted...

When all was said and done - it was a three thousand mile trip. Including gear oil (a story for some other time, as I have to get going here) it cost me a whole whopping ninety bucks to go coast to coast. The year? 1977


~Wolf

 

My first real road trip was to the Willie Nelson 4th of July picnic in Liberty Hill Texas Only about 250,000 showed for the concert. It was a great trip. We went in a 64 Comet.No problems except no gas near the area when we headed home. We had a blast. I wish I'd taken a camera. There were some fine young texas beautys at this concert.

 

Left home in Kentucky in my 79 Mustang coupe (4-banger/auto)...headed to Monterey California to the Presidio ( for Arabic language school).

It was the first week of January, so I was a little hesitant to make the trip in a rear-wheel drive car, but since that Mustang had trouble breaking the tires loose on wet pavement, I figured I'd be alright - the trip went very smooth without incident. I headed south to Knoxville...jumped on I-40 and headed to Cali...a GREAT trip!

I'd love to find the time to just strike out and head west (in the spring or fall) again...but this time actually take the time to see the many national parks and landmarks along the way....maybe someday!

Scott

 

(Cont'd)

Back then, the once famous "COSMO CAFE" was still in business. A bright blaze of neon, in what looked like a dirt patch off to the side of what amounted to a truckers trail on the bypass from I-8 through Buckeye to Gila Bend. I wish to this day that I had stopped at it, but I was in a cash bind as always, and figured it was the better part of prudence to save my cash for the very first open parts house I could find. I was begging God to find one, for the following reason:

By the time I got through Gila Bend to somewhere near Pheonix, I was hearing a whining sound from the rear end of the car. I was desperately looking for a parts store, because it sounded like the Diff was about to grenade on me. I knew that it used 140 weight gear oil, but why it was flaking out I didn't know - unless it had leaked all it's oil out over the years.

Make a long story short, I found a parts house. The gear oil was in quart bottles with a pointed top, and I had to get a length of tubing to fit over the cut end of the bottle and shove into the rear-end filler hole. I think I dumped most of two and a half of them in there while laying under the car in a parking lot, in the dead of night in a strange town.... *I never did get the level all the way up even with the filler hole.

The whining died down some. "Our Lady of Blessed Lubrication, please don't fail me now!" I prayed, as the hills leading to Flagstaff appeared in front of me...

The Datsun 1200's (precursor to the B210) were really basic machines, but nice in that they seemed to wrap around the driver like a glove. Everything exactly in reach, and lots of leg room. The three speed automatic transmission was once featured on the cover of Popular Mechanics in an article titled: "The Japanese Car With a Transmission From Muncie Indiana!". It had three gears, and people? I mostly use the first two getting up those hills.

It was almost downright embarrassing, but at least at night the "PINK SMOKE" would not show...

It was tuff. But it was also cooler, and eventually downright cold. I think that was the only reason I made it to route forty. I was running the heater full blast again, but this time with the windows up.

Around four in the morning, filthy, nasty, oily, and dog tired - I pulled into a rest area and chilled for a while. When the sun came up, I found that the rest rooms were open, but to clean up I had to take a one gallon jug filled with cold water, and wearing shorts I doused myself and did the best I could with a washcloth at a picnic table off to the side. I had changed into shorts in the mens room...

I noticed on this trip that toes turn white when confined to the same shoes for too long at a time. I write this for a reason: Bring at least one change of shoes, and douse your bare feet with water when you can. It is difficult to bathe on the road without a hotel - but don't neglect your feet. Sandals are a beautiful thing...

*FOOTNOTE (no pun intended) In many states, it is illegal to drive barefoot. Sandals fill the niche in this due to the fact that they are footwear, but they also allow the foot and toes to "Breathe". Overall, I'd have to say my favorite driving shoes are Chuck Taylors (also known as "Converse Allstars"). They are light canvas court shoes, and are the next best thing to sandals.

Somewhere in New Mexico, at an "Unimproved" rest area, I slept for a few hours.

Time is meaningless on the road. When I should have been just about wiped out, the sun had come up, and I still felt like driving. When that one rest area turned up, I only planned on being there for a few minutes. Instead I "CRASHED" heavily, and it's a good thing I left the windows open.

I will say this though: People who let their children raise hell and even play with car horns when people are trying to sleep for what precious minutes they can at "REST AREAS" ought to be banned from the interstate entirely. I have often wondered on subsequent trips why they just didn't stay the "F" home... It was a band of small savages like these that finally woke me up, still not quite refreshed.

I was stiff, and smelly again. I kinda felt like a dried out piece of old leather. I walked around a bit, observing the not the least bit sorry but long suffering appearance of the parents. I realised there was no use staying any longer, and the heat was getting up there.

Many hours, and I don't know how many miles later, I found a place down an exit and off to the side of the highway where I could just pull off and park on a dirt patch next to an access road. I had gone through Texas, and was well on my way to Oklahoma City. I slept like the dead, with frogs and crickets sounding outside the partly open windows. Another one of the nice things about that tiny little car - it had reclining bucket seats. I remember that it was after dark by this time.

What (to me) was even more suprising - was that when I woke up there was another vehicle parked alongside of me. I assumed that they were veteran travellers. It never occurred to me that they might have followed my lead.

Onward, quietly - since after the one rest area I was loathe to disturb the rest of the people in the other machine. It was also in these rest areas that I aqcuired the habit of using my running lights only, until outward bound on the ramp to the highway. Only then did I turn on my headlights. Next stop, Oklahoma!

It was at the TA truckstop just west of Oak City that my starter finally crapped out...

(To be continued)

 

By the way -this IS a true story, as best I can remember it. It's not another of my fiction writings, and the more I write about it the more I remember.

It was exactly like this.

 

Whle I can't call it a cross country trip me and 4 buds use to go out to Bennett Springs, MO (about 250 miles from home) every year. We started going (the four of us) as a group when I was 17. Dad and I started going when I was 12, so it's not liek I had never been there before but this time it was four of us 17 years old. And yes we have evidence against each other!