tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post8539273485012041932..comments2024-03-28T10:16:38.716-04:00Comments on SleuthSayers: Road TripsLeigh Lundinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-50367629327805767082016-02-04T23:15:44.812-05:002016-02-04T23:15:44.812-05:00Thanks for the shout-out, Dale! I was on a road tr...Thanks for the shout-out, Dale! I was on a road trip myself when this went up--down in North Carolina to deliver a talk on Dashiell Hammett--and then back just in time for a busy week of classes. Catching up now, and hope you've had a fun trip!<br />Art Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02409008167752619352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-64641092573899022422016-01-31T18:21:57.577-05:002016-01-31T18:21:57.577-05:00In 1960, we moved from Alexandria, VA to southern ...In 1960, we moved from Alexandria, VA to southern California, and took Route 66 most of the way. Among others, I remember sleeping in the Teepee Motel - sad to say, it was just a regular motel room inside the teepee. We got caught in a sandstorm, we saw endless miles of desert, we ate at little cafes that were later put out of business by the interstate. My first major road trip... I've done many since, including hitchhiking across country in the early 1970's - but that's another story for another time. Eve Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03015761600962360110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-58507594444449261742016-01-31T16:45:43.363-05:002016-01-31T16:45:43.363-05:00In 1943, our mother piled all five of us kids into...In 1943, our mother piled all five of us kids into a 1938 Chevy and headed West. We started in Long Island and, ten days later, we arrived in Los Angeles--not bad time considering the conditions. The road system was primitive; we passed through every town as there was no bypass. Of course, I didn't know any better, none of us did. The thought of Interstates was about as much science fiction as computers at that time. I have to admit, it was fun; certainly educational. I remember it fondly. Nevertheless thanks to DDE for the interstate.<br /><br />Herschel Cozinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06097703750150309319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-60138462603851079192016-01-31T12:24:02.682-05:002016-01-31T12:24:02.682-05:00Reading this brought back many memories. I too pr...Reading this brought back many memories. I too prefer to avoid the interstate when I travel. As a kid we traveled yearly from Southwestern Colorado all the way down to the south eastern corner of New Mexico. I loved the trip, enjoying the vast and wide open spaces of New Mexico and the beautiful scenery. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18211113589300842194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-47637536064268717392016-01-31T11:20:03.510-05:002016-01-31T11:20:03.510-05:00It's worth mentioning the interstates changed ...It's worth mentioning the interstates changed urban landscapes in many ways. Spiderwebs and beltways allowed cities to rapidly expand while towns and cities bypassed by the new roads withered.RJSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-46375534065012865452016-01-31T11:14:54.150-05:002016-01-31T11:14:54.150-05:00I never understood how towns in the east got to pl...I never understood how towns in the east got to plunder pockets of travelers. Wasn't the interstate system supposed to be toll free?RJSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-6147493600239044822016-01-31T06:55:20.928-05:002016-01-31T06:55:20.928-05:00Anon -- I, too, remember those (maddening) stretch...Anon -- I, too, remember those (maddening) stretches when the interstate would cease. Driving from Washington, D.C. -- where I was a college student -- back home to St. Louis the interstate would come to an abrupt stop in Columbus, Ohio, and then again in Indianapolis, Indiana.<br /><br />And Leigh -- there are areas in Colorado, at least, where you can still find covered wagon tracks.<br /><br />Enough of this. I gotta get back on the road!Dale Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10553503281187956955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-26983071546813446882016-01-31T01:17:23.983-05:002016-01-31T01:17:23.983-05:00I’m loath to call this a travelogue, because it’s ...I’m loath to call this a travelogue, because it’s so much more. Plus you know whereof you speak.<br /><br />I recall reading of cross-country road races that set out to promote travel as well as the problems of the roads of the time, as your grandfather illustrated, and little in the way of paved roads.<br /><br />Side note: When I was a kid, ruts from covered wagons remained extant, cut so deeply in mud and sandstone.<br /><br />Speaking of European road-building, two or three decades ago while traveling through France, I saw an automated road-building machine. The other structure looked like a child’s A-frame swing set. It inched along (or centimetered along) scraping the road bed, laying the subsurface, compressing it, pouring the asphalt, and pretty much everything necessary to make a road in a single pass. I’m not sure if it painted stripes, but it might have!<br /><br />Kerouac lives on… about ten minutes from me in the College Park section of Orlando. Potential Writers-in-Residence can apply to win a year in Kerouac’s house, rent free.Leigh Lundinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-25125065431238855282016-01-31T01:01:08.085-05:002016-01-31T01:01:08.085-05:00The Interstate system took longer to complete in t...The Interstate system took longer to complete in the West, and I remember driving long distances without it for most of my childhood and young adulthood. For instance, I remember quite clearly the road construction that was on-going to build I-25 down through New Mexico to Albuquerque in the 1970s. At that time, when my ex and I were grad students in Kansas going home to the Southwest once a year, we always hit the place where the highway stopped and the old road picked up again. Then you had to come around the hills north into Santa Fe, for instance, and pretty much loop through old downtown on a big dogleg (which was a nightmare of alleys at night!) before turning south in a big hairpin shape to go on down to Albuquerque. And of course I remember I-10 and a lot of other Interstate highways being put in as well. I even remember driving out to Arizona as a little kid on the old Route 66, two-lane blacktop -- back before it was made famous by that TV show of the same name, though I suppose it had some notoriety even then. (You have to think of Steinbeck, at least.) These days, I find I love to travel just as much, but usually plot a route that doesn't follow an Interstate. Everything just goes by too fast, too far away, for me. A lot has changed in what seems like a shorter time than I guess it really is.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com