In addition to turning circles on the dirt tracks, we enjoy taking trips on our Gold Wing. Since I got my first Gold Wing, we’ve ridden over 137,000 miles. Our current ride is a 2006 GL1800 Gold Wing that we bought new in 2006. I’m kind of the Black Sheep of the family in that I currently have the only motorcycle - touring, that is - that’s not a Harley.
Sometimes, while cruising on the Gold Wing, I’ll think back to vacations my family went on when I was growing up. The first long trip I remember taking was when I was 8 years old. We loaded up the family Studebaker and left Crete on a Sunday evening the first part of August. The year was 1960. The destination - California.
For “youngsters” reading this, the trip might be likened to riding in a covered wagon. The Studebaker didn’t have air conditioning and I don’t remember it having a radio. Even worse, the car didn’t even have SEAT BELTS!! It’s a wonder we made it back home alive! Another thing - no cruise control. I also don’t remember the car having turn signals.
We drove all night with us kids sleeping in the back seat. Dad & Mom had some type of thing that hung over the back of the front seat, then laid across the gap between the back seat and the back of the front seat. This created a bed for us to sleep on. Once again - NO SEAT BELTS!! Believe it or not, nobody even made a child abuse or neglect complaint… How times change!
When we woke up in the morning, we were stopping for breakfast at Dalhart, Texas. I seem to remember eating pancakes and sausages. Leaving out of Dalhart, we got on Rte 66 at Tucumcari, New Mexico. Back then it really WAS Rte 66, and none of it was interstate. Around noon we stopped at a park at Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Mom had packed a cooler with all the fixings for sandwiches and we had a picnic lunch by a lake. I also remember seeing little lizards - maybe chameleons?
Not having the interstate highway system in place, I also remember going through the mountains. It was a lot different than it is now. The highways went around and around up the mountain back then, then around and around back down. I don’t know for sure if our night stops were planned, but there wasn’t any internet to look for motels. We didn’t have reservations, so when it was time to stop, we just looked for a place that looked decent. We stayed at Gallup, New Mexico, but I don’t remember anything about the place we stayed at.
Call home to let the folks back home know that everything is OK? Be sure to have a lot of change for the pay phone. Cell phones? Yah, right! If somebody had told us back then that in the future we would carry our phone in our pocket, we’d have been calling the funny farm.
After leaving Gallup, we went through the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. At one of those places, near the ranger’s booth, somebody either caught or killed a small rattlesnake. I don’t remember which place it was, and don’t remember if they killed it or just caught it. Even back then, I did not like snakes and preferred to keep my distance.
We also stopped at Sunset Crater just north of Flagstaff on the way to the Grand Canyon. I’d seen pictures of the Grand Canyon, but still had a hard time imagining what it would be like in real life. Standing at the top and looking down at the Colorado River was awesome when I was told it was a mile to the bottom of the canyon. If I remember correctly, there was a thunderstorm coming as we left the Grand Canyon and headed south. We stayed in Williams, Arizona that night.
The next day we angled off toward Blythe, California. From there we went south to Yuma. I don’t remember a lot of that stretch except that it was HOT! From Yuma we went west and got into San Diego after dark. I wonder if there were very many cars in 1960 that had air conditioning?? I know that Studebaker didn’t.
If people in 1960 could have had a crystal ball and looked 40 years into the future, chances are they would have thought they were watching science fiction. When we tell the children of today what it was like in the “Old days”, they must really think we’re ancient.
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