Getting there from here...
 

Last year, about the same time of year, I took an Amtrak sleeper roomette from San Francisco to S. Station, Boston...An incredible train trip through the bowels and underbelly of America. The parts you don't see by road...OR PLANE!

This year, I'm travelling (driving) the "Backbone of America"...Route-50 from here to there. It's a backroad, filmed a few years ago by a crew headed by Tom Brokaw who spent 3 months traveling this "Loneliest Road in America"...Some very desolate parts in Nevada and Utah...No cell service, no gas stations, little traffic for about 300 miles from Fallon to Ely...

http://route50.com/

https://roadtripusa.com/the-loneliest-road/

I love cross country trips.

everyone knows about Rt 66 but I saw a tv show not long ago about the Lincoln highway, had never heard of it before.

https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/map/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Highway

Just returned from Burbank, CA, Route 40 and 44 to St Louis. Many areas of Rt 66 along the way. The first time I went to CA it was on Rt 66 all the way, towing my boat.
Lincoln hwy. I-80 is the northern route west. AAA once did a trip kit for me and it was I-80. Did not do that since there could be nasty weather along the way. If time is not a hindrance taking country roads can be a great ride.

_____________________________________

I am a retired workaholic and continuing aquaholic

I rode a bunch of miles on 50 going through Kansas in 2014.

The road was straight and flat.

It was July and 107°.

The trucks coming at me carried a cushion of air that felt capable of knocking me off my light motorcycle.

There were grain elevators to be seen every so often.

Where there was an elevator there was usually a flashing yellow light (or even a stop sign) and a few houses.

Once in a while there would be a gas station.

It was boring to me but marginally safer than the dirt road grids (sans any stop signs) of OK, which had been our original plan.

Try to stay awake!

A Magic Carpet Ride
 

1950; My Mom And Dad with 9 children started to think about a trip west to California from Stoneham Ma, at the time. Now, keep in mind that at the time I was 6 years old and wasn't preview of all of their thoughts. "And In No Way Neglected"!


My family, Mom, Dad and 9 siblings took the Northern route out to California and it took us 34 days. Went site seeing when we'd stop to do maintainance, wash cloths and such. Lets see here, 1952 I was 7 years old at the time, and Life Magazine got wind of our trip and photographers followed us and took pics.
Here's a couple..
Pic# 1. Brother's Brynn, Bob, Sister June, Bother Fred, Sister Doña, Dad, Mom, me with my Lunch pale and the guitar. Sisters Dianne and Linda, and Brother Mel.

Truly Lonely!
 

You enter Nevada's SR-50 by driving downhill onto a roadway with miles and miles of visibility ahead. :cool: Trouble is, you're the only person on it! https://sailingforums.com/styles/def...s/confused.png You ask yourself, "Why is this road even here?" :rolleye1:

You stop your RV to check the racecar being towed behind it—and to walk the dogs, take pictures—and still, no one appears. :eek2:

But the panorama changes as your elevation drops—taking-in steep round hills, rugged snow-capped mountains, the texture of rocks millions of years old, and an occasional herd of pronghorn antelope, who disappear behind a moonscape—highly suitable for a Sci-Fi movie set. The only thing missing are clusters of active volcanoes! :look:

https://www.aroundtheatlas.com/wp-co...86868842_n.jpg

Wow!!!! Great pictures of love lake nostalgia :)

In just those four pictures it is evident that there is plenty of book material from your family and this trip.

Has the book been written?

Driven Rt 80...
 

It was boring...

This is my fourth cross-country trip. In 2018 I clocked 11,000 in 3 months.

Kansas is boring...
 

On a previous trip, I went through Kansas and remember seeing a tree...Made my day!

Trfour...
 

An absolutely amazing post. The photos are really great.


Many thanks...

Recently drove from St Louis to Iowa City then to Chicago. Nothing but corn and soybean fields. lol. I love the northeast!!!!

So far just a short story 8gv, in the Dec 28th 1953 Life Magazine. Just scroll down to page 18-24 when you get there; https://books.google.com/books?id=-T...201953&f=false

Pic#1. Cover, Life Magazine.

Pic#2. During our journey west, Sister Doña, keeping with tradition, and Brother Brynn checking to see if surgery would be necessary, taken in Wounded Knee, South Dakota where Doña hurt her knee playing outside.

Bit of IRONY...
 

Can't make this stuff up...She hurt her knee in Wounded Knee. Sing me the song!

Bet Child-Protective whatever's didn't get involved.

Wouldn't this trip be before Eisenhower's great highway build?

Starting The Book
 

Tune hUP, 'ith Some Hep!
This was taken by Life Magazine 1952 in South Dakota on our way out to California. The day before this was taken, we had been coming up the Black 'HILLS' and the 1949 Buick's 150 Horse Powered straight 8 cylinder engine decided to eat a spark plug, then another and she slowed to a crawl, and then just couldn't pull that heavy load any further. Dad had Brother Fred drive up to the summit and drop off the luggage trailer he was pulling and come back down and towed that whole rig up the mountain! This is where I questioned the name 'HILLS' when the Summit was above 7000 foot!! You know, maybe we could have made a run at it from the bottom... Anyway, this was the Tune hUP to get us the rest of the way with NO Problems. that would include Donner Pass over the Rockies into California. And By the way, Donner Pass was just over 7000 foot as well. An adventure, for sure. Well so as to make a Long Long story short, we made it to the top! Seeing that there was no such thing as 911 in those days, but however, my Mom could yodel like no other and we got the message out for everyone to get the, out of the way cause We Were a Comi'n Down the Mountain!
:-)... That's me in my Time Out shirt taking a picture...

Pic #1. Sister Doña holding the hood up. :-)

Things that Dad had to contend with before we left on the trip west, mainly involved the 1949 Buick that towed the Magic Carpet. The 1948 Buick that towed the luggage trailer just needed a trailer hitch and fender mirrors. Dad beefed up the rear springs, adding extra leaves in each on the 1949 Buick, plus a Heavy Duty tow hitch. Then after the Magic Carpet was delivered to our house there in Stoneham, Dad hooked up and took the rig on a shake down run over the road and on returning to the house found that the heavy duty hitch had bent down almost disconnecting from the trailer tow ball.
With the length of the Magic Carpet being 46' and only two axels, the tongue weight was huge so Dad tried out a few tongue dollies and ended up settling on an air over hydrolic tripple wheeler that he used for the trip.
Pic 1. Tongue dolly
Pic 2. The one we used

From the othah book
 

I was 7 years old, pushing 8.
We had spent the day in Salt Lake City before travelling south into Las Vegas.
On this leg of our trip, the bought used luggage trailer had a bent axle and would strip the rubber off a new tire on a pretty regular basis, especially in the heat of day... It and we experienced two flat tires, which slowed us down immeasurably. The decision was made in Las Vegas to cross the Mojave Desert at night.

Well, there just happened to be a raging wind and sandstorm and my Dad had his hands full trying to keep the high profile rig in one lane. Here comes a State Trooper that had been following us for a while, he pulled us over and made us put up at a truck stop over night until the storm blew over.
Now, even after the sunset it was HOT. Neither the Buicks or the Magic Carpet had air conditioning. I was tired and went to bed early that evening.
Before my Mom and Dad turned in for the night, they left the front door open with just the screen door closed for ventilation.
Next, and this could have been the early creation of how Brinks Home Security got started.

They took out Every pot & pan, piled them on the kitchen counter, tied a string from them and over to the screen door handle, so as any would-be intruder would at least wake us up!
So guess who wakes up thirsty in the middle of the night, stumbles out to the kitchen and streight away sets this crude but very effective devise off!
'HE, double hocky sticks' broke loose, and the pain of the pots & pans bouncing off of my bare toes, and my own family coming at me with rolling pins, baseball bats and guns, you can talk all you want about seeing you're life flash before you're very EYES!!
Oh, and take another guess who was on everyone's dung list for a few days, to boot! :)

Evaporative Cooling...
 

The canvas bag to the left of the license plate is for cooling the water inside: water seeps out slowly, evaporating in the dry heat to cool the contents.

Early auto "air-conditioning" used the same principle—lately nicknamed a "swamp-cooler". :coolsm: (Still made for house or car).

Great Picture! Reminds me of trip my wife, my Gordon Setter, and I took from Boston to Northern AZ. In 1978. We traveled in a TR-6 with a trunk lashed to the luggage rack and camped our way across. We took the southern (to avoid late fall snow) route and ended up on Rt 20 across Texas. One night we stopped near Odessa and pitched our pup tent. A little crowded with me, a big dog, and the wife but cozy.

I wake up at day break, open the flaps and there is a blizzard going with 3 or 4 inches on the ground. I wake the wife and we are running around stuffing the tent & sleeping bags into the trunk, getting it tied down, getting the dog in the TR and getting out of there before we are snowed in. Visibility is about 20 ft. Thank goodness the camp ground was pretty close to the highway on-ramp. Nothing has been plowed.

As I start up the ramp and as we reach the end a trailer truck passes. I pull onto the roadway and stay far enough behind that I can just see it’s tail lights. I had no idea where the road was. The TR is skittering around in the deep snow and ruts created by other vehicles and I’m locked onto the tail lights. If the truck went off the highway and drove out into a field I was going to be right behind it.

We drive this way for what seemed at the time like hours as the snow starts letting up. All of a sudden we reach the western edge of a plateau with a view very similar to your picture. About 2/3rds of the the way down there is a line going right to left for as far as we could see either way. On my side everything is white. On the far side everything is desert colors. Boy were we happy to finally reach the desert side.

On a brighter note, we ended up in AZ instead of Boston when the blizzard of 78 hit.


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I'd love to have that old Buick today! :)

Even though they aren't lake related I love seeing your old pictures!!

It's gonna be a long drive...
 

And it's never been non-eventful. Noticed at one point trfour had a police escort.

When I made the trip from Boston to San Fran in 1976 in a '67 Mustang convertible on Rt. 80, I was accompanied by a young lady I met through the ride-share line on a local radio station. She told me she was 19. Nice looking too.

We stopped overnight at her grandparents in Chicago. They took us out to dinner. When I went to the men's room, grand dad followed.

"I'd like to know your intentions with my 17 yr. old grand daughter"? he demanded quite strongly. I was 26. Finding out she was 17 kinda freaked me out. Minors across state-lines, etc. All of a sudden I realized I could be in trouble.

"Uhhhhhh. Pay for half the gas, and maybe drive a bit"?, I stuttered (she was a lousy driver).

She slept in the guest bedroom. I slept on the living room floor next to the couch...On the floor NEXT TO THE COUCH!!!

In Rawlins, Wyoming we got snowed in and had to get a motel room. We had been camping. She came out of the shower, uhhh...Not very dressed. Fearing a twenty-year sentence, I kept my word to grand dad, left her alone and felt the need for an adult beverage and left the room and went into town. I got a vodka & tonic from a drive-up window at a local bar. Drove around until it was gone and went back and got another.

Got back to the room and she "was asleep".

The rest of the drive was icy (I'm not referring to the driving conditions). In Quincy, CA we stopped at a school where she had an old boyfriend. She closed his door behind her and I never saw her again.

Got up the next day (after sleeping ON their couch) and drove into SF from the north. As I came through the Waldo Tunnel from Marin, there was the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco all laid (bad choice of word) out before me. Gorgeous beyond anything I had imagined.

Thirteen years later the Loma Prieta earthquake caused me to enter San Fran from the same direction because of the Bay Bridge collapse. The view that day was a lot different than 1976. It was after dark. No lights in the City or on the bridge. The only light was vertical columns of fire from the Marina District rising hundreds of feet into the air.

I'm driving this episode solo. My current girlfriend will join me in Meredith later via a 5 1/2 hr. flight and a short drive from Boston. I hope to make it to Lake Winnipesaukee with as little negative experience as possible...Although, I have found minor negatives create positive memories after time works on them. Even at The Lake.

It takes a coast to coast drive to make the Boston to Lake Wiini trip seem short.

Some Friday nights feel like a coast to coast drive. :rolleye1:

Grandfather'd in...?
 

Mom and Dad eloped in Nashua NH. back in the early 30s and Honeymooned in Meredith and the Lakes Region. Plus I had many other relatives here, then and to this day...
Love you Tis,
Terry

Pic#1. Sister Doña saying, " Where is everyone? ", and Brother Brynn saying, " Don't worry sistah, I'll finger it out! "

On the Hudson
 

Pic#1. Doña and Fred, Statue of Liberty in background.
Pic#2. Neither Buick was equipped with a sunroof, so it was difficult for viewing the Empire State Building while we were driving around looking for a parking spot, to visit it.

Being from the East Coast
 

Pic#1. And finding out everything you need to know about waring open shoes and cacti. Sister Linda and Doctor Mom.

These photos are incredible. How lucky you are to have accomplished all this traveling with your family as a child. [emoji7]


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A True Magic Carpet Ride It was
 

It was Joey. We had to stop in each State and get an Overlength permit for the big-rig. I am forever grateful for Winnipesaukee.com for allowing me to share and view the Treasure Trove 0f info and all of the wonderful memories we all get to share here.
Love,
Terry

PS, Also, he would register them with our insurance Co. Dad, about to register 'Moe Over Length Permits!...
So we didn't have all open road, without some bubble gum!

Thanks for sharing
 

Thanks Garysanfran and trfour for sharing these experiences. I don't have pictures but you bring back recollections of trips my wife and I made when I first joined the Navy. We were living at the lake, and my first duty was to report to Pensacola FL. Six months there, then three months each at Corpus Christi, TX, Newport, RI, Norfolk, VA, Pax River, MD and finally to Brunswick, ME for a few months before my squadron deployed overseas for 4 months. We had a 4x8 plywood trailer I had built based on a 1932 axle I scavenged from my folks barn. Harry Swinnerton in Center Harbor swapped me out some wire wheels so that I had two the same size instead of
mismatched, and at that time you could buy tires from Sears to fit antiques. We were in business. Everything we owned fit in there except the St. Bernard who filled up the back seat of our Mustang.
When I was in grade school we used to visit my grandparents in Hastings FL for a week, then go tourist for a week before flying back to Massachusetts. I remember driving (riding for me) from Hastings (near St. Augustine), to Sarasota. Mile after mile, hour after hour, it seemed, of orange groves. Like magic (pardon me) not many years later, the groves were gone replaced by monorails, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Tomorrowland. Around this time, I thought my wife was a little magical. She demonstrated once between Pensacola and Orlando. She whispered some magic words, and I turned into a motel.

OK OK. Groan. But the rest is true history.

Also, between Pensacola and Orlando. We were now based in Maine and my wife worked at a Volvo dealership. We were driving a brand new Volvo 164, top of the line, with Maine dealer plates. The speedometer cable broke, so we were using the tachometer to gauge speed. In 4th gear, 2500 rpm was 50 mph, 3500 was 70 mph. No problem, except we forgot to compensate for the electric overdrive which reduced 450 rpm. Oops. The state trooper who stopped us suggested we judge our speed by not quickly passing every other car on the road. I can imagine his thoughts. Two young kids in FL in a very expensive car with dealer plates going way fast. Instead of walking up to us, he opened his door and stood behind it and waved for us to get out. I expect my driver's license convinced him a ticket wouldn't go anywhere. It was a NH license, with a Maine address, and being in the Navy, I renewed it by mail, so it had a stamp on it that said "Valid without photo or signature". I think he liked the Navy ID card better and we were on our way, no longer in the passing lane.

I thank everyone...
 

Who enjoyed and thanked and or commented on the Life Magazine photos. I did try several years ago now to post about our journey west in a more appropriate section of this website and ran into problems due to my very limited computer skills and eyesight, so I gave up. I never thought I'd be this Old, so Fast.

After our story was published, Life Magazine presented us with a Huge photo album with both the published photos and many of the unpublished photos that were taken along the way.

Pic#1 Preface inside the cover.
Pic#2. Dad with permit in hand after another of many Highway Petrol stops.

Immobilzed Camping "On the Road"...
 

'Reminds me of pulling into an Arizona U.S. National Monument campground. :coolsm:

The sign sez, "Turn left to campground"—but there was no "turning right". :eek2: An oversized RV had made that unauthorized turn, then backed the chassis' rear corner downhill onto a outcropping of sandstone, and lifted a drive wheel 6" off the ground. :eek:

Stuck—80 miles from the nearest town! :o

Wow what a pain in the butt to be stopped constantly by troopers for being over length. I did not know back then you needed a permit to pull a large camper.

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Back then, rail boxcars were only 40' long, and the Magic Carpet was a house trailer, and it was custom built for us by Michigan Arrow.

OH, And
 

Thank God gasoline averaged about 17 cents a gallon back then too, we'd a had to own Exon Mobile as the 1949 Buick pulling that monstah got just under four miles per gallon - +. We stopped for gas a few times over the 4,376 mile trip as well!

Open House
 

Friends and neighbors getting a tour of the Magic Carpet, many of whom didn't want us to leave.

Saying Goodbye
 

To our Pastor Henderson.

From left, Dad Mom Pastor Henderson Doña Mel and June.

How long was the trip across the country?

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4,376 miles, to be exact.

Pic#1. This photo will give a size and length prospective, and many of the Park owners couldn't believe how my Dad backed that Big-Rig into some of the lots we stayed at...

Wow that’s a long trip with a rig like that. With all the stops I assume it took you about a month there and back.

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