Cointest: Favorite Roadtrip

[+goosefraba1]

OK... let's start this out with the facts. My grandfather was killed in a car wreck sunday in Dayton, Ohio. I was never really that close to him... but I feel like I should do something good to honor him. He was a truck driver for most of his life, and when he wasn't on the road he was working on a car. He loved to be on the road. That was his life. That is just about all that I really know about him.

 

What I want is for you to post details about your favorite road trip (who was with you... funny stories... where you went... etc).

 

One post per user please.

 

Cointest is over on sunday at 11:59 pm Eastern standard

 

I will send a geocoin of my choosing to the winner.

 

Thanks,

Zach

Edited May 18, 2010 by goosefraba1

[+usyoopers]

Sorry to hear about your Grandfather, we share his passion for cars.

 

This however, is a toughie cuz we love road trips! There is one we took a litle over a year ago that was very memorable though....

 

The other yooper had won a free trip to an Auto Value Conference in Nashville, TN. After much begging, whining, pleading and even a little bribery I convinced him to let us take a few extra days so we could cache a few new States and see some sites, so instead of flying we drove.

 

Our passion for cars took us to the Cord/Auburn Museum in Auburn, IN and then to the Corvette Museum in Kentucky. (Kentucky was a new cached State for us) We got back on the road intent on heading to Tennessee...aha, a rest area with a cache! Gota stop for those, don't ya? Found the cache then went inside to visit the facilities. While waiting for the other yooper I spied a travel brochure, it seems that we were very close to the Jim Beam Distillery. Can't just drive by that now can ya?? Had an excellent tour with some very nice tastings. There is a whole bourbon trail there with I think 8 distilleries you can visit, unfortunately we didn't have time for that (we will go back!) as we had to get on the road toward Winchester, TN.

 

My Dad was Air Force so my life was spent moving every year or two. When I was 7 my Dad was transferred to Winchester, he then was sent on to Thailand for the year while my mom was left raising 4 kids in a new town. It was fun to go back but it didn't look anything like I remembered!

 

Very near to Winchester is the lovely town of Lynchburg, TN...home to Jack Daniels bourbon. A very nice tour here however Lynchburg is a dry county so after the tour you are offered coffee or lemonade. (Tennessee was another new State cached for us)

 

We headed to Alabama (caching yet another new State) and visited the Space Museum. We really enjoyed that stop. Our plan was now to head to Tupelo, Mississippi to hook up with the Natchez Trace to cache that back up to Nashville where our conference was waiting for us. Remember we like cars- Driving through Corinth, MS at about 5pm a shop caught our eye...classic cars in a big glass window, you could see more cars out back. I'm not sure what made us stop, no people were around, we actually walked in through a body shop door. Long story short the next day has us scrambling to get financing from our bank and a uhaul trailer to cart our 1964 1/2 Mustang home!

 

We did get on the Trace ,caching our way through yet another State for us and headed up to the conference. One of the nights activities at the conference was dinner and a "KC and the Sunshine Band" concert at the WildHorse Saloon in Nashville....talk about a hoot!

 

4 new States cached in and a 1964 1/2 Mustang named Miss Scarlet....no trip has been better!

[avroair]

Dhenninger and Avroair Heartland Tour

 

Dhenninger and went on a state caching binge from Atlanta to Louisville in 2006 ... via Missouri in 3 days! Avroair and Dhenninger’s ROADTRIP 2006

States Visited: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky

Time: October 6th-10th, 78 hours of driving, caching and sleeping

Caching: met 62 cachers, did: 61 caches, 115 geocoins, 11 travel bugs, 1023 miles of driving

Brought: Huge Yellow Jeep travel bug, Bowling Ball Travel Bug, 33 lbs ‘manhole cover’ Geocoin

Various: 21 State Highway Patrol, 40 Road Kills, 6 bug bites. We also made a geocoin for the trip and either gave them out or left them in geocaches! Lots of fun!

 

Friday night: Fly into Atlanta

Saturday:

morning event with AtlantaGal

over to Alabama

lunchtime event with JoeFrog

over to Mississippi

 

Sunday:

caching with prntr1

over to Memphis

stopped by Arkansas geocaching event for lunch

up to Missouri

over to Illinois

over to Indiana

caching with Prairie Partners

 

Monday:

over to Louisville

caching with WC Nuts and Taters

 

Tuesday:

early bird flight back to New Jersey

into work by 9 am!

Edited May 18, 2010 by avroair

[+Terrier Team]

Ah yes, road trips! Love them!

 

My family and I went to Yellow Stone. That's a beautiful place BTW if you've never been there.

 

While driving through the park we saw our first herd of buffalo, so like all tourists, we stop, roll down the window and ohhh and ahhhh. Our little dauchand that we had at the time woke up, looked out the window and just started yapping her head off at the bufflo. Well wouldn't you know it, the whole herd starts migrating towards our truck. So we book it out of there. I don't think our insurance would have coverede the damage.....

While visiting the Old Faithful Lodge we saw someone do the stupidist thing. Take a picutre of a bufflo, why was that stupid? Because she left the FLASH on. Well the bufflo started chasing her around the parking lot till she either climed a tree or hid beneeth a car. NEVER flash a bufflo. They hate it!

 

Very sorry to hear about your grandfather. Hope you smile reading everyone's favorite road trip stories!

 

Erica

[cappazushi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu (For reference to the names of places I use during this memoir.)

 

The best road trip I have ever taken involved none of my own driving, nor did I own or rent even one of the 25 cars I rode in. Traveling on human kindness, like a geocoin or a travel bug, I was hitchhiking. 10 days of "thumb" travel became what I consider to be the best road trip I have ever taken in my life.

 

The trip took place on the island of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost "main" island (Okinawa is even further south, but isn't considered one of the 4 main islands). I started in the northernmost prefecture (Japan equivalent of a state), arriving by the speediest variety of train Japan has to offer, but shortly thereafter drew up a sign that said "Direction of Saga" and started hitchhiking.

 

Traveling along 40-60 KMPH speed limit country roads 95% of the time, I made my way, slowly, from Fukuoka through Saga, from Saga into Nagasaki, up and over a volcanic hotspring mountain and onto a ferry (yes, via hitchhiking) into Kumamoto, then traveled down into the beautiful, tropical Kagoshima and Miyagi, finally circling back up into a northern prefecture, Oita, to finish the trip. It took 25 rides and we met well over 50 very interesting people, mostly from the healthcare industry - everything from doctors to the people that sell medicine to hospitals.

 

The things we saw along the way were breathtaking. Japan is a beautiful country even to simply dress through; it's full of vast mountain ranges of every size, coated in lush, green forests. Add to that seaside temples, seaside hotsprings, at least 2 volcanoes, the peace museum and memorial in Nagasaki, traditional Japanese dance performances, a penguin museum and some of the best food I've ever eaten (including raw horse!) I had one heck of a road trip.

 

Along the way, I camped 3 times - once in an actual park, once in a parking lot designed for camping and once in a playground on temple grounds. We slept in internet cafes twice, and one of our drivers even let us stay at her house after a night of karaoke-until-4-AM.

 

However, the best thing about the trip, above all, was the people we met. Road tripping with your buddies is great, but meeting a new person every day, and 2 new people every few hours, chatting, getting to know them, traveling together is an unparalleled journey/experience. I taught English, learned local dialects, babysat, was "offered" to someone's daughter and fell in love (perhaps more than once). After I finished my trip, I couldn't wait to do it again.

 

I have since been on two more hitchhiking vacations and hitchhiked out of desperation once (don't ask!). Hitchhiking in Japan is a truly amazing "road trip" experience and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese and a chance to come here.

[+hollora]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu (For reference to the names of places I use during this memoir.)

 

The best road trip I have ever taken involved none of my own driving, nor did I own or rent even one of the 25 cars I rode in. Traveling on human kindness, like a geocoin or a travel bug, I was hitchhiking. 10 days of "thumb" travel became what I consider to be the best road trip I have ever taken in my life.

 

The trip took place on the island of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost "main" island (Okinawa is even further south, but isn't considered one of the 4 main islands). I started in the northernmost prefecture (Japan equivalent of a state), arriving by the speediest variety of train Japan has to offer, but shortly thereafter drew up a sign that said "Direction of Saga" and started hitchhiking.

 

Traveling along 40-60 KMPH speed limit country roads 95% of the time, I made my way, slowly, from Fukuoka through Saga, from Saga into Nagasaki, up and over a volcanic hotspring mountain and onto a ferry (yes, via hitchhiking) into Kumamoto, then traveled down into the beautiful, tropical Kagoshima and Miyagi, finally circling back up into a northern prefecture, Oita, to finish the trip. It took 25 rides and we met well over 50 very interesting people, mostly from the healthcare industry - everything from doctors to the people that sell medicine to hospitals.

 

The things we saw along the way were breathtaking. Japan is a beautiful country even to simply dress through; it's full of vast mountain ranges of every size, coated in lush, green forests. Add to that seaside temples, seaside hotsprings, at least 2 volcanoes, the peace museum and memorial in Nagasaki, traditional Japanese dance performances, a penguin museum and some of the best food I've ever eaten (including raw horse!) I had one heck of a road trip.

 

Along the way, I camped 3 times - once in an actual park, once in a parking lot designed for camping and once in a playground on temple grounds. We slept in internet cafes twice, and one of our drivers even let us stay at her house after a night of karaoke-until-4-AM.

 

However, the best thing about the trip, above all, was the people we met. Road tripping with your buddies is great, but meeting a new person every day, and 2 new people every few hours, chatting, getting to know them, traveling together is an unparalleled journey/experience. I taught English, learned local dialects, babysat, was "offered" to someone's daughter and fell in love (perhaps more than once). After I finished my trip, I couldn't wait to do it again.

 

I have since been on two more hitchhiking vacations and hitchhiked out of desperation once (don't ask!). Hitchhiking in Japan is a truly amazing "road trip" experience and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese and a chance to come here.

 

What a story! Thanks for sharing!

[+pamlicojack]

First, my condolences for your loss. Now the trip...

 

1989: several of us college students, along with a professor loaded up a van and proceeded to drive 37 straight hours from Boone NC to Santa Fe New Mexico with the intention of spending the next 4 weeks driving thorough the American Southwest. Most of us had never been east of the Mississippi River so this was a great chance to see a part of the country we've never seen.

 

The trip out was an adventure in itself. In Nashville, we were filling up the van and playing hacky-sack when an errant kick sent the footbag into the back of a pickup that was pulling out of the station towards the interstate. We never saw it again. Luckily we had more. Later that night as we stopped at a rest stop in Arkansas, we watched a guy get held up at gunpoint and called the police as the thief sped away. We passed the police cars a few miles down the road after they had pulled the man out of the car and were slapping cuffs on him. We kept going. At dawn, we stopped at Billy Bobs truck stop in Henryetta OK and saw people that would make people featured in www.peopleofwalmart.com look normal. We swam that afternoon in the reservoir that gave OKC its drinking water. That evening we ate at the Big Texan in Amarillo and one of our party tried the "72oz steak" challenge. Needless to say, he didn't make it.

 

While using Santa Fe as a base, we spent the next few days exploring canyons and deserts, washed out riverbeds and hot springs. The "clothing optional" hot springs were rather interesting, especially for some of our female road trippers. I was dating someone at the time and wasn't tempted by this...mostly.

 

The second week we headed up to Durango Colorado and rode the narrow gauge rails to Silverton and back, reveling in the wonder of the Rockies. We rode mountain bikes at Telluride, went from frost at the campsite in the morning to 120 degrees at noon at Chaco Canyon, and explored Anasazi Indian ruins at Mesa Verde. One of our party was attacked by a flock of peacocks. No, I don't know how it happened either. Or at least I don't remember. I'm sure there was some drinking involved.

 

The third week was spent in Utah, primarily around Canyonlands, Arches National Park, and Dead Horse Point. I've never had a better time mountain biking on slickrock. One of our guys lost his luggage off the roof of the van and we had to pool money to buy him some clothes at Family Dollar for the rest of the trip. I remember going swimming in the Colorado River near Moab and watching a family of deer not 10 feet away coming out of the brush to drink. What an amazing moment that was.

 

The last week was spent leisurely going home. We hiked a 12,000 foot mountain in Colorado, watched the KC Royals win a game without George Brett, saw the St Louis Arch at 3:00am and made it back to Boone where I got in my car and drove 2 more hours to my girlfriend's house and proposed to her on the spot.

 

That was the coolest road trip I've ever been on. the girlfriend and I were married in 1993 and are still together. We take plenty of shorter road trips but I'm not ready to subject her or the kids to another month long trek like that one...

[cappazushi]

What a story! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks! But I don't think I've even done it justice - it would be a novel to chronicle all 10 days of that trip. Oh, I forgot to mention something important! One of the cars that picked me up on that trip had major car trouble. That hitchhike onto a ferry I mentioned? Well, it went a little more like this:

 

We get picked up from the top of a mountain by a wonderful pair of young doctors that aren't married yet simply due to the demands of their jobs (I assume, because they were super-couple). As we're driving down, their car, which had just passed it's bi-yearly inspection starts smoking ferociously. They call JAF (Japan's AAA) and we "hitchhike" not only in their car, but in a tow truck to the ferry across Nagasaki-ken to Kumamoto-ken. Then, we turn on the "danger car" and drive it onto the very, enjoy the short trip across, get back into the might-be-a-flaming-call-of-death and drive off the ferry to where another, much safer truck is waiting for us on the other side.

 

The truck driver happily took us to the train station, even though that was probably against the rules, and my travel buddy and I had delicious hamburgers. The picture the truck driver took of the four of us has their car mounted on the tow truck in the background.

 

Now that was a road trip.

 

When procrastination beckons again, I will do a small write-up about my other hitching adventures.

Edited May 19, 2010 by cappazushi

[+Crowesfeat30]

My favorite road trip would have to be the first one I took with my boyfriend, Strider. It was a totally unstructured trip. We decided the general direction we wanted to start out in and drove & cached thru seven states. We started in St. Louis, drove south thru Illinois & Kentucky to Nashville. Then across Tennessee to Chattanooga. The next day we dipped down into Georgia and then drove west thru Alabama and Mississippi and spent the night in Memphis. Finally we crossed into Arkansas and cached our way back north to St. Louis. We had a great time!

 

It was the first time we used our laptop to navigate with and it really improved our efficiency with caching in unfamiliar areas. I don't remember how many caches we found on that trip but the most memorable one is the one we found totally randomly without a GPS or even knowing that a cache was supposed to be there. We were in Nashville, staying at the Red Roof near the airport. We decided to breakfast at the Waffle House and were walking from our room to the restaurant when Strider said something like "Well, we're in Nashville and they say that there is a micro under every lamp post here. Let's try this one" So he randomly lifted a lamp post skirt in the parking lot and damned if there wasn't a cache there!! When we got back to our room we ran our PQs and sure enough - a cache within 400 feet of our room. So, thanks, Nashville, for the memories!

 

Now our road trips are much more planned. Jim (Strider) runs a bunch of PQs before we leave and plots a route to our destination. I can't help remembering with fondness, tho, just hopping into the car & driving with no set destination. Just getting up in the morning, deciding a direction, running a few PQs to get us started & off we go! You never know what you'll find along the way!!

 

CF30

[+GATOULIS]

I am sorry for the loss of your grandfather my friend!

 

I live on an island so even if Rhodes is the 4rth largest island of Greece, the distances are not like the ones you are used to drive!

 

I am not driving! My brother in law is the driver! I was in the car of a friend years ago and he did something extremelly stupid and dangerous without even letting me know and actually made me scare so much that when I am in a car I am holding the door tight! the guy was very stupid! He had an accident too but... no brains at all!!!

 

anyway... We have a favorite road trip that we do a lot when we have time!

 

We like nature so no matter the season we do that trip and we only change some parts!

 

I am using the "WE" because we are all in the car! Me, my sister, my brother in law, my father and my mother! We have a small trailler with us to curry plastic taples, chairs, barbeque, beach umbrellas....

 

We start in the morning from the house and we are coming back late at night! We actually make the round of the island which is about 200km!

 

some times we even go for geocaching on our way! if it is summer, we stop in a not so crowded beach, we take out all our stuff... chairs tables, umbrellas, small tents for the sun, the barbeque machine etc and we enjoy the beach for the whole day! we eat there too! (we do not leave any trush... ok? ) when the night comes it is so nice to be there hear the sea (it is warm at night!), and watch the stars, passing airplanes, or some moving things very very high in the sky... (satelites?). when it is time to leave, we usually go to Pefkoi, a beautiful village with many tourists near Lindos, for an icecream!

 

When it is winter we find a beautiful spot with trees etc... and we eat and then we are going to see the sunset! that's amazing! Believe me! according to the season we have surprises while we are on the road! a couple of months ago, we saw a partridge with her babies!!! there were so many and so lovely!!! We stoped and watched them passing! 2 of them stoped in front of the car and were not moving!!! Here mother yelled at them and they run close to her!

 

It is a lovely road trip and we spend our day the better we can!

 

Of course... we have and unpleasant surprises too! Once we were stuck in the mud in a forest!! We were far away from... civilization, and our mobiles didn't have signal!!! My brother in law tried to take the car out but... he had forgoten that his window was open!!! Oh boy... we ate mud!!! We went out of the car and we managed to free the car after 1 or 2 hours and while it was getting dark! An other time we were stuck in the sand! that was difficult and we asked for help! It was dark and we didn't see that there was sand there! and a third time.. one of our wheels was broken and we were on a uphill road! Of course... nothing stoped us from having fun and smile! After all... all these were tiny adventures.... so...

[+wolfslady]

I'm sorry you lost your Grandfather. But even more so that you weren't really close to him. It's nice of you to honor him with something he would have enjoyed.

 

When I was a teen we took one of our many summertime family vacations. Like the others we piled into a van with a pull behind pop up camper. All 8 of us. 6 kids and 2 adults. Unlike all the other which lasted 1-2 weeks this one was going to be 6 weeks and during that time we would drive across the country.

 

We started in S. Florida and drove up the state and then headed west. All of our vacations until then had been usually involved stopping in N. Carolina to visit family and we never ventured far beyond so everywhere we visited was new territory to my siblings and me. This story would be way to long to post here so I’ll stick to some of the highlights of this memorable trip.

We visited New Orleans and relatives who lived there. I’m not sure which was more interesting the city or my eccentric Aunt and her family.

 

The very long drive across Texas seemed to take forever. Even with stops along the way to see the Alamo and some of the other sights it seemed like Texas would never be behind us.

 

We stopped in Tucson to visit my favorite cousin who had moved there a year earlier. One night we had dinner at a fabulous Mexican restraunt. It was the first time I had Sopapillas and I loved them. I’ve tried them a few dozen times since and I have never found any that were even half as good. After dinner we headed up to an overlook to see the city lights spread out below. It was so beautiful. Like a fairy land. We rounded up to leave and did a head count. 8 plus the 5 extra family members. Someone was missing. After some frantic searching and a call to the restraunt we discovered that we had left my youngest brother who was 8 at the time at the restraunt when he ducked into the bathroom unnoticed. I’m pretty sure it damaged him for life. But that might have been caused by us telling him he was switched at birth, because he had dark hair and a swarthy completion while the rest of us were fair skinned blonds. For the record he looks exactly like my mom’s side of the family. To this day he believes my mom had an affair even though she has offered do DNA tests for him.

 

From there we headed toward the Grand Canyon. But were waylaid in a ½ horse town (they shared with the next town over) when the van broke down. We waited 3 long days to get the part and have it installed. No rental car so we were STUCK. I wish they hadn’t had a mechanic, but it seems like no matter how small the town is they have at least 1 mechanic. It was torture for 6 active kids in a town that seemed to think children should be seen and not heard. Buckeye, Arizona. They had a pool, but it was closed. Over 100 degrees and nothing to do but wait.

 

We finally resumed our travels. The plan was to celebrate the 4th of July at the bottom of the Canyon and we started down on the 3rd. My youngest siblings were too young to take the donkeys (How did the Brady Bunch get to do it?) so we had to walk down. We hadn’t gone far when it started raining, and raining and… By the time we reached the campground where we planned to spend the night it was hours later than planned and we were soaked. The trail was narrow and slick and the youngest kids were having trouble. When the path was still soaked and muddy in the morning we headed back up instead of down. It was the hardest hike I ever remember making. We were covered with mud and seemed to slip back a step for every 2 we took. We sang to keep ourselves in good spirits and moving. We ended up making up a song to the tune of a popular one, and I think we all remember most of it today.

 

Splish-Splash I was taking a bath, for the first time on the 4th of July. The smell was awful. The odor was gone. I headed straight ~ Straight for the pond. Mr. Bubble you’re down the drain; Cause I prefer the muddy lane. Mud, mud. mud, mud, muddy, mud, mud… well you get the idea a lot of MUD.

 

After that we gorged on all the amazing sights the western US had to offer. Giant sequoias, the petrified forest, Old faithful. From Yellowstone to Yosemite from Hollywood to ghost towns. One remarkable place seemed to give way to another.

 

We feasted on the awe inspiring view from the top of pikes peak. Shuttered when they turned out the lights in the depths of Carlsbad Caverns. Marveled at stalagmites and stalactites and bats that seemed to number in the millions. We got lost and then found. This was long before the days when a GPS was standard equipment in an automobile and cell phones were a thing of the future. We camped, we laughed, we fought, we loved. We met people from all over the world. We delighted in how many wanted to take our picture. Mostly I think because with 3 boys and 3 girls we reminded them of the Brady Bunch. Of course this before you knew that child molesters weren’t creepy old men with candy. I planned to retrace some of my steps for our honeymoon, but my Wolf Dancer ended up in the hospital with a staph infection and by the time it was all over the money for the trip was gone along with his job. Someday my dream is to take my son on the trip of a lifetime. In my dream trip we would include Alaska the number 1 place on my list of places to go. But Wolf’s Song is not quite 3 and I want him to be old enough to remember it so I have a few years to figure out how to squeeze enough money out of the not enough money to make that happen. In the meantime he will have to settle for road trips to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Florida or short ones to the most exotic places I can find nearby. Thank you for taking me back to visit these memories.

[+goosefraba1]

Update: I took my father up to Dayton yesterday to get stuff from my grandpa's apartment. It was probably the saddest day that I have experienced. My grandpa worked for 47 years and was a very hard worker. The last 5 years of his life, he could not hold a job because of epilepsy. The government would not give him social security because they did not see fit. The VA was giving him about 1000 dollars a month to live on. After paying all of his bills, he had 40 dollars in his pocket. Our country is truly in a sad state that it can't take care of its veterans. The money for social security tends to go to people that do not need it... or that work the system.

 

Also, I found a whole tin case full of pictures of me and my siblings. I had no idea that he had these or that he even cared to have them. My dad and I have had a pretty tough time with this. He loved us... but didn't know how to share it. I guess that I am probably rambling. My point is... if you have a chance to repair relationships in your family, then please do. If not, you will regret what could have been.

 

Thank you all for the condolences and stories.

[+wolfslady]

It sounds like a difficult day. I hope it helps to know that he love you. So many men seem to have a problem showing that. Even worse they often push those they love away. When they do they have no idea how to reach back out.

 

Social Security sucks. I don't know a single person who did not have to pay a lawyer to get it. I'm sure there a few cases, but you pretty much have to be in a wheel chair or a coma. Even then I'm not sure they would approve it right off the bat. Attorneys make a lot of money handling cases. My husband had 2 doctors for 2 completely different reasons (double hip replacement, back surgery gone bad that led to a staph infection that got to the disk and bone.) tell him he could not do the job he had done for 28 years, his company didn't feel he could do anything else with them given his limitations. It took over 2 years for him to finally get approved. When he did the lawyer got a big chunk of it. I know others who had worse issues than my husbands and like I said none of them were approved with out a lawyer. But then you hear about people who have minor issues who are getting approved. It's a shame. I know my wolf would love to work, but he is in constant pain. We are praying that a surgery we are saving for will take away a big chunk of it. I'd love it if he could find a job a few days a week and earn what SS will let him, before docking his pay. I think it would do wonders for his self esteem. But right now he's on too many pain meds and he never knows when he's going to have a bad day so who is going to hire him? Sorry I hijacked your thread. I just wanted you to know that you are not alone in being angry. Even worse that he was a veteran and treated that way.

[Firefly03]

First, my condolences.

 

Second - wow, there are some great stories. My can't compare, but I will tell it anyway.

 

A non-caching friend of mine and I decided that we needed to get away, leave the men behind and just go. She is originally from the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. We live near Detroit, so it is about a 4 hour drive up. Now, let me give you a little background on my friend. As I said, she is not a cacher. Matter of fact she is not outdoorsie at all.

 

We were there mid May, so the tourist season had not begun. The small inn we stayed in Paradise had not even turned on the heat since we were the ONLY ones there. We had to ask from more blankets. We enjoyed waking up when ever we wanted. We found this wonderful little restaurant call the Berry Patch. It only had 4 tables, and had a small gift shop attached. They even opened it for us to take a look around. We ended up coming back every morning... they had the BEST french toast I have ever had!

 

One day we headed out to White Fish Bay to take a look at the lighthouse and spend some time on the beach. While we were there we discovered they had a avian lookout site, so we headed up to take a look. There was an eathcache nearby that I wanted to grab, but involved a long walk around the beach, and my friend was not up to that.

 

The next morning we wanted to go back to the beach when I noticed a road that headed directly to the earthchache. (Yes I was using a GPS) I talked my friend into letting me head for it. Now this is the fun part, I drive a small Honda Civic. The road we took quickly changed into rock, then even quicker, sand. Me being me said, Ah, I can do this and kept driving, and driving, and driving. We end up about .5 away from the cache and my car stops. Ok, no problem, we can get it out. We get it out, then immediately get stuck again. By this time the sun is setting. We have no cell service and we are 10 miles away from town and 4 miles from the lighthouse. We continue to work on the car, getting it out, then stuck again. It is now dark, our flashlights are dieing. My friend keeps hearing "animals" in the woods and is freaking out. I am slightly concerned since we were in bear territory. We know that right now there is no getting help... we are stuck. So we sit in the car, I sleep, my friend is so freaked out she can't sleep. At the first sign of light (5:45 AM) she wakes me and says we have to do something. We talk out our options and decide to hear to the lighthouse and hope there is someone around. As we walk there the fog rolls in. We can't see our hands in front of our faces, but we hear a car. Yippie! We head in the direction of the sound and I find a caretaker of the avian lookout getting some seed together. I poke my head in and say, "Excuse me. Can you help? I got my car stuck in the sand." I scared the heck out of him, then hear a voice from behind me, "I can. I have a 4x4 truck." Ah, my savior! He takes us back to the car and the whole time he is saying, "I can't believe you got this far down. What kind of car do you have?" He hooks up the toe chain and begins to pull me out. My friend is in the truck with him, me in my car. Later she told me that he kept swearing that he almost got stuck too. We finally made it out, and our savior looks me dead in the eye and says, "I hope you know never to do that again." Yeah, I do.

 

Compared to that day/night the rest of the trip was uneventful.

[cappazushi]

I'm sorry to hear that this has been a tough time for you. However, it's never too late to make peace with someone. Not everything we have to say to each other can be said easily in life, but it's clear that your grandfather loved you and your family. Now might not be the best time, but I highly recommend the Japanese movie "Departures" as it deals with the theme of loss and sharing true feelings after a loss.

[+Gelugon]

Sorry about your loss.

 

My best memory on a road trip didn't happen over the course of a week or weeks as some of the above, simply put in happened in a day, what turned out to be a solid day of driving.

 

I had been at work for about 1hr, and I get a phone call. I never get personal phone calls at work so I was wondering who it could be. It was my brother, calling me from somewhere in South Carolina, I think he was calling from charlotte if I remember right, this was about 20 years ago.

 

He was stationed in Germany and was talking to me like he normally would, and then I realized there was no delay on the phone. I asked him where he was, and he stared laughing and said, I was wondering when you would ask that. Then he told me he was hitchhiking (in uniform) his way home but was stuck at a truck stop and no one seemed to be going south. I immediately asked my boss for the rest of the day off and jumped in my truck and was off to go get him. Keep in mind I live in Florida, so this would be about 10hrs one-way.

 

The trip by myself was pretty boring as you could expect, except for when I was going about 90 on I-85 and got passed by a state trooper like I was sitting still. I have always wondered where he was going.

 

When I arrive at the truck stop to get my brother I get to take my first bathroom break and run right by him almost knocking him over! After a few quick stories during a quick break we got back on the road and were happily headed home.

 

Here is where the story gets interesting. As we were headed south on I-65 I was behind a semi in the fast lane and we were passing a semi in the slow lane. Now imagine this, we are in a 1986 Toyota pickup, but this pick up was a LOW RIDER (very low). The frame was less than 2" off the ground, so you fell every bump in the road.

 

Out of now where, (this all happens in the blink of the eye), I see smeared blood down the center of my lane and something tumbling under the semi in front of me. All I can do is tell my brother to HOLD ON!!! I figured whatever it was, was dead and big. It was a deer. I but both hands on the steering wheel and did my best to keep the truck straight as we became air borne behind and beside two semi trucks. All we could do right after was look at each other in silence. The silence said everything that needed to be said. To this day we both still talk about how you could feel the floor boards ripple as we went of the poor deer.

 

When we got to the next exit, we pulled over to see if there was any damage. To our surprise there was no damage, but we did have some deer jerky hanging from the under carriage.

 

I hope I didn't get to graphic for anyone, but those few key elements are needed to understand. We were lucky it was on the road and didn't get flipped up into the windshield, or this would be a different story that I might not be telling. We are both grateful that it ended the way that it did.

 

Gelugon

[+goosefraba1]

Bumpage

[RedShoesGirl]

my deepest sympathies on your loss. it is so great you found the old photos. those are a treasure.

 

Birthday Bash Road Trip 2008

 

It is that time of year again, when the leaves age.

And so do I.

Bummer.

Oh well.

During this season, though, a wandering spirit always seems to move me. I feel that I have to hit the road. Last year I spent my birthday in a little cemetery in Morro Bay, sleeping in my car with angels and other stone creatures for companions, just on the other side of a little rock wall. That was peaceful.

 

This year I decided it was time for a Route 66 trip, primarily in Arizona.

 

I left in the afternoon, taking Interstate 40 to Kingman, Arizona, a relatively short journey across the Mojave Desert from my home in Barstow, California. As I drove into Arizona and the Sonoran Desert, I thought about how different it is from our Mojave. The community of plants is different. The shapes and colors of the mountains are different. The Mojave's mountains seem more jagged, more desolate, more sullen. And there are definitely fewer people in the eastern Mojave Desert than in the western Sonoran Desert.

 

I made the trip not just for the scenery, however. I especially wanted to see for myself just how the old, signature mom-and-pop "tourist courts" are doing along Route 66, that historic highway that author John Steinbeck called the "Mother Road." I had read, that, collectively, they have been added to the endangered places list by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and sadly, in much of the High Desert, I can only agree with that assessment.

There are exceptions, however. In Arizona, some of the old places appear to be doing quite well.

 

The main drag out of Kingman, for example, had many vintage motels.  By the time I got into the town, though, I was too tired to go looking for the Route 66 motel experience, so I stayed in a funky little place – the Frontier Motel – on Highway 93.  (I got turned around somewhere.)  It was nice and clean inside, with a new air conditioner/heating unit.  No WiFi, but for $25, what could I expect?

 

Next stop, Hackberry.  What a place!  These folks have an amazing collection of “Road” memorabilia, for example, vintage trucks and even a set of Burma Shave signs. 

 

Visitors are welcome to wander around, but there is just too much to see in one quick trip.  Best sight is the iconic red Corvette parked in front of the old general store.

 

Eastward on to Truxton, home to another Frontier Motel and Café, this one serving the best lemon meringue pie I have ever tasted.  There isn’t much left to Truxton.  Junked cars around a defunct gas station.  A mechanic’s shop.  A few ranchers and cowboys from the surrounding area driving through.  But the Frontier Motel and Café is still in operation, owing its long life to travelers looking to recreate the American experience of wide open roads meandering through a wide open land.

 

My final destination east, Seligman, Arizona. 

 

I love the place.  Thanks to the efforts of Angel Delgadillo, the town barber, Seligman has not only survived the coming of Interstate 40, but it is prospering thanks to busloads of tourists and other travelers exploring Route 66.  Delgadillo helped start the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona.  He is a one-man brass band touting the wonders and history of Route 66. 

 

In Seligman, I stayed at the Deluxe Inn Motel, quite a lovely place.  Newly remodeled, with new carpets and even WiFi, I felt right at home in my spacious room.  The owner, Vasant Shetty, said it took more than four years to upgrade the motel to AAA standards, but all the return guests have made the hard work worthwhile.  Vintage light fixtures and curved corners give this little inn a special charm.

Too soon, it seemed, it was time for me to turn around and head home, via Oatman, Needles and Goffs.  There never seems to be enough hours and days to go all the places you really want to see on a road trip. 

[+GeocoinGuy]

I haven't taken my favorite roadtrip yet, so I guess my favorite is yet to come (oh, that doesn't mean I haven't been on any, just that they were some pretty bad memories)...

 

~J

[+gardengorilla]

What a great idea for a cointest! I'm sure your grandfather would approve. It sounds like he would have gotten along famously with many seniors here in Australia. Many people here have a lifelong dream to tour their vast and exciting county via road trip. Some take a year or two off with their families, outfit their 4x4's and caravans for that cross Australia road trip across the Nullarboor. You need to be extremely self sufficient and well planned out so that you can clear any hurdles you may run into along the road....these being roos, wombats, raging floods, etc.

Still others wait until they are of retirement age for their dream road trip...they sell off their homes or downsize and buy top of the line 4x4's and off road caravans and set off in a set pattern touring their homeland. They spend winters up north in the Kimberlys, Northern Territories and Queensland then head south during summer to Victoria and New South Wales, South Australia and the southern part of Western Australia. We call these itchy footed senior travelers GREY NOMADS. Would your grandfather approve?

 

Even though we are a young family we have had great opportunities to travel around Australia, though not by 4x4. Our most memorable road trip by far was our trip up the west coast Queensland from Brisbane to Mackay. We did it over a week in a run down backpacker van with the 5 of us in 35C+ heat and it was pure bliss! We spent the mornings on tours and hikes (and caching) and the late afternoons/evenings driving to our next park.

 

 

Usually I handle all the travel arrangements but since my husband was working in Brisbane and we were visiting he arranged for the van. I was such a beater! One bed big enough for us and one nook bed above the cabin with about 2 feet head clearance for the two youngest. Our oldest was content with setting up his swag every night in each caravan park. It was a bit difficult to do in the dark but he managed!

 

 

 

We set off from Brisbane and two hours later we were out of the city! During that time we found out both the radio and A/C didn't work! We were on the road and there was no stopping us!

 

Our first stop on the road trip was the Big Pineapple. We posed for the requisite picture and enjoyed a great tour of the pineapple plantation.

 

We had huge parfaits for lunch (which we later regretted) and then toured the Macadamia farm in a nutmobile.

Our plan was to make Bundaberg by nightfall. We pulled up to our first caravan park in the dark and I set up for dinner while my husband checked in and our oldest set up his swag (one man tent). The next day we got to do some caching and met some Queensland cachers at an event. We had a great time and did some local caches. Later that morning we toured the Bundaberg rum distillery (with samples) had lunch and carried on our way to make Rockhampton just after dark.

We found a cute little caravan park right on the beach and while I was making dinner/enjoying a brew the kids ran down to the beach to play in the moon light. As I was sitting there a stream of birds started flying overhead. Suddenly I realized that they weren't birds but large flying foxes. They were coming down from the surrounding hills for their nightly feed on the beach. It really was an amazing sight! They flew overhead for about 10 minutes, I bet there were close to 100,000 bats. I was hoping that the kids could see them from the beach when they came running back to the site and said that they had a view of the whole (gaggle, flock?) of bats from the hills all the way down. I wish I had a picture but I don't I just stood there amazed as they flew right over me about 20 feet in the air!

 

The next morning we packed up and drove to the Capricorn Caves. There we toured a network of 16 caves. The most famous cave in this system is 'The Cathedral'. It is a large cavern used for Opera recitals and weddings. We sat there in ultimate darkness, we listened to an Opera CD play and the acoustics I am told are better than in the Opera House.

After the caving, we continued on our way towards Eungella National Park, where we hoped to see some Platypus in the wild. This was our halfway point destination before we had to make our way back to Brisbane.

 

We debated driving up to the park on the zig zag road up to the mountain with a 14% grade in our manual and very touchy backpacker van but in the end it didn't matter because we only made it to Mackay just before dark. We decided to stay the night in a Mackay and make the drive in the morning. Boy am I ever glad we did! It was a lot farther than we thought it was. Once up the road, we and noticed a strange sweet smell in the air…sugar cane! There are dozens of refineries around this area and all sorts of little railway tracks for the special cane trains. You've really got to watch how you drive around here. Of course we stopped the van to cut some cane which kept the kids quiet for a while!

 

 

Once we got to the zig zag road that would bring us up to Eungella National Park we were so glad we didn't drive it in the dark! It was very steep and it was very slow going with very steep (nonexistent) shoulders in some parts. We definitely breathed a sigh of relief when we got to the top. We had to wait until dusk to catch a view of the platypus in action so we were contented with finding the one cache up there and also with exploring the rainforest. Around dusk we made our way to the viewing platform and waited very patiently to see the platypus. After 45 minutes we saw a pair come out and watched them until it was dark. It was a dream come true! I don't have a good enough picture to post though.

 

That night we stayed in the most beautiful mountain top caravan park where we met many world wide travelers. We put the kids to be and as we sat there in the dark, watching the stars and the odd car unlucky enough to be traveling the zig zag road in the dark I spotted a glow worm. I was quite thrilled and we woke the kids up to see this new wonder.

 

 

The next day we drove down the mountain and had a nice little hike to Araluen Cascades. After a good swim in the waterfall we drove on to Yeppoon on the coast. We spent the night in a beachside caravan park and relaxed for the morning at the beach. After dinner we had a tour of Coorana Crocodile Farm where they farm salt water crocodiles for their leather. There were some mighty crocs there, we just got to hold the little ones.

 

 

From there we sallied forth to Hervey Bay. We pulled into the Big4 Caravan park just in time. Our kids really liked this park. It had a pool and we met another family on road trip. They had 4 kids and had taken the year off work/school to travel. They did some schooling on the road but were mainly there to learn about Australia. What better way to do it? We managed to book a Whale watch tour for the next day and so we were pretty excited as we tucked ourselves in for the night. The next day we had the most amazing time spying on the largest mammal on earth. It was awe inspiring and an experience we will not soon forget! We drove back to the city with smiles on our faces.

 

Thanks for the cointest!

[+rokito87]

So very sorry for your loss...

 

I read through some of the others' stories, and I don't think mine really compares (especially since only the way home was truly a road trip), but it was memorable for me, so I figured I'd share it anyway:

 

Johnny455 and I had been dating for about four months when he accepted a position that required frequent travel across the Northeast. I was in my Sophomore year of college, and was stressing over the upcoming finals I would have to take before Winter recess. Feeling a little down, I gave him a call and although the conversation is quite vague now, I know it was brief, and basically consisted of typical "I wish you were here" comments. After hanging up the phone, I realized that there really was no reason why I couldn't be where he was (which happened to be Buffalo, NY), and quickly called him back to make arrangements for a weekend visit. Not wanting to drive all the way by myself, I opted to take a painfully long train ride to meet him.

 

It was dark by the time I finally got to Buffalo, and I was a little nervous, because the train station was deserted and had no indoor waiting area. After a few minutes though, I spied his truck coming into the lot. After that, the weekend was great. It was so nice to be able to get away from all the stress of home, even if just for a few days.

 

Since the Sunday I was scheduled to leave was also Johnny's last day in Buffalo, we were able to drive home together (allowing me to avoid another lonely and boring train ride). We made several stops along the way, including a trip to Niagara Falls. Because I had rushed out of my dorm to get to the train station in time, I had forgotten my coat, and stood by the falls with the wind and water blowing (In November) with only a sweatshirt. It didn't matter though, because it was just so great to be there, and to have gotten to take a completely spontaneous trip to see Johnny.

 

Although like I said previously, this was technically only a one-way road trip, this is a memory that almost four years later, I still consider to be one of the best times we've had together, and to this day, I still have my train ticket posted up on the bulletin board over my desk.

 

Sorry for the cheese, everyone!

[+goosefraba1]

Alright guys.... Ashley (my random number generator) picked number 14.... So, Firefly03, congratulations! Send me a pm with your address and I will find a coin for ya. Thanks everyone for participating... it cheered me up It has been a really weird/long week. Now I get to go back to work! Hooray!

[+GATOULIS]

Congrats to Firefly!!!! good job my friend!

 

Thank you Goosefraba for the cointest! It was so nice to read all these stories!

 

And once again my condolences for your grandfather!