[PRCo] Re: Another trip

[Fred Schneider]

In my entire life (which is getting close to a million miles at this point), I've only had one blow out.  I was young.  About 22 or 23.  I was pushing the Packard (was there any other way to drive at that age?).  The tires were getting hotter and hotter.  The right front let go.  And more than 2 tons of steel just jumped onto the shoulder.  All I could think off was the possible result if the left one popped and the car jumped into the other lane.

If you think an average of 30 mph on a long trip in 1948 was a gas ... remember how long it took Capt. Dwight Eisenhower to lead a truck convoy across the United States in 1919.  He managed to prove that we needed paved roads.  Ironic, isn't it, that he was later the President who signed the Interstate highway legislation into law.   There is a book on the market on that trip.

My dad remembered driving from Marietta, Ohio, to Cleveland in the 1920s .. maybe 250 miles ... snow ... took all day, all evening, and into the night.  And he had to stop regularly and scrape snow off the windscreen.  Remember guys, heaters and defrosters were optional luxuries in those days.   But still, the guy with the car had the girl.

rogertrolley.1 at juno.com wrote: