Tribal Travels, Musings, and Jawbone Canyon Chapter 2 by R. Cane

Knowing, learning and understanding these 'road codes' was - to my young mind – ultimately all an exercise to 'make time', in other words find the fastest way – a legitimate reason to be lead-footed! It seems all my uncles and family wore their competitiveness on their sleeves, and were always vying to break their time records!

Grandad claimed he once drove a new Hudson Hornet - with the boys - virtually non-stop from the East Coast to California in 2 days - only taking time for the boys to swap drivers, get gas and eat. This was long before 'fast food', and super highways - done on old farm roads and route 66 ... This was a danged & amazingly good record - and it was grandads, and It set the bar very high!

I learned that 'Making Time' was crucial and anything that might sidetrack or attempt to divert from the planned trip was to ever be avoided. Grandma understood this trait, and early on taught us - by example when traveling - to keep a coffee can available, since there would be no stopping until we get to point X !!

Grandad loved a good fast car! He was a good driver but he did enjoy a lead foot at times. Grandma would be concerned about his speed and would forcefully say 'Dad ...the limit here is 65!" ... and Grandad would usually get that ol' twinkle in his eye and sardonically reply .. "Well ... I'm doing every bit of that!" Grams would be exasperated, but Gramps kept that foot on the gas! btw - no one had cruise control in those days ... you actually drove the vehicle! Sometimes he would tease grams by claiming the highway sign was the speed limit – as in 'great, now we can do 101 mph' ! This usually got a resounding 'humpf' from grams. He really excelled at speeding on rural roads – especially when grams was sleeping in the back and couldn’t see the speedometer...

Of course hearing gory glory stories about the bad old days of travel always kept me rapt in my youth, with many harrowing tales of close calls on the infamous “Grapevine Hill” - 'back in the day' … runaway trucks, failed breaks, fog, juicy multi-car pileups and all that kind of fascinating stuff. I loved hearing about the problems encountered and the solutions. This was good stuff.

Grandad told me when he was young he drove a coal truck making deliveries in Kentucky, and he would be so overloaded that going up steep hills he would put the truck in 'double granny' low gear and walk alongside on the ground outside the truck – reaching in to the steering wheel thru the open door. I know it sounds unlikely, but he swore that it happened several times...What a cool move!

[Editor's note: This story was written by R. Cane and is part of a 10 story series]


Road Sign