Tribal Travels, Musings, and Jawbone Canyon Chapter 3 by R. Cane

The glories of the automobile, and travel in general were keen stuff and well appreciated by our bunch!

The Nut Tree

Sometimes travel routes were chosen that let you especially pass by favorite eating or rest spots -often by grandma's vote on her select and favorite diners or gas stops - remember the Nut Tree? Oh, don't forget the ever important certain clean bathrooms! . All this was accounted for and was essential in the planning, and really good stuff to know - so I listened intently .. but then - inevitably - when it got to the actual chosen travel route, it would always be announced we'll take .... and then utter a string of numbers - sounding much to my ears like arcane math equations .. something sounding like this would be offered up ...

Highway Signs

"Take 101 to 152 (about 60m) – you can do 70 in some spots, then 99 to 58 (roughly 100m) – good for 65 most of the way, or 6 to 395 to I-15 or i-40 or I-10 to ...(300m) - total.. umm - about 8-1/2 hours should do it!" – this required some quick ciphering.... Let's see now ... if a car traveling north at 40 mph travels 10 miles, then goes west for 20 miles .. well you get the idea, as did I – the light bulb lit, and oh my gosh ...traveling was MATH!

At various points in our youth , sis and I lived with our grandparents, whilst mom was off on exotic adventures. Now this wasn't altogether a bad deal. In exchange for not being in on the 'adventurizing', we got the wonderful experience of being with our Grandparents, living in a stable environment for school and such. However, our tribe was well endowed with “wanderlust”, so travel was a big part of the grandparents lifestyle. Sis and I got into our own fair share of travel adventures with them on holidays, or the myriad travels to relatives and kin.

I'm convinced there is a 'Nomad Gene' in our tribal family DNA?!

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

Old Map of the Los Angeles Area