OT: Talking Cars Tuesday - Your Road Trip Ride

Growing up, my family had a maroon 1989 Chevy conversion van that my dad both drove to work and we took on family vacations to Myrtle Beach, Florida, etc. It was pretty sweet - had the captain chairs in the middle part that my brother and I sat in, as well as a big bench in the back that folded down into a queen size bed.

My dad took out the small TV/VCR combo that came with the van and installed a 27" TV that he allowed us to hook our N64 up to for long trips. Many great memories of playing Mario Kart and GoldenEye while my dad navigated the West Virginia Turnpike and got us safely to our destination.

One particularly hilarious memory involved my brother getting unbuckled to go into the back to get my dad a Mountain Dew from the cooler (he pounded those things to stay awake) and a State Trooper pulled us over and spent 10 solid minutes giving my dad a lecture about child safety while semis barreled by ~5ft away at 70mph. He let us off with a warning after my dad asked him whether he was going to stand there and keep talking or if he was waiting to get hit by one of the passing trucks. Great times!

Historical story: While in college at Michigan, I spent a summer in California and Arizona.  Rather than buy a plane ticket home, I bought a 1969 Mustang convertible and drove from AZ to MI in one sitting, with the top down the entire trip except for about 30 minutes of rain.  Singing to the old radio and basking in the beautiful scenery around me as the miles flew by.

I was running against the wind...

2+ week long family road trip to the UP to camp and check out waterfalls, lakes, pictured rocks etc.  I was about 10.  Parents took five kids, all under the age of 15, with the youngest being 3 years old.  In this.  Note:  Those aren't my parents in the photo.  No one was that happy looking at that van.  Also, the engine in this egg-mobile is behind the front seats.

One of the last evening there were were camping near Lake Superior.  Boys sleeping in the van, girls in the tent with the parents.  We decided to eat a ton of snacks out of the cooler and toss the wrappers out the window.  Needless to say bears showed up and we almost got our parents/sisters eaten while we watched from the van.  

If I were to road trip again, it would be on one of these.

2003 Nissan Altima, because it will probably be the most reliable car i ever have. Last road trip i took was Oceanside, CA back to Michigan back in 2016. Nothing to see on the way back, but i was glad to finally be moving back.

Tough to pick.

1964 VW Microbus, 1968 Pontiac Catalina station wagon, a pair of 1972 Datsun 510's, all to South Dakota - 2-day trips. Or 1984 Audi 4000S to Maryland - just a 10 hour drive assuming the cops don't catch you doing 90 the whole way..

When I got out of the Army in 2006, we shipped our car from Hawaii to Long Beach instead of St. Louis which was the closest port to Michigan. We flew out there and spent almost two weeks road tripping through Vegas then Phoenix, Temple, TX then home to Michigan, staying at different family and friends houses along the way.

My parents got roped in to a timeshare in Florida so we were forced to take a yearly trip to Orlando.

Because of this my parents saved on airfare by driving. I actually enjoyed it as a kid. Seeing each state down the east coast and landmarks in NY, D.C., Etc. Counting down the exits to South of the Border and hoping to hit it at night.

But to get OT of TCT the best was the Dodge Caravan. I think it has to be the best road trip car of all time, at least for a family.

1994.  Michigan to Texas for my aunts wedding.  In the backseat of my grandparents 1980 Impala.  I had several books and half my CD collection.  

Yes the car ride was painfully slow.  Yes we took frequent stops along the way for coffee and snacks.  But it was a fun trip where I got to know my grandparents better and appreciate them.  I wouldnt trade some of those memories for the world.

It also taught me to slow down and enjoy life a bit.  

2004, I was flying to San Fran for work.  Walking through the airport, on my way to the rental car counter I get a call from my divorce atty to let me know that my soon to be ex had finally agreed to settlement terms (for 6 months she and her atty were trying hard to bilk me).....

I upgraded my ride to a convertible mustang and I cruised Highway 1 like a boss.....

stopped at Pacifica and watched the sunset on the Pacific from a cliff above the surf.... I felt like Ellis "Red" Redding drinking a beer on the roof.

Drove my buddy from Toledo to Denver...following the “route”of dumb and dumber. 

Road trips in India used to be a community affair, 40-50 people from the neighborhood renting a bus (typically used for public transportation) and going for a 3-4 day trip. I was not even a teenager. Had great times with cousins and neighborhood friends. 

First car based road trip was UP in 2000 summer in a 1984 Cadillac. too much space for three people, if you ask me. 

Now we use an F150 supercrew. Kids in the back seat. camping gear/luggage in the bed. 

My best road trip was on spring break of 1976 from A2.  I arranged a place to stay with my second cousin in Key West FL.  My Grandmother was there also.  My two friends accompanied me.  Both were in the 6 year accelerated med school program that was housed at EQ.  We loaded up my '68 yellow Plymouth Barracuda and left the cold and gray, heading South, way South.  My friends decided to eat some hash brownies that they made.  I drove to Georgia, but they were too high to take the wheel, so I struggled to stay awake and continued.  We hit the Florida line at daylight, so we pulled into a restaurant for breakfast.  It was a diner counter arrangement and my passengers were still high and paranoid as I got some food and coffee.  They giggled and looked at each other as they surveyed the red-necks across from them.  We drove on to Ft. Lauderdale, where I collapsed on the beach for a couple of hours.  Then we continued on to Key West.  My Grandmother fawned all over the two friends.  We got sunburned, found some fellow EQers and went around Key West, experiencing Mallory Square at sunset, Duval Street bars and the crushed coral beach during the day.

We enjoyed our brief break and drove back minus the hash brownies.  It was a fun trip, although ill-advised to drive 29 hours there and 29 hours back on a one week stint.

New Year's Eve 1985 (about to be 1986).  I was on leave and was driving my brand new 1986 VW Scirocco.  I had started my trip on the 29th and drove straight through from Pittsburgh to El Paso in 28 hours.  Visited my college roommate who was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso.  Chilled with him for a bit then headed west in order to get to Monterey, CA by COB on the 1st when my leave was up.  I was attending the Defense Language school there.

I was headed west on I-10, the road was clear and I didn't see any cars. I decided to see how fast my VW could go and got it to about 105 mph going down a slight grade.  I saw the cop hiding behind a big boulder in the median and his radar gun must have been screaming murder as I swear to this day I made eye contact with the cop (at 105 mph).  

I slowed down, he pulled out and followed me gradually catching up. He never put his lights on.  Resigned to getting a ticket, I put my turn signal on and just pulled over and he pulled over too.  He walked up to my car, asked for the DL & registration.  I had a 'Valid without photo' Pennsylvania DL (renewed it while I was in South Korea).  I handed that to him and my military ID (angling for a break) saying 'here's my picture ID.  He looked at both and said, "so tell me Lieutenant, how fast do you think you were going?"  I responded, "I'm not exactly sure, but maybe it was 10 or 15 over." I didn't say, over what.  He looked at me and said, "How about we call it 10 or 15 over the speed limit?"  I agreed.  He told me, "slow the fuck down." I agreed.

He handed me a photocopied fine schedule and drove off.  I read the schedule and it only went up to 100 mph.  At that point it dawned on me that if he had written 105 on the ticket, I would have gone to jail that night.

That was the only bit of mercy I've ever had when pulled over for speeding and I have had speeding tickets in just about every state in the continental US.  

Yellowstone, zion, grand canyon trip in one of those rental rvs.  Cramped, but tons of fun.

Way back in 1987, I had recently graduated from high school and my dad decided to take a road trip to see family in Chattanooga, TN. So it was my dad, my younger brother and myself. We took the drive in his canary yellow 1970 Pontiac LeMans which featured a 350 V8. That car was awesome even without any AC. It was a great trip driving through the mountains and the only mishap was the water pump went out about 50 miles north of Chattanooga which delayed us about 1/2 a day.

Six months after we had our first kid, we rented a Jeep Wrangler am drove from San Diego to Napa with stops in Santa Barbara and Carmel. The scenic drive along the pCH, were 2kft peaks butt up to the coast are stunning. 

Highly recommend the trip 

Just stopped in Michigan City for a bite

When my stepsister and I were in our 20's, we did a couple of really good road trips. One took us through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine in the fall. We just drove wherever the road took us. Somewhere in Vermont, we found a geodesic dome pancake house. It was actually someone's house, and they made you pancakes if you came in. There were folding chairs and tables inside and reindeer in the yard. It was a weird place. We also found a Chinese restaurant in New Hampshire that served Parker House rolls in red plastic baskets on the tables. Nothing like authenticity.