Home again
30/08/12 05:29
Before the Interstate highway system was constructed, major routes across the country were designated as US highways. The US Highway system designated east-west routes with even numbers starting with US 2 near the Canadian border. The farther south, the larger the numbers were. North-south routes were odd numbers beginning at the East Coast and getting larger as they went west, with US 101 being the route down the west coast.
We still enjoy driving on the US highways. They are rarely divided roads, like the Interstates, but they tend to go through towns rather than around towns. They tend to have lower speed limits. They are less likely to be lined with chain restaurants and motels and have cafes and other places that reveal local character. And when we are on vacation, we like to travel at slower speeds and stop more often.
Still we covered quite a bit of ground on our recent trip. Through the generosity of our congregation, we were able to carry over unused vacation time from 2011 to 2012 and so we had three weeks for this trip. We covered a little over 4,200 miles and spent 21 consecutive nights in our camper without any major breakdowns or travel problems. We pulled a light trailer with our rowboat and a kayak and the boats got use in several different lakes as well as the Puget Sound.
We didn’t drive every day of our vacation. There were days of being parked and enjoying where we were. The most miles we covered in a single day were 570 between Orofino, Idaho and Red Lodge, Montana. At 60 mph, that’s about 9 ½ hours of driving. Most days that we drove, we drove less than 8 hours, which is reasonable.
Although we traveled mostly from east to west and back, using US highway 2 going west-bound and US 12 coming east, we drove a fair number of north-south routes as well. Along our way we drove on US highways 83, 85, 87, 89, 93, 95 and 97. And we didn’t avoid Interstates entirely, driving on Interstates 5, 84, 82 and 90.
There are probably more statistics from the trip that I will compile, but that amount of travel in the time we took would have amazed previous generations.
My father would not have been surprised by the distances covered or the places visited, but he would have made such a trip with an airplane. Being a pilot and owning his own planes, he preferred flying to driving and we had some grand vacations with airplanes when we were children, including a wonderful trip to Seattle that covered some of the same territory that we traveled. He might have been amazed at a few aspects of our travel in other ways. He would have loved the GPS navigation device that sits on the dashboard of our pickup. We used it for navigation on only part of the trip, as it prefers direct routes and we prefer to wander a bit. The voice patiently said, “recalculating,” a lot as I kept taking roads that led to out of the way places. My father would have been surprised that we drove all those miles pulling a trailer without any tire problems, especially since we drove on days with 100+ temperatures. We’ve driven our pickup over 132,000 miles over the past 7 years and have never had a flat tire. The only tire changes the truck has had have been routine tire rotations and replacing the tires when they are worn – all done in tire shops. We’re prepared for having to change a tire on the road, but I have to check to make sure the tire pressure is right in the spare before leaving on big trips, because it has never been on the truck.
My father would also have been surprised at how long cars and pickups last. I’m not sure that he ever drove a pickup over 100,000 miles and I know that he never owned a car that went over 200,000 miles. We have no troubles getting 250.000 miles on our vehicles.
My grandparents would have been amazed at the number of miles we drive on vacation and the total number of miles we drive each year. For them a return from Montana to North Dakota would be a big trip and if they took such a trip in a year, they wouldn’t consider an additional trip that year. They also would have found an average speed of 60 mph to be awfully fast. They rarely went 100 miles without at least one stop. My grandfather would also have been impressed with pickup tires that go 50,000 miles without a problem. He ran a service station for part of his life and they did all of their tire repairs by hand without any power tools.
So I wonder about our grandson. How will he travel? What kind of distances will he consider to be routine? What kind of vehicles will transport him? I suspect that there will be much to amaze and impress me in his future.
Today, however, is a day to return to work. There will be stacks of messages and mail to deal with. There is a bulletin that needs to be prepared and worship that needs to be planned. We’ll have to catch up with all of the pastoral concerns. We already know that there were three deaths in the congregation during our absence and there are plenty of other concerns as well. Ours is a busy church and the busyness doesn’t stop for the pastor’s vacation. School has resumed and soon it will be time for the Church School Rally, choir practice and the return to our fall schedule. We’ll be busy playing “catch up” for the rest of this week. And there are mountains of laundry to tackle, plenty of things to put away and lots of other chores to be done at home as well. We won’t be getting bored anytime soon.
It was great to have such a grand vacation, and we are returning refreshed with renewed energy for our work. Hopefully some of that energy will be evident to the congregation.
Still we covered quite a bit of ground on our recent trip. Through the generosity of our congregation, we were able to carry over unused vacation time from 2011 to 2012 and so we had three weeks for this trip. We covered a little over 4,200 miles and spent 21 consecutive nights in our camper without any major breakdowns or travel problems. We pulled a light trailer with our rowboat and a kayak and the boats got use in several different lakes as well as the Puget Sound.
We didn’t drive every day of our vacation. There were days of being parked and enjoying where we were. The most miles we covered in a single day were 570 between Orofino, Idaho and Red Lodge, Montana. At 60 mph, that’s about 9 ½ hours of driving. Most days that we drove, we drove less than 8 hours, which is reasonable.
There are probably more statistics from the trip that I will compile, but that amount of travel in the time we took would have amazed previous generations.
My father would not have been surprised by the distances covered or the places visited, but he would have made such a trip with an airplane. Being a pilot and owning his own planes, he preferred flying to driving and we had some grand vacations with airplanes when we were children, including a wonderful trip to Seattle that covered some of the same territory that we traveled. He might have been amazed at a few aspects of our travel in other ways. He would have loved the GPS navigation device that sits on the dashboard of our pickup. We used it for navigation on only part of the trip, as it prefers direct routes and we prefer to wander a bit. The voice patiently said, “recalculating,” a lot as I kept taking roads that led to out of the way places. My father would have been surprised that we drove all those miles pulling a trailer without any tire problems, especially since we drove on days with 100+ temperatures. We’ve driven our pickup over 132,000 miles over the past 7 years and have never had a flat tire. The only tire changes the truck has had have been routine tire rotations and replacing the tires when they are worn – all done in tire shops. We’re prepared for having to change a tire on the road, but I have to check to make sure the tire pressure is right in the spare before leaving on big trips, because it has never been on the truck.
My father would also have been surprised at how long cars and pickups last. I’m not sure that he ever drove a pickup over 100,000 miles and I know that he never owned a car that went over 200,000 miles. We have no troubles getting 250.000 miles on our vehicles.
My grandparents would have been amazed at the number of miles we drive on vacation and the total number of miles we drive each year. For them a return from Montana to North Dakota would be a big trip and if they took such a trip in a year, they wouldn’t consider an additional trip that year. They also would have found an average speed of 60 mph to be awfully fast. They rarely went 100 miles without at least one stop. My grandfather would also have been impressed with pickup tires that go 50,000 miles without a problem. He ran a service station for part of his life and they did all of their tire repairs by hand without any power tools.
Today, however, is a day to return to work. There will be stacks of messages and mail to deal with. There is a bulletin that needs to be prepared and worship that needs to be planned. We’ll have to catch up with all of the pastoral concerns. We already know that there were three deaths in the congregation during our absence and there are plenty of other concerns as well. Ours is a busy church and the busyness doesn’t stop for the pastor’s vacation. School has resumed and soon it will be time for the Church School Rally, choir practice and the return to our fall schedule. We’ll be busy playing “catch up” for the rest of this week. And there are mountains of laundry to tackle, plenty of things to put away and lots of other chores to be done at home as well. We won’t be getting bored anytime soon.
It was great to have such a grand vacation, and we are returning refreshed with renewed energy for our work. Hopefully some of that energy will be evident to the congregation.