amusing family memory

[cellio]

I was talking with a friend about an impending drive across the country, and this somehow made me think of my own family's cross-country move. I was three at the time, so I don't actually remember it, and anyway, I didn't have the interesting part.

My mother took the kids and perhaps the dog (I'm not sure who got the dog for this) and got onto a plane. They wanted to keep the car, though, so my father and a friend of his drove. The family folklore is that they made the excellent time that they did by simply driving straight through. According to what I was told about this while growing up, the car was pretty much always in motion and the passenger slept as needed.

Except that I just today put a few facts together. My father's vision is worse than mine; he has never been licensed to drive at night, and he's pretty scrupulous about that. They made this trip in November, when nights are longer than days. I strongly suspect that the other guy did not drive 14-hour stretches (I mean, how many people do, especially as part of a longer trip?). They were a couple of (roughly) 25-year-old guys.

Do I really believe that they drove through at the speed limit, rather than taking stops to sleep and gunning it? I may have to call my father on it, out of earshot of my mother. :-)

Comments

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

My mother's father went to the Chicago World's Fair. by means of a car and two friends. Mom dreads nothing.

We just went to Tucson and back. 10hrs as even just a passenger is tough. Driving a van in high winds is scary.

2500mi. takes five days, no matter what. I think a week would be nicer.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect that the other guy did not drive 14-hour stretches (I mean, how many people do, especially as part of a longer trip?)

I definitely have... both cross-country drives and PA <-> MN for Thanksgiving in 2003. It certainly involves driving at night though :P

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

This brings to mind a Pennsic story of Harold von Auerbach's. He was working gate when someone drove up and stopped, didn't get out of the car. Harold eventually went up to him to see if everything was OK. The driver was siting with a vacant stare, hands still on the wheel. "Where're you from?", "Utah", "When's the last time you stopped?", "Utah".