What's This All About?

 Many years ago, when I was a sophomore in college, I got an urge for adventure. The idea was to get a go kart, modify it for use on the highway, and drive it from coast to coast. I was sure that sponsors would be climbing over themselves to fund the venture. 

Like most half-baked ideas, that one didn't pan out, giving way to the exigencies of coursework and, let's just call it, "college life."

That summer, however, I was invited by a long-time friend, Rob Shultz, to join him and a couple of his college chums in a cross-country trip. The plan was to drive to Boise, Idaho and sign on with the USDA Forest Service as smoke jumpers. The money was good, we were told, and prior experience was not required. Riiight....

The four of us piled into an Ermine White 4-door Corvair and headed out from eastern Pennsylvania. Fueled by cheap gas and caffeine, we made it to Boise in short order, only to be told that, this being a record wet summer, no smoke jumpers or fire fighters of any kind were needed. Alas.

We decided to make lemonade and traveled on to the Seattle World's Fair. I remember whole families giving the four of us a wide berth as we passed. We hadn't bathed in more than a week.

We continued down the coast stopping here and there. I'm sure that at some point we attended to our respective toilettes.

We parted ways with the two chums around Santa Barbara and Rob and I continued on a relatively straight trajectory for home. We were gone about three weeks. The only photos I took were taken while underway. Youth is wasted on the young. That said, the Corvair performed flawlessly, safe at every speed.

I've done several transcontinental trips in the intervening years, by plane, train, automobile, and bus, accompanied and solo. I like the call of the open road.

Well, 50 plus years on, I will be driving an age-appropriate go kart, a 2001 Mazda Miata, cross country.

This will be a record of the trip.