{"id":4151,"date":"2021-04-11T08:17:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T12:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=4151"},"modified":"2021-04-11T08:18:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T12:18:07","slug":"stories-from-the-road-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2021\/04\/11\/stories-from-the-road-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories from the Road (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here\u2019s the next in the \u201cSunday Story\u201d series.  This is about four guys seeing the country for the first time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Road Trip<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Four twenty-something teacher\/coaches rent a van and drive across America.  What could possibly go wrong?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was 1982, a time in high school athletics when summer meant vacation.  It was before camps and pre-season conditioning, summer programs and Junior Olympic competitions.  When school was out for the kids, it was out for the coaches as well, at least until August 1st<\/sup>.  And for two football coaches, a basketball coach and a track\/cross country coach from Pataskala, Ohio; it was time to hit the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Itinerary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We rented a van for a month, and packed it with our stuff:\u00a0\u00a0clothes, camping gear (I think we used the tent twice), and beer, lots of beer.\u00a0\u00a0And then we headed out, on the road with no particular deadlines.\u00a0\u00a0The “rules of the road” were set. Jerry drove first and I took the second shift.\u00a0\u00a0That put Odell and Greg in the afternoon and evening shifts, while Jerry and I sat in the back and watched the nation go by.\u00a0\u00a0We might have had a beverage or two along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal was to cross the country \u2013 East to West, North to South.\u00a0\u00a0But our itinerary also reflected our diverse interests.\u00a0\u00a0Our first destination was to Detroit, to visit Jerry\u2019s Lebanese relatives who made a special kind of amazing bread.\u00a0\u00a0Then it was on across to South Bend, Indiana.\u00a0\u00a0Greg wanted to see the \u201cTouchdown Jesus\u201d at Notre Dame\u2019s football stadium.\u00a0\u00a0Next it was Chicago, four young guys touring the big city, then onto Wisconsin, with a stop at the Wisconsin \u201cDells\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The tour wasn\u2019t much, but the \u201cduck boats\u201d, old World War II landing craft converted for tourist use, were pretty cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wall Drug <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Interstate 90 \u2013 a very long, very flat, very empty road across the Northern Plains.\u00a0\u00a0We drove across Minnesota, then into South Dakota.\u00a0\u00a0Somewhere in the middle of that massively long state, there is a store \u2013\u00a0Wall Drug<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a tourist trap, an old country store and gift shop, snack bar, truck stop, and whatever else.\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019d drive right on by if it were in Western Pennsylvania or Michigan.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s not \u2013 it\u2019s in the dead middle of South Dakota.\u00a0\u00a0For hundreds of miles you\u2019ve passed the signs \u2013 VISIT WALL DRUG \u2013 every few miles.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They often are the only thing that broke the unending horizon.\u00a0\u00a0So, even though you know \u2013 you stop anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Badlands and Bad Dreams<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But get past Wall Drug, and on into Western South Dakota and the world gets amazing again.  The first stop was the Badlands.  We wandered around the \u201cmoonscape\u201d hills and gullies (the Apollo astronauts actually came here to train).  And just south of the Badlands was the Ogallala Sioux Reservation.  The stark reality of what the United States did to the Native Americans was clear to see there.  They were placed on reservations that didn\u2019t have a chance of self-sustainment \u2013 the US put them next to the Badlands.  The poverty there was very apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stayed in a hotel in Sioux City.  We were cheap, four of us in one room.  Greg and Jerry were bigger guys, Odell and I were smaller.  So Odell slept with Greg, and I slept with Jerry.  Abraham Lincoln supposedly once said, \u201cYou don\u2019t know a man until you sleep with him\u201d.  That was from a lawyer who rode the circuit from town to town, sleeping in taverns.  It cost extra to get a bed, even if you had to share it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western South Dakota is amazing, from the\u00a0Badlands<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Mount Rushmore<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Devil\u2019s Tower<\/a>\u00a0(think\u00a0Close Encounters of the Third Kind)<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0We hung around and explored for a couple of days, and went to a movie one night.\u00a0\u00a0I remember it well, because I don\u2019t ever watch \u201cscary\u201d movies.\u00a0\u00a0But\u00a0Poltergeist<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>was just out \u2013 I can still remember the key line; \u201cThey\u2019re here\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Even with three sleeping companions very nearby, I didn\u2019t get much rest that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowstone and Beyond<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our next stop was to be\u00a0Yellowstone National Park<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0But first we had to spend the night in Bullhead, Wyoming; just a stop on the way.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s not much I can say good about Bullhead, we checked into the hotel, located at the bottom of a long mountain decline.\u00a0\u00a0I seemed to remember we had to chase a few bugs out of the way before we got in the door.\u00a0\u00a0But the beds had machines attached to them \u2013 vibrating devices that shook.\u00a0\u00a0I had to know!!!\u00a0\u00a0It cost a quarter, but then the machine didn\u2019t seem to ever want to stop.\u00a0\u00a0I took a lot of grief for dropping that quarter, but I\u2019d never seen a vibrating bed before.\u00a0\u00a0Luckily, we found the plug; Jerry and I didn\u2019t want to know each other that well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowstone:\u00a0\u00a0the first thing we discovered is the sheer size of the place.\u00a0\u00a0There are the tourist places, Old Faithful (the geyser), the Yellowstone Falls, the \u201cmud pots\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But they are dozens of miles away from each other.\u00a0\u00a0You have to drive to see Yellowstone, and wait in the inevitable \u201cbuffalo jams\u201d as herds of wild buffalo meander down the same road you\u2019re using.\u00a0\u00a0We broke the tents out for the first time at Yellowstone; it was the only way to stay in the Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the park is also up in the mountains, averaging over 8,000 feet.  Now I was a backpacker, and had the right kind of sleeping bag for all conditions.  But my companions, not so much.  I remember the gruff \u201cget up\u201d at five in the morning.  There was ice in the water, and Jerry built a dawn fire to try to get warm.  We finally got the coffee going (yep, even then we were coffee fanatics) and decided to cut our camping experience short.  It was time to move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headed to Track Town<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next night was in Idaho along the Snake River valley.  It was a lot warmer, and camping was more comfortable.  We were now on our way to the West Coast.  This was my choice in the itinerary; we were headed to Eugene, Oregon, home of Oregon University and \u201cTrack Town USA\u201d even then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wandered around the famous \u201cCounty Fair\u201d track at Eugene, the home of the US Championships and Olympic Trials.\u00a0\u00a0It was also the home of Steve Prefontaine, the premier US distance runner of the 1970\u2019s who tragically in a car accident just a few years before.\u00a0\u00a0That was all about my interests, it would be seventeen years before I would return to Eugene, this time with a track team in tow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was head for the coast.  Our next goal was the drive down Highway 101 \u2013 The winding two lane highway that meandered down the coast of Oregon, through the small fishing towns and across the border into California.  We stopped at the Redwood Forest<\/a>, then onto Highway 1, the coastal highway that would take us to San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flowers in Our Hair<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It was 1983, and the hippie era was over in the Bay City.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We made our way across the Golden Gate Bridge, got to our hotel, then took a cab to see the seamier side of the town, the Tenderloin.\u00a0\u00a0We were the essential \u201cboys from the Midwest\u201d seeing the “big city”.\u00a0\u00a0Our goal: to see Carol Doda, the legendary stripper who was one of the first with silicone breast implants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found the \u201cclub\u201d and were ushered to our table.  Our drink was a small water glass full of beer, and we were told that those would be kept  refilled at all times, and at $15 a glass (note: that was in 1982, and $15 would be $30 in 2021 dollars).  No one watched Carol without paying the \u201ctab\u201d in water glass beers.  Carol was still a legend even in 1982, but her prime was in 1965 when she was in her twenties.  We were disappointed, both by the show and the beer, and headed out to see what else San Francisco had to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the Tour<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next day we went to\u00a0Alcatraz<\/a>, just recently opened as a National Park.\u00a0\u00a0Our guide was Frank, a former guard when the island was a prison in the 1940\u2019s and 50\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0Frank lent his personal experiences as a young guard of Al Capone and more recent interactions with actor Clint Eastwood in\u00a0\u00a0the filming of the movie\u00a0Escape from Alcatraz.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>I\u2019ve been back a few times since, and now the \u201ctour\u201d is all \u201ccanned\u201d on headphones.\u00a0\u00a0Frank is still heard in the narration, but of course, he passed away decades ago. It was very different face to face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did all the \u201ctours\u201d in San Francisco, from Fisherman\u2019s Wharf to the Muir Woods.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t remember if we ate on Fisherman\u2019s Wharf on that trip, but on some trip I discovered a stop you need to make. It’s Neptune\u2019s Waterfront Grill at the end of the pier.\u00a0\u00a0The view is spectacular, the food is great, and while it\u2019s not the cheapest place, the folks are friendly and it\u2019s worth the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were headed South \u2013 San Francisco was about the half way point on our great adventure.  And that\u2019s a good place to take a break.  Come by next week for the second half of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/p>\n\n\n\n