Getting there from here...

[8gv]

I rode a bunch of miles on 50 going through Kansas in 2014.

The road was straight and flat.

It was July and 107°.

The trucks coming at me carried a cushion of air that felt capable of knocking me off my light motorcycle.

There were grain elevators to be seen every so often.

Where there was an elevator there was usually a flashing yellow light (or even a stop sign) and a few houses.

Once in a while there would be a gas station.

It was boring to me but marginally safer than the dirt road grids (sans any stop signs) of OK, which had been our original plan.

Try to stay awake!

[trfour]

1950; My Mom And Dad with 9 children started to think about a trip west to California from Stoneham Ma, at the time. Now, keep in mind that at the time I was 6 years old and wasn't preview of all of their thoughts. "And In No Way Neglected"!


My family, Mom, Dad and 9 siblings took the Northern route out to California and it took us 34 days. Went site seeing when we'd stop to do maintainance, wash cloths and such. Lets see here, 1952 I was 7 years old at the time, and Life Magazine got wind of our trip and photographers followed us and took pics.
Here's a couple..
Pic# 1. Brother's Brynn, Bob, Sister June, Bother Fred, Sister Doña, Dad, Mom, me with my Lunch pale and the guitar. Sisters Dianne and Linda, and Brother Mel.

[joey2665]

Wow!!!! Great pictures of love lake nostalgia

[8gv]

Originally Posted by trfour

My family, Mom, Dad and 9 siblings took the Northern route out to California and it took us 34 days. Went site seeing when we'd stop to do maintainance, wash cloths and such. Lets see here, 1952 I was 7 years old at the time, and Life Magazine got wind of our trip and photographers followed us and took pics.
Here's a couple...

In just those four pictures it is evident that there is plenty of book material from your family and this trip.

Has the book been written?

[trfour]

Originally Posted by 8gv;

Has the book been written?

So far just a short story 8gv, in the Dec 28th 1953 Life Magazine. Just scroll down to page 18-24 when you get there; https://books.google.com/books?id=-T...201953&f=false

Pic#1. Cover, Life Magazine.

Pic#2. During our journey west, Sister Doña, keeping with tradition, and Brother Brynn checking to see if surgery would be necessary, taken in Wounded Knee, South Dakota where Doña hurt her knee playing outside.

[garysanfran]

Pic#1. Cover, Life Magazine.

taken in Wounded Knee, South Dakota where Doña hurt her knee playing outside.

Can't make this stuff up...She hurt her knee in Wounded Knee. Sing me the song!

Bet Child-Protective whatever's didn't get involved.

Wouldn't this trip be before Eisenhower's great highway build?

[trfour]

Tune hUP, 'ith Some Hep!
This was taken by Life Magazine 1952 in South Dakota on our way out to California. The day before this was taken, we had been coming up the Black 'HILLS' and the 1949 Buick's 150 Horse Powered straight 8 cylinder engine decided to eat a spark plug, then another and she slowed to a crawl, and then just couldn't pull that heavy load any further. Dad had Brother Fred drive up to the summit and drop off the luggage trailer he was pulling and come back down and towed that whole rig up the mountain! This is where I questioned the name 'HILLS' when the Summit was above 7000 foot!! You know, maybe we could have made a run at it from the bottom... Anyway, this was the Tune hUP to get us the rest of the way with NO Problems. that would include Donner Pass over the Rockies into California. And By the way, Donner Pass was just over 7000 foot as well. An adventure, for sure. Well so as to make a Long Long story short, we made it to the top! Seeing that there was no such thing as 911 in those days, but however, my Mom could yodel like no other and we got the message out for everyone to get the, out of the way cause We Were a Comi'n Down the Mountain!
:-)... That's me in my Time Out shirt taking a picture...

Pic #1. Sister Doña holding the hood up. :-)

[trfour]

Things that Dad had to contend with before we left on the trip west, mainly involved the 1949 Buick that towed the Magic Carpet. The 1948 Buick that towed the luggage trailer just needed a trailer hitch and fender mirrors. Dad beefed up the rear springs, adding extra leaves in each on the 1949 Buick, plus a Heavy Duty tow hitch. Then after the Magic Carpet was delivered to our house there in Stoneham, Dad hooked up and took the rig on a shake down run over the road and on returning to the house found that the heavy duty hitch had bent down almost disconnecting from the trailer tow ball.
With the length of the Magic Carpet being 46' and only two axels, the tongue weight was huge so Dad tried out a few tongue dollies and ended up settling on an air over hydrolic tripple wheeler that he used for the trip.
Pic 1. Tongue dolly
Pic 2. The one we used

[trfour]

I was 7 years old, pushing 8.
We had spent the day in Salt Lake City before travelling south into Las Vegas.
On this leg of our trip, the bought used luggage trailer had a bent axle and would strip the rubber off a new tire on a pretty regular basis, especially in the heat of day... It and we experienced two flat tires, which slowed us down immeasurably. The decision was made in Las Vegas to cross the Mojave Desert at night.

Well, there just happened to be a raging wind and sandstorm and my Dad had his hands full trying to keep the high profile rig in one lane. Here comes a State Trooper that had been following us for a while, he pulled us over and made us put up at a truck stop over night until the storm blew over.
Now, even after the sunset it was HOT. Neither the Buicks or the Magic Carpet had air conditioning. I was tired and went to bed early that evening.
Before my Mom and Dad turned in for the night, they left the front door open with just the screen door closed for ventilation.
Next, and this could have been the early creation of how Brinks Home Security got started.

They took out Every pot & pan, piled them on the kitchen counter, tied a string from them and over to the screen door handle, so as any would-be intruder would at least wake us up!
So guess who wakes up thirsty in the middle of the night, stumbles out to the kitchen and streight away sets this crude but very effective devise off!
'HE, double hocky sticks' broke loose, and the pain of the pots & pans bouncing off of my bare toes, and my own family coming at me with rolling pins, baseball bats and guns, you can talk all you want about seeing you're life flash before you're very EYES!!
Oh, and take another guess who was on everyone's dung list for a few days, to boot!

[ApS]

The canvas bag to the left of the license plate is for cooling the water inside: water seeps out slowly, evaporating in the dry heat to cool the contents.

Early auto "air-conditioning" used the same principle—lately nicknamed a "swamp-cooler". (Still made for house or car).

[garysanfran]

Originally Posted by 8gv

I rode a bunch of miles on 50 going through Kansas in 2014.

The road was straight and flat.

It was July and 107°.

The trucks coming at me carried a cushion of air that felt capable of knocking me off my light motorcycle.

There were grain elevators to be seen every so often.

Where there was an elevator there was usually a flashing yellow light (or even a stop sign) and a few houses.

Once in a while there would be a gas station.

It was boring to me but marginally safer than the dirt road grids (sans any stop signs) of OK, which had been our original plan.

Try to stay awake!

On a previous trip, I went through Kansas and remember seeing a tree...Made my day!

[garysanfran]

An absolutely amazing post. The photos are really great.


Many thanks...

[joey2665]

Originally Posted by garysanfran

On a previous trip, I went through Kansas and remember seeing a tree...Made my day!

Recently drove from St Louis to Iowa City then to Chicago. Nothing but corn and soybean fields. lol. I love the northeast!!!!