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The Great American Road Trip Ain't What it Used to Be

The USA might be a bit overly-reliant on automobiles to get around, but there's no denying the mystique of the great American road trip. The lure of the open road is one that goes back as far as the automobile itself, but things were quite a bit more difficult back in the day, as an interesting collection of old photos shows. A Texas programmer recently posted a photo essay from 1924, when his great uncle and a friend drove from Berkeley to M.I.T. to do some graduate study. The trip took thirty days and involved very few paved roads, which is quite a contrast to Alex Roy's recent cross-country drive that took 32 hours and 7 minutes. This predates the Interstate Highway System by decades, of course, which meant driving the old jalopy over desert, mud flats, salt beds, and gravel paths for thousands of miles. There's no denying that the trip was fraught with discomfort, frustration, and probably a fair bit of danger to boot, but it was probably one of the highlights of Great Uncle Harold's life as well. You can't stop the march of progress, of course, but by making everything easier, faster, and safer, you do kind of miss out on a little bit of adventure.

[Photo: robertlandrum.com]

Related Stories:
· Berkeley to M.I.T. [robertlandrum.com]
· Road Trips [Jaunted]