Prelude to a Road Trip

In the winter of 1974, between jobs, I hung out for days at the public library.  I took first to a globe of the earth, planning my next trip, which I intended to start in spring.  I was in Aberdeen Scotland, with India as my ultimate destination. With direction determined, it was simply a matter of route, the only real variable after that.  Direction is predetermined by geography and is rigidly set unless of course you want go the other way to end up in the same spot, circumnavigating the globe, which is a whole different trip, and crazy.  

For route I needed more detail, which I found in a World Atlas.  There are lots of ways to get to  India, but all of them in one way or another are south and east of Aberdeen.

I had dipped onto the African continent from Europe earlier that year, visiting Morocco for a short time, and wanted to go back.  I was also drawn to Cairo and the pyramids in Giza.  So south through Gibraltar to Morocco and east to Egypt.  From there it looked good to go south down the Nile to Sudan, make my way to Kenya, and go east and a bit north from there by boat to India from the Kenyan port of Mombasa.  With any luck I could get cheap passage on what used to be known as a “tramp steamer” there.  I was all about cheap in those days.  Traveling cheaply meant longer trips when you had resources as limited as mine were in 1974.

I kept  to the first part of that route though I never made it to India.  I knew I would have to work along the way somewhere, and as I travelled along the Mediterranean coast in Africa nowhere looked promising for a guy like me to earn money.  The prospect of getting stranded without currency was sobering.  That coupled with trouble getting a visa to Sudan once I arrived in Egypt caused me to change direction and go instead from Cairo to Greece.   Different trip, but also good.   I have yet to make it to India, but you know, we’re both still on the planet and it’s not over yet.

And that’s how I learned all you really need to know to get from one place to another is the direction to go.

My most recent trip was quite different from those days 44 years ago.  My resources have increased but my life has changed considerably.  In 1974 I had no end date looming in any fashion.  I could still be out there I suppose had I persevered.  But as you might guess, my life in 2018 is significantly more constrained.

I had created for myself an opportunity for a much smaller trip.  I had to get from Ottawa, Illinois to Pensacola, Florida in four days.  In Pensacola I would join a group of friends for a string of daily rounds of golf in warmth and sunshine.  Until I arrived I had four days of complete and solitary freedom.  When I was younger four days, which now seems a luxury, would have been a drop in the bucket.

I could go anywhere I wanted, as long as I traveled once again in a southerly and easterly direction, and got to a place called Perdido Key in four days.  Out of stubbornness I avoided planning a route.  I did buy a new Rand McNally road atlas.  It was beside me on the passenger seat of the Buick.  I’d work the route out on the fly.