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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

You Can Still Hit The Road, But Do It Closer To Home


RoadDog
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What with Big Oil raising the prices up to the $4 level and above (how about the deals they now offer when you get their credit card?) it becomes necessary to consider staying closer to home.

 

The May 11th Southtown Star, that serves Chicago's southern suburbs, had a great article bt Tom Houlihan called "Roadtrips don't have to empty your pockets."

 

He made a list of local roads and some places to visit along the way.

 

A synopsis:

 

DIXIE HIGHWAY-- from Blue Island, once part of a historic 1914 road system from Chicago to Florida; Joins Lincoln Highway in Chicago Hts. Suggests the Hi-Way Bakery in South Chicago Hts, been in business for 70 years with art deco sign.

 

US ROUTES 12 and 20-- 20 goes coast-to-coast. US-12 Detroit to Washington state. Suggests Sabre Room in Hickory Hills, Wolf's Bakery in Evergreen Park, Palermo's Pizza in Oaktown, and Top Notch Beefburgers in Chicago's Beverly community.

 

US-30-- Indiana line to Joliet-- looks much the same as it did 50 years ago (I don't know if I'd say that), but, with 50 TIMES MORE TRAFFIC (I'd agree with that)!!!

 

Suggests Carla's Restaurant in Chicago Heights-- old-time Italian eatery where waitresses still call you "Hun."

 

Interesting article. Perhaps some of you more technologically folk can find the url.

 

Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog

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What with Big Oil raising the prices up to the $4 level and above (how about the deals they now offer when you get their credit card?) it becomes necessary to consider staying closer to home.

 

The May 11th Southtown Star, that serves Chicago's southern suburbs, had a great article bt Tom Houlihan called "Roadtrips don't have to empty your pockets."

 

He made a list of local roads and some places to visit along the way.

 

A synopsis:

 

DIXIE HIGHWAY-- from Blue Island, once part of a historic 1914 road system from Chicago to Florida; Joins Lincoln Highway in Chicago Hts. Suggests the Hi-Way Bakery in South Chicago Hts, been in business for 70 years with art deco sign.

 

US ROUTES 12 and 20-- 20 goes coast-to-coast. US-12 Detroit to Washington state. Suggests Sabre Room in Hickory Hills, Wolf's Bakery in Evergreen Park, Palermo's Pizza in Oaktown, and Top Notch Beefburgers in Chicago's Beverly community.

 

US-30-- Indiana line to Joliet-- looks much the same as it did 50 years ago (I don't know if I'd say that), but, with 50 TIMES MORE TRAFFIC (I'd agree with that)!!!

 

Suggests Carla's Restaurant in Chicago Heights-- old-time Italian eatery where waitresses still call you "Hun."

 

Interesting article. Perhaps some of you more technologically folk can find the url.

 

Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog

 

Road Dog,

 

I like your advice! Discovering what is close to home can be rewarding, and you can become expert in a way never possible if the object of your interest is a 1000 miles away!

 

I have to share a little story. I have lived in the same house for nearly 20 years and the same community for close to 25 years, so I thought I had covered every inch of interesting road within 100 + miles. Then on the last leg of my 4000 mile Hypotenuse Trail drive, as I was “blazing” the last 50 miles, and staying on two lane roads, I “discovered” a stretch of about five miles of the old Pacific Highway (later US99) I had never traveled! Better yet, I found an original 1923 Pacific Highway bridge in terrific condition.

 

So even after 25 years of local road trips, there is still more to see.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

 

 

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What with Big Oil raising the prices up to the $4 level and above (how about the deals they now offer when you get their credit card?) it becomes necessary to consider staying closer to home.

 

US-30-- Indiana line to Joliet-- looks much the same as it did 50 years ago (I don't know if I'd say that), but, with 50 TIMES MORE TRAFFIC (I'd agree with that)!!!

 

Keep on Down that Two Lane Highway. --RoadDog

 

 

Hey RoadDog,

 

I surely do agree with you on the "50 TIMES MORE TRAFFIC - and that was back in 2001, when I was headed west for Seattle. I followed 30 thru Chicago Heights over to Joliet in order to avoid I-80 thru Chi town. Unfortunately, about 500,000, give or take a couple, drivers had the same idea at the time. :P Well, it seemed like it.

 

I agree with the "close to home" road trips. I have several already in the works, like the U S 61 from Memphis up to Blytheville (down here they pronounce it "Blyville) (about 75 miles) following the 1926 Automobile Blue Book routing (as much as possible), or a rerun from Little Rock to Memphis (about 138 miles), that I made on U S 70 a few years back, following a 1941 AAA Wester edition tour book. There are some others in the area that we can keep to 100 miles or so. In June I'll be following U S 64 over to Crump, TN (about 110 miles) for a Hudson car meet. Of course, all these milages are 1 way - I do have to get home. But, it shows if you look around you can find some short trips with interesting things to find and explore.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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I am finding that there is so much to see within two hours of my house that I can stay busy and happy on the road for probably the next three or four years!

 

I've had to scale back my summer plans for a number of reasons but the price of fuel is certainly a factor. Since I like to camp on my trips that helps save some $$$ but I also like the thought of fewer miles and being able to stop more often to better capture the flavor of a location. While last years 1800+ mile\1 week adventure was an experience I will always remember I felt there was so much I missed. Although, I suppose that I would still feel like I missed a lot if I did 1/3 as many miles in the same amount of time.

 

Roadhound

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We are all concerned about rising fuel prices, but even with a roughly $1.30 per gallon difference in the price of gasoline verses last year it's still not the end of the world. Do the math! If you do a 500 mile round trip now it will only cost you around $40 more this year than last if your vehicle averages 20-21 mpg. Yeah, $40 is $40 but unless you are on a really tight fixed income there are probably a lot of frivolous things that can be cutout in order to keep on the road. As I sit typing this, I can think of roughly $100 in frivolous monthly expenditures I can certainly live without. If I can figure out a way to legally cut the IRS out, I can add around 8,000 miles per month to the driving budget..... :D

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We are all concerned about rising fuel prices, but even with a roughly $1.30 per gallon difference in the price of gasoline verses last year it's still not the end of the world. Do the math! If you do a 500 mile round trip now it will only cost you around $40 more this year than last if your vehicle averages 20-21 mpg. Yeah, $40 is $40 but unless you are on a really tight fixed income there are probably a lot of frivolous things that can be cutout in order to keep on the road. As I sit typing this, I can think of roughly $100 in frivolous monthly expenditures I can certainly live without. If I can figure out a way to legally cut the IRS out, I can add around 8,000 miles per month to the driving budget..... :D

 

You are absolutely right when you compare the cost of a 500 mile trip. The difference between this year and last is small. In fact, that was how I was figuring the Hypotenuse Trail “extra cost” of gasoline….on a single trip.

 

It cost me about $530 for gasoline for the whole trip, and that is only about $160 more than it would have cost last year. No big deal, Right? That is how I figured it…..but…..

 

What I forgot is that if I kept doing my regular driving, got 25 MPG, and racked up 25,000 miles in a year, the difference in costs between $2.50 and $4.00 gasoline would be would be $1,500 in after tax dollars!

 

So before I take any optional trips (or buy a burger) at all, I first woiuld have to make up that $1,500 somewhere. In some ways I wish I was driving a big vehicle that was getting 15 MPG because I think I could buy a brand new small economical car for the savings in gasoline. But, alas, I am already driving a car that gets 25 - 30 MPG, so I am among the “fuel impaired.”

 

And to add injury to insult, everything that is transported gets kicked up a notch in price. Even if the cost of fuel isn’t a factor, it provides an excuse for raising prices anyway. I see it already. The guy delivering wood chips for the garden today has added a $4.95 fuel surcharge on top the delivery charge, which amounts to about a 10% overall price increase!

 

Curses! :angry:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

 

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You are absolutely right when you compare the cost of a 500 mile trip. The difference between this year and last is small. In fact, that was how I was figuring the Hypotenuse Trail “extra cost” of gasoline….on a single trip.

 

It cost me about $530 for gasoline for the whole trip, and that is only about $160 more than it would have cost last year. No big deal, Right? That is how I figured it…..but…..

 

What I forgot is that if I kept doing my regular driving, got 25 MPG, and racked up 25,000 miles in a year, the difference in costs between $2.50 and $4.00 gasoline would be would be $1,500 in after tax dollars!

 

So before I take any optional trips (or buy a burger) at all, I first woiuld have to make up that $1,500 somewhere. In some ways I wish I was driving a big vehicle that was getting 15 MPG because I think I could buy a brand new small economical car for the savings in gasoline. But, alas, I am already driving a car that gets 25 - 30 MPG, so I am among the “fuel impaired.”

 

And to add injury to insult, everything that is transported gets kicked up a notch in price. Even if the cost of fuel isn’t a factor, it provides an excuse for raising prices anyway. I see it already. The guy delivering wood chips for the garden today has added a $4.95 fuel surcharge on top the delivery charge, which amounts to about a 10% overall price increase!

 

Curses! :angry:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

 

 

The good or sad fact, depending upon one's viewpoint, is if your present vehicle is getting 25-30 mpg there is no possible way to save enough on fuel cost to justify buying something new that may get 5-10 more miles per gallon unless gasoline costs get into the $6-$7 per gallon range. Owning all the vehicles I have outright, a new anything would have to almost be producing fuel for me to justify forking out $20,000 to $40,000 cash for something marginally more fuel efficient. If one has a lousy 15 mpg vehicle they could easily drive seven years on what it would cost to buy a newer more efficient vehicle, assuming a typical annual number of miles. That's why I don't cringe when I fire up one of my 1950's or 1960's gas hog cars to go for a weekend trip. (nothing like taking a 1950s-60s car down the old two lanes... :) )

 

It is a fact that rising fuel costs are or will affect virtually everything we buy. It is also a fact inflation could start running rampant, but that is a political type subject best cussed or discussed in other forums.

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