Road Trips and Rest Stops…

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster ….

Remember as a kid taking road trips with the family?

Most times when we took food it was sandwiches wrapped in wax paper.

I always remember crawling into the back of our station wagon where we had mats.

When you laid down the second seat, those mats stretched from the back of the front seat all the way to the tailgate and my 3 sisters and I would stretch out to snooze on the ride home.

Most state routes had roadside rests with disgusting primitive toilets and and water pumps with a picnic shelter.

But the interstate highways changed all that.

Our palatial Foster estate abuts the exit of the northbound rest area and we got notification of a public hearing in July about changes to that area.

The stop will be converted to all truck parking and private autos can use the facilities but not park overnight.

Many nights, the semi rigs parked in the rest area stretch out the exit ramps and north along 1-65 for several hundred feet.

Part of the project also involves a 22 foot sound barrier wall which will block our view of the interstate eventually but that will be awhile before that becomes reality.

The state has conducted “noise level” tests in the area of the rest stop and 1-65 and ours was he first property listed on the mailing.

I’m sure the reason Neav and I say “Huh?” so often is because we’ve been exposed to the traffic noise for more than 30 years.

But, the only time we really notice it is when construction or an accident slows or stops the traffic flow.

Normally, the continuous “white noise” is something we have adjusted to.

The whole interstate system came about when President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act on June 29th, 1956.

The Interstate Highway System came about as a means to enhance the national defense, improve transportation efficiency and economic growth while facilitating military mobility and create evacuation routes.

Since this was early in the “cold war’ period of the world, officials wanted to have the means to evacuate people from metropolitan areas in the event of a Soviet missile attack.

Now there’s an “urban myth” that one out of every 5 miles of interstates had to be straight and flat for use by wartime aircraft.

There’s some controversy as to which state actually started paving the 1st interstate highway after the act was signed in the late spring of 1965.

The actual work displaced more than 1,000,000 of us.

The entire system was proclaimed complete in 1992, covering about 49 thousand miles of pavement.

In the early 70’s, Neav and I lived in Selma, Alabama and whenever we came back to Ohio, we travelled I-65.

But in those days, several sections of the interstate were not completed in Tennessee and you’d have to detour to US 31.

Those stretches we lined with the 1960’s versions of Buc-ees with had names like “Crazy Charlies” and “Loco Larry’s”.

They all sold gas, fireworks, pecan logs, 3 t-shirts for $10 and flimsy beach towels and they had something resembling restrooms.

It’s funny, because Interstate 65 used to be our way home when we were in the Air Force and now we live with that highway in our backyard.

I discovered than one-fourth of all vehicle traffic in America is on interstates and that each state owns those roads within its boundaries.

Seventy percent of interstate construction costs are paid with fuel taxes.

You think roads are bumpy now, wait till more electric vehicles are on the highways.

North and south interstates have odd numbers while the east-west routes are even.

The longest east-west interstate is 1-90, stretching from Boston to Seattle for more than 3,000 miles.

I-95, which runs from the Canadian border near Houlton, Maine to Miami covers over 1,900 miles.

Most interstates are constructed to allow higher travel speeds of 70+ mph but there was that time from 1975-1986, the top legal speed was posted at 55 miles per hour due to the “energy crisis”.

In 1984, rocker Sammy Hagar released “I Can’t Drive 55”.

“One foot on the brake

and one on the gas, hey!

Well, there’s too much traffic

I can’t pass, no!

So, I tried my best illegal move.

A big black and white come

and crushed mu groove again.”

One final note.

Originally, the Interstate Highway System was created to reduce traffic congestion and fatalities.

How’s that working?

More than 5,000 Americans are killed in interstate crashes every year.

Buckle up!