This past week Bonz went on his first road-trip. It was wonderful.
It made me think about road trips, in general. I’d like to go all the way back to Marco Polo (arguably the world's first travel writer) but instead I’ll confine myself to automobile road trips.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Great American Road Trip began in 1856, with the publication of Walt Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road”:
“Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.”
I don’t know about that - that sounds like a delightful hike to me. But WSJ claims it planted the seed of an idea in the American imagination.
The first recorded automobile road-trip was taken in 1888 in Germany by Bertha Benz (wife of Karl Benz, the inventor of the first patented motor car and founder of Mercedes-Benz). She drove, along with her two young sons, from Mannheim (where they all lived) to Pforzheim - a journey of about 112 miles.
Pforzheim was where Bertha was born. She packed her kids in the car, left a note for Karl, and hit the road. Once moving, she realized that she had no idea how to get to Pforzheim. She normally took the train. She decided to drive to the nearest town lying in the right direction, going from town to town until she arrived.
By the time she and her boys got to the second town, they were running low on “ligroin”, which was what gasoline was called at that time. Ligroin was only available from chemists. She went to the town pharmacy in Wiesloch, bought some, and that pharmacy claims to this day that they were the world’s first gas station. Bertha had to buy more fuel at two additional town pharmacies before they finally arrived safely in Pforzheim.
Cooling the engine was even more problematic than getting fuel. They stopped and refilled their “thermosiphon system” at every opportunity. Pubs, streams, even ditches were tapped to keep their vehicle on the road.
Their 2.5 horsepower engine wasn’t equal to some of the hills they encountered, but with two people pushing and one person steering, they managed. Then they had the compensating, adrenaline-producing downhill slopes. Their brake shoes were completely ruined by the time they arrived in Pforzheim. Bertha hired a cobbler to cover the brakes with leather for the trip back to Mannheim.
Here’s a photo of one of the still-existing models of Bertha’s car (with an actress dressed as Bertha at the wheel):
Where did the boys sit? This does not look like the type of road trip I’m used to. No wonder people wore goggles and scarves. It casts a clearer light on Isadora Duncan’s demise, for sure.
The first American road trip on record was made in 1903 by Philip Delany, a Colorado attorney. He drove from his home in Colorado Springs to Santa Fe, New Mexico. That’s about 321 miles. I’ve driven that stretch on I-25, and it’s a long and isolated trip, which crosses the continental divide near Raton, New Mexico. It took Philip Delany nine days and 900 miles to make the round trip. There were no paved roads.
In 1908 Henry Ford introduced his Model T and encouraged his workers to buy them on credit. This changed everything. Garages, gas stations, and diners began to spring up along roads which began to be paved. Hotels and general stores began advertising in booklets printed by AAA and the Automobile Club of America.
In 1914 Gulf Oil began distributing free road maps at their stations - with their logo prominently displayed. By 1920, the road trip was on its way to becoming an American obsession. The famous Route 66 was commissioned in 1926, and fully paved by the late 1930s.
The peak of the American Road Trip may have been in the 1950s-60s. That’s when Jack Kerouac wrote “On the Road” (1957) and John Steinbeck wrote “Travels With Charley in Search of America” (1962) about his road trip with his poodle.
So, we headed out this week with Bonz, to see my brother for a long weekend.
Bonz is a great traveler. He loves the car. He loved stopping at rest stops, reading the doggie internet with his nose and contributing to it with his pee.
He loved his time at my brother’s house, and made a new friend:
We had to bring this stuffed dog home with us, Bonz now carries "Eyes" around with him all day.
I was glad to take Bonz on this road trip, because he and I are driving to the Door County Peninsula in Wisconsin this summer so that I can musical direct Murder For Two at Peninsula Players. Yay! I'm hoping Bonz will know the drill as a result of our recent trip.
Meanwhile, our featured soap on deep deep discount this week is our Rainbow Bar. These bars are very lightly scented with a blend of orange, bergamot, and lime essence. You can get them here: https://www.serenasoaps.com/product-page/rainbow-bars-2-75-3-25-oz-bars
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