My Grandpa Daley (Fred was his name and Eva was my grandmother)… used to tow a small travel trailer from White Rock, BC to Apache Junction, Arizona…wait for it… in the 1950's!!
I remember the '50's fairly well and I know roads like the one through the Fraser Canyon, were only just being built. A drive from Vancouver to Shuswap Lake (for us) started at 0300 hrs. with three little girls and a dog stuffed into the back seat of our older car and separated by pillows, and included stopping in Hope, BC at the Caribou Cafe for breakfast, 'stop and go' in 30 minute shifts through the Fraser Canyon on a dirt road with no guard rails, the foot-long hotdog stand in Kamloops for lunch, and the Balmoral store beside a huge tree at the road we turned off on to get to our wee cabin overlooking Eagle Bay. Dinner that night was usually canned beans or the like, heated up on the old pot-belly stove. What I also remember is the canvas water sacks hung on each side of the front of the car and the spare tire lashed to the roof.
This brings me back to my grandparents.
Can you imagine what their drive south must have been like? Given our own experiences driving a similar route and with all that today's development and technology has created; I can't imagine making this same trip without GPS, cell phone coverage, the internet, gas stations on both sides of the highway at regular intervals, rest stops and tow trucks a phone call away. I can't even read the fine print on paper maps without a magnifying glass!!
But they did it, without any of todays conveniences… and they did it year after year. There's more to their story, like their work on behalf of an orphanage in Apache Junction, and my grandmother's trike and baked pie deliveries… there's much more. But that's for another day. For now, I will just applaud their courage and stamina with respect to a drive that remains onerous today and must have been horrific back then.
Best wishes to you all for a good sun-warmed day… and may your roads be mostly paved and your GPS remain charged. CJ
