The Travels of Eliot and Jackie

Puerto Vallarta Jamaica Paris !! Madrid Panama London/StoneHenge Rio De Janiero Murder Mysteries Guatemala Palm Springs, Ca. Hong Kong S2000 Events Thunderbird Events Barbados St. Martin Seattle,Wa. San Francisco New Orleans Las Vegas Cancun Jill&Drayton'sVowRenewal Mazatlan Cabo Guadalajara The Truck For Travels Old Family Pics

I do know that life is about travel, imaginary or real, short or long distance, by foot, wheels, boat or plane. People have always, and will always travel. They always travel for a purpose, whether they know it or not, when they start off. There is no such thing as "just going for a walk," or "a drive."  When we travel sometimes we accomplish our purpose and sometimes we don't.

I started off one of seven kids - my first real travels (in the usual sense of the word) consisted of sitting in the rear left side (though once the middle) of the back seat of a 1953 Studebaker; 1957 Plymouth; 1963 Ford.  Those were the travels with my family.  None of those cars had automatic transmission, air-conditioning, or power anything. They were all four door, plain Jane, under-powered, pure transportation.

If I think way back, and reach real deep - I actually remember the thrill I had with my first "travel." That 1953 Studebaker had a starter button on the floor; my parents left the car in gear (usually first or reverse) when it was parked in front of our house. I remember sitting in the car and pushing on the starter button -- and  the car moved !!!  It went a few inches - maybe even a foot or two, forwards or backwards. I invited friends to go with me. We had a blast. Of course, I was real short then and when I had my foot on the starter button and pushed with all my might to make it work , my eye level was about at the bottom of the steering wheel. I never saw where we were actually going.  Sort of like air travel today.

My first flight was taken when I was fourteen years old, in 1964. I had come in second place in the local Soap Box Derby races (lost by a nose as they say), and the prize was a one and 1/2  hour flight around New York City. We went in a small single engine Cessna and  had an outstanding view of the City.

In the summer of '68, when I was sixteen years old, I took my first real commercial flights. My parents sent me to Guatemala for three months, as an exchange student. I lived with a family in Guatemala City. I spent my time there in an all girl's school (HEY!! they gave me a choice !!)  and my Spanish went from "very bad" to "not too shabby" while I was there. Thirty-two years later, in the year 2000, I returned to Guatemala and visited with the family  I had stayed with, and some of the people I had known, in 1968.  Pictures from this visit are in the "Guatemala" section of this website.

When I entered into my second year of undergraduate college, and I was 18 years old, my parents gave me a their 1963 Ford Galaxie. It was a big car, with no power anything, and a three speed standard transmission on the column. The car was powered by the "mileagemaker six," which had approximately 225 cubic inch displacement. It had about 85,000  miles on it at the time. I was given the car in September, 1970 and I took it upstate N.Y., to undergrad college.  I knew nothing about cars.

One way to pay the cost of traveling to and from undergraduate college was to carry paying passengers. In the fall of 1970 I had acquired several passengers, and was heading down from college to Long Island, New York - for the Thanksgiving holidays. I was about 5 miles north of Binghamton, when suddenly the oil light went on and the car decided it did not want to run very fast anymore. I pulled over to the side of the road - and added oil. The oil light stayed on. Someone in the car made the suggestion that perhaps the oil pump was bad - and I thought that if I put enough oil into the engine - it would not really matter if the pump was working or not - the oil would just be where it should be to begin with. I had a case of 24 quarts of oil in the trunk - and I proceeded to add about half the case of oil to the engine. To my dismay - the oil light still went on when I started the engine.

I drove to the next exit and, with the engine making the most amazing noises, limped into a gas station. The attendant came out - looked at the engine, listened to the engine and proclaimed, " you need a new engine !!!" Thinking that he must not be correct - I continued to drive to a Ford dealer - where it was confirmed that the oil pump was bad. My passengers abandoned me and my car and headed for the bus station.  I settled in while the oil pump was changed in the engine.

Several hours later, with a new oil pump in the engine - I continued on my trip home. By then it was pitch black outside - but even so, I could see that the inside of my car was filling with smoke - checking the rear view mirror I saw that I was leaving a literal smoke screen behind my car. A trucker pulled up next to me, honked his horn, and with his window open yelled, "HEY BUDDY -- YOU'RE ON FIRE !!! "  Actually I was not on fire -but I went through six quarts of oil to drive the approximately 200 miles home.

Once home, it was obvious that the '63 Ford Galaxie was not going anywhere in the condition it was in. My Dad told me, "Eliot, if you want a car, you will have to fix that one yourself." So, with a simple sentence, I was headed off to learn about cars and, how to rebuild a car engine.  I did not have a garage to work in, and the winter of '70 - '71 was cold and very snowy. At night I put the tools I was using on one of the hot air heating grates in the house, they stayed warm for about ten minutes once they were outside. I got books out from the library which told about  the engine I was working on,  and I took that engine apart in a methodical manner - so that I would remember how it all went back together. When I eventually was able to look into the cylinders - it was apparent that the corner of one of the pistons was missing. I ended up rebuilding everything in the engine except the cam bearings, timing chain, and valves. To my amazement, at the end of the winter recess when I had finished the job, the car started and ran well !! I  had a car with what amounted to a new engine. After that I went through several other mis-adventures with this car - including the time that one of the front wheel bearings failed and got so hot it welded itself to the axle; failure of the timing chain, leading to burnt valves; and a broken shift linkage  in the middle of a blizzard. 

Why am I telling you all this ?? Well, this was the means by which I was able to conduct my first significant travels here in the United States. Over Spring Break, 1971, off I went for my first trip to Florida - along with three other college refugees. I drove straight through -- stopping briefly at Daytona Beach - and then continuing on to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. I vividly remember eating a mixture of cold baked beans and tuna fish for breakfast -- now THAT was creative cuisine !!!

Time passed. One '63 Galaxie led to another, which led to another. All told I have owned five, and I still have one today; I need that sense of continuity.

to be continued ... soon...

 

My wife and I travel whenever/ wherever - and enjoy doing so immensely. Though some people may think it strange, in fact I attribute our long marriage, in part, to the travels we have been on together. I am convinced that couples frequently rely too heavily on  each other as a primary source of mental stimulation. This may work for the "early" stage of a relationship - but not in the long run. For us, the trips we take provide positive relief from what would otherwise be the repetition of daily life.

I plan my trips, to whatever extent I am able, myself. In the process of planning trips - I learn about the place(s) we are traveling to. We tend to plan fairly far in the future - and have planned a trip as long as a year in advance.

Once a trip is planned,  the information sits near me while I work at my desk, and provides a reminder that no matter how rote and mundane some days may be, there is an activity that I have planned that will enable us to do something new and different.

My theory is that many married individuals initially seek out new partners, not because they no longer care for their partner, but rather,  in an effort to find some new mental stimulation. Many long-married couples find different ways to accomplish what I am describing on this page. Some people get active in social organizations; some are active in politics; some go to sporting events together, etc.. We have chosen to provide new mental stimulation for each other through travel.

I hope you enjoy the trip reports and photos contained in this web; and I hope to keep adding to it and improving it.

Happy trails !!

Eliot

 

CONTENTS OF WEB SITE COPYRIGHT  © 2001, 2002, 2003,2004,2005 BY: ELIOT J. DEUTSCH

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