Before airline travel became so
quick and easy, a summer vaca-
tion always meant some sort of
highway, even if just to a cottage
or campground.
From two of us who don’t drive
huge distances very often, here are
a few observations.
@ Reservations are a bore.
Why bother to travel by car when
a tight schedule of 4 p.m. check-
ins has you hogtied? Some of the
highlights of our trip would have
been missed if we reserved.
@ Tourism is currently in the
red. I don't care what statistics
’ “experts’’ wave around, the whole
. industry is hurting.
:. Most motels, restaurants and
> attractions were uncrowded. The
»~ , §ervice people waiters,
-, bartenders, motel and restaurant
- ewners don’t lie. When a restau-
: Yant’ Manager tells me his lunch
trade is down 50%, he’s scared.

When a graduate in Food and
Restaurant Management is tending
bar.in a modest highway stop,
he’s not - idoing : it because he:
thrives on pouring drinks.

© The . highway ‘system in the
‘United States has improved a lot.
- | particularly ‘noticed: that’ second-
ary roads. —- our favorites -—- had
many passing lanes and strict rules
about. slow traffic. Campers,
trailers and other drags puiled
over smartly.

@ The’ further south we travel-
led, the better the drivers.. We

.. visited Oregon, California (most
of it!),. Utah, Nevada and
’.. Washington.
Washington .was infuriatiug!
. Everywhere else we saw nothing
- but courtesy and skill.

@ We’re licence plate watchers.
It’s a game to spot far-away plates
and especially B.C. plates a Jong
‘way from home. We agree that we

. saw fewer than 10 B.C. cars on
the road other than in
Washington.

In all, we spent 21 days in the
other states mentioned. Where are
our: travellers? Obviously not

“down there. .

@ We’d love to have stayed in
quaint guest houses with home-
made muffins for breakfast. Alas,

_ it isn’t practical.

When you’re going to be driv-
...- ing abovt 4,000 miles, you Icok
-. for whatever you can find that is

. convenient. We found some lulus.

. @ Please take note of this —

“NORTH SHORE |
VENTURE TRAVEL
& CRUISES

FALL
SPECIALS

| VANCOUVER TO LONDON
return

cn 588 |
| VANCOUVER to SYDNEY |

on.

call us for detaits

Mito East 14th St. Bf
B (at Lonsdale)
m North Vancouver §

I’M SURE that many of you are like us about long car
trips — it’s something that you | used to do.

McCreadie

TRAVELWISE

and remind me if we.ever do this

sort of trip again! | will never
travel by car without my own cof-
fee maker!

Seven a.m. (I know — some
people do sleep later on a vaca-
tion, but 1 don’t) with no coffee is
awful. It’s hardly better with a
paper -cupful of ‘‘complimen-
tary.”

The company that invented
pre-packaged coffee machines for
restaurants cught to be bombed.
Is decent coffee a sin?

@ Getting an edible breakfast is
also difficult. What does a travel-
ler know when he pulls into a cof-
fee shop?

I like a light meal, but I came
to realize that the chances were
slim — rubbery eggs, leathery
sausage and abominable ‘hash
browns’? were normal fare. I now
know where rancid fat is stored —
highway cafes.

@ It’s easier to get a decent
dinner. By that time of day, the
traveller is hotelled for the night.
With luck, there’s time to ask
around for places out of the way.

I discovered that almost every
town has a fairly good Itaiian res-
taurant or a seafood house that

HHCLUDES

© Fully escorted tour

© Wine and cheese
welea

© Ride the “ilar const

Super DELUXE

PP. Double Ocoipancy
Hoy. 13th Departure only.

Tips for your extended roadtrips

the locals like. IF all else fails, a
prime rib spot may get you some-
thing edible.

® The traveller is at risk! I re-
ally don’t know how we came
home without some sort of illness
— guardian angels?

Here’s an example: We enjoy
hot tubs and the one in the
Doubletree Inn in Salt Lake City
was a beauty. We soaked for a
while and then returned to our
room. My fingernails were
emerald green!

**Brian!”’ I squawked. ‘‘Look at
your nails.”” Sure enough, we
might have come down from
Mars. It took days of scruobing to
get the tint out.

1 complained and was told that
there ‘‘might have been an excess
amount of chlorine in the water.’*

Another example: { ordered an
omelette — the outside looked
fine and I took a bite. Within se-
conds, raw egg oo7e.) out of the
centre. That was in C:rant’s Pass.

@ We met some great people!
In fact, the oniy nasty creeps we
encountered — in better than
three weeks — were in the Ex-
calibur Hotel in Las Vegas.

By this time we were joired by
our friends from California and
they were-so infuriated that they
wrote a letter to the hotel and
have received a polite reply.

Still, I don’t need to have two
snarly dealers, a bartender who
tipped the rudeness scale and a
restaurant manager who suggested
I hop down a few floors and have
my perfectly ‘‘clean’’ credit card
OK'd by the front desk! That’s
afier I waited until she finished
her coffee.

® Fortunately, those people
were -in the huge minority. We
have a car repair done free of
charge by the service manager of a
Ford dealership in California. :

“Gosh, it’s great to meet you
folks,”’ said one bellkop who had
already been tipped the usual
amount.

We went to, the Caffe Snort in
San Francisco and Briana was
disappointed. The customary
rudeness (part of the act) was

SUPER OPTIONAL TOURS

 Disneylond ond
Universal Studios

ia a Die Wild Animal

¢ fi Vesas Dinner Show,
living Desert ond more!

Coach Tours

TRAVEL
Car travel advice: a coffee maker

missing!

We teamed up with two Ameri-
can couples who were waiting in
line beside us, got a big table and
shared dishes. Great fun and great
food.

(Note: Caffe Sport is an old
friend of mine, on Green Street.
Reservations are a must. Food is

Sicilian. Decor? Well, see for
yourself.)
@ After a long time away,

Canada Cusiomis isn’t a highlight.
We crossed at Aldergrove and had
the usual half-hour delay.

But, I wish I'd taken the name
of the agent who dealt with the
excess wine we'd picked up
through California. He was just
so damn nice it was a pleasure to
pay what we owed in duty.

We weren’t trying to get away
with anything, but if he’d wanted
to make life miserable, he could
have demanded we haul out the
excess to show him.

After 23 days of travel the car
looked like Dogpatch and hauling
anything out of it would have
started a landslide.

I have a hunch that many peo-
ple lie about what they have ac-
quired just to save the possible
confrontations once they have
declared excess. What a treat to
find a nice person in uniform who
is devoid of the ‘‘God’’ syndrome.

® And the makers of Ford

* Woolco

vehicles better be prepared! When
they get my letter about their
Jousy seatbelts, they aren’t going
to be happy.

The ones in Brian’s ‘‘pig’’ fail-
ed in California. Replacernents
were unavailable unless we could
wait a week and have them sent
from Detroit.

We drove from Los Angeles to
Vancouver without belts and one
had already been replaced a few
months ago as ‘defective.’ The
replacement was also defective
and impossible to have repaired or
replaced until we got home.

Attention any lawyers: do |
have a legitimate claim for mental
stress?

By the way, Brian’s car isn’t a |

clunker -- it’s

a high-priced
Thunderbird,

NEW YEARS in CALIFORNIA }
including PASADENA ROSE
PARADE

Can. $999. 4
db!. occupancy ’
DISNEYLAND
NEW YEARS EVE PARTY.

PASADENA GRAND FLORAL . #
PARAD®.: ENSENADA, MEXICO, '
SAI DIEGO. SOLVANG,
SAN FRANCISCO

{800K NOW! ~ LIMITED SPACE }
) Discover Your Worn Traver 4
. 980-4526  —

) ¢ > wednesday

* Fatons
The Bay

Cembined Appliance Centre

> friday

* Moore's ay Suit People
* Consumers Distributing

The Bay

Watch for our Real Estate Homes section

* Real Estate Weekly

> sunday

Safeway/Shoppers Drug Mart
Save-On-Foods/* SuperValu/* Zellers
* Sears/* Canadian Superstore

* London Drugs

If you miss any of these

flyers call North Shore News

Distribution 986-1337

* delivered to selected areas only

550,060 peopie work hard fe
protect Canada’s endangered species.

You can help foo.

ate

lawn,
(613) 725-2694

“Fn

on
-_

wey

~