Myk Garn
Second, as an adult and parent now, I wonder what our parents were thinking. I do not recall any hesitation or admonitions tied to our announcement and plans. A neighbor of Randy’s who was an AAA member had a TripTik put together for him. It was the 1970s equivalent of Waze. The TripTik was about 4” wide by 12” long with a plastic spiral binder at the top of the 4” side – a stack of small, incremental maps you could flip through as your trip progressed. To get one made for you, you’d go into the AAA office give them your itinerary and then they would pull the individual map segments from a giant wall of map boxes. Then they would annotate on each segment where there might be construction or other things to look out for. Having one made for a trip was the coolest thing at the time.
But a week later, there we were on the road. It was a sunny 35 degrees out and we were bundled up in snowmobile suits, Sorel pack boots, scarves, and the warmest gloves we could find. We’d bought tall ‘sissy bars’ for the back of the bikes and had strapped on backpacks stuffed with everything we thought we’d need. The day was sunny and our first destination was Randy’s uncle’s house in Detroit. Normally it was about a 4 to 5-hour drive. But today it would take a little longer.
