Edsel vacation fail

Well, had to say goodbye yesterday to the dream of taking the family vacation in the Edsel. Tim and friend Jere Dotten have been working feverishly to get the car ready, but had to admit it wasn't going to make it thanks to a blown head gasket on the newly built engine.

Am I weird for being sad that now we'll be taking a boring old modern car?

Anyway, we leave tomorrow to drive up first to Virginia and the UTCC, then we'll point the Honda to NYS and Niagara Falls. Kids are getting too close to college, so I figure we have to cram in every last chance we can to make them endure thousands of miles in a car with us, listening to our music and us telling them to stop texting and converse with live humans instead. They'll RUN back to school next month!

Margie

When you get to the Falls, make sure you do the Maid of the Mist. It is truly awesome. Even just walking around on the Canadian side at night (and in town) is pretty cool. If you're here this weekend, make the 2 1/2 hr. ride east on #104 to Oswego. Harborfest http://www.oswegoharborfest.com/?page_id=21 starts tonight thru Sunday. Saturday night fireworks over the harbor shouldn't be missed.. Entertainment includes Little River Band and Kansas! If you make it here, I'll treat at the best BBQ joint in the east, world famous Dinosaur BBQ and Biker Bar(family friendly) http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/syrIndex.php

Enjoy your trip. And have fun with the kids before they NEVER want to be seen talking with their parents. A couple of years after college and that will probably change. Ditto Minimac on Oswego. Maid of the Mist, and finish off with Cave of The Winds. Touristy, but fun. And you'll be going past Watkins Glen on the way up....

bad luck on the edsel, but on the up side, at least you didnt get 500 miles away and have problems, that would really suck! The important part is you still have a family vacation to look forward too.

I still remember the family trips when i was a kid, looking out of the back window of my fathers Road Runner, spotting ironically enough , road runners in Arizona and new mexico. But its not the car that was important...

Before you know it, they will run off to college, and out of the house, too.

It would have been interesting to read your comments about vacationing in the Edsel- do the compromises of an old car get made up since it's an old car? Or do you find out why cars have progressed the way they have.

One of my distict memories as a child was driving all day, and theng getting out of the car and smelling like exhaust. And having a minor headache. On the flip side, my wife and I still like the idea of driving all of Route 66 with our GTV.

Back in the day, we said that the journey was part of the vacation. It will be interesting to see if the journey, and just the journey, could be the vacation.

Taking the Edsel would've made some great photographs and memories. BUT taking a boring modern car will do the same. It's the people you travel with right?

Now..

STOP TEXTING AND TELL ME YOU'LL CLEAN YOUR ROOM!

alfadriver wrote: Back in the day, we said that the journey was part of the vacation. It will be interesting to see if the journey, and just the journey, could be the vacation.

You've managed to put into words exactly what I felt like we lost when the Edsel had to be put on Injured Reserve. Although the journey will still be part of the vacation--I'd like to amble up the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, though that may not be an option depending on how much of the weekend we need to spend at the track after the UTCC--it won't be as obviously the highlight of the whole thing.

You guys are right, though--the point is the who, not the what or even the where, so it's all good.

Margie

If I remember correctly blown head gaskets were a way of life with the Ford engines of that era so that means you're getting the full experience of the Edsel.

Does the Edsel have AC. If not, I wouldn't feel too sad.

Marjorie Suddard wrote: Am I weird for being sad that now we'll be taking a boring old modern car?

No, you're just weird.

I tend to drive myself nuts on this issue. I love my old cars, but I also love the reliability and creature comforts of my newer ones. A summer time trip like that in an old Edsel, you just want to torture your kids like your parents used to, right?

Mine parents did it my sister and I. Sunday rides in the back of the non air conditioned Mustang with the windows rolled up so we wouldn't jump out. Camping trips were worse. In the Falcon wagon, with the rear windows up, and the two big dogs in the back, drooling on us as they panted. Hours long. Shudder.

MMM, Personally I think losing the Option of taking the Edsel is a hit to the experience. I know that spending time with the fam damily is a serious plus ( I miss my siblings sometimes these days), but id give anything to be 6 again, and be heading off to god-knows-where to do some camping, bouncing around the back of my dads Cherokee chief, fishingpoles and coolers all over the place, dying of heat exhaustion and listening to Creedence on the radio...good freakin times man!

that is a shame, I think taking the edsel would have been the highlight of the vacation.

One of my goals when I get the Fiat up and running is coming down to see you guys in Florida in it

Forgot to mention....after Oswego , continue up to Alexandria Bay and take one of the cruises in the St Lawrence and the 1K Islands. Make a stop at Boldt Castle. It's neat. Even if you miss Harborfest, the dinner invite stands. P.S. If you stop at the house you probably could write off the trip.(reader research!)

Minimac, we are going to take a trip on the St. Lawrence, and Maid of the Mist is definitely on the to-do list. Not sure we'll make it as far as Oswego (or down? My grasp of geography is inversely related to my grasp of language... apparently it was a very binary choice the day I got made).

And I agree with everyone who noted that no Edsel is a loss. I'm sure our desire to take it was partly wrapped up in our need to torture our kids as we were tortured.

One of my most vivid memories of family vacations as a kid was of trying to roll down the window as I realized I was going to be carsick--small wonder considering all my mom's cigarette smoke was wafting right into the back seat--and having my dad turn around and yell, "What the hell are you doing? We're on the Atlanta bypass! Roll that up!" (A situation that neatly captures the world I grew up in. Why did the windows have to be tightly closed on the "bypass"? Why was driving on the interstate such a big deal? And shouldn't my parents have been more concerned that the car carrying their young children was full of smoke?) The story had a happy ending, though: I obeyed my father and rolled up the window, then turned to the side and puked all over my older brother, bringer of most of the indian burns, noogies, and other small tortures I endured as a kid.

Oh, well. I'm sure we can cook up the same kind of craziness in a couple thousand Suddard highway miles, even if it is in a modern car.

Margie

Keep the windows up (WE'RE ON THE BYPASS!!!) and turn off the AC. Then make them sing songs. And get one of those in-car phone blockers.

Damn about the Edsel! Nothing like a good summer road trip in a classic.

Both my parents are from the Philly area and we have a cabin in the Poconos about 35 minutes East of Scranton that my grandfather built. Every summer my parents, 3 older sisters and I would pile into the current wagon of choice (Chevy, Ford, etc. Dad wasn't particular) and make the trek North from FL. Nothing like 6 people in a station wagon for 20 something hours. My Dad would always want to drive straight through to Philly with he and my mom taking turns (until my sisters could drive).

Those are some of the best memories of my youth. Lots of time with the family, reading, playing "alphabet", getting all the states license plates, singing (mom is a voice teacher). We all look back and talk about those trips, our memorable fights, my sisters all having chicken pox one year (infecting the entire East coast), eating at the HOJO where they were out of everything we ordered, sleeping on the transmission tunnel for warmth, the expansion joints on the DC beltway, holding your breath through tunnels, etc.. Almost makes me sad I don't have kids to share this experience with. This time with your kids is truly special and will be remembered.

I'm sure it will be an awesome trip. If you take 80 or 84 West out of NYC and need a place to cool your heels near Scranton let me know. The lake is perfect this time of year.

We drove through Custer State Park and enjoyed the park and buffalo and then decided to drive back (950 miles) to Chicago to get home since we had been camping all week and was tired of looking in the S10 Blazer for our "stuff".

We were in Wisconsin and my wife wanted to stop for the night and I flipped. We are ONLY 4-5 hours from our own bed. We got home at 3:00am.

Two summers ago we drove for two weeks from Chicago to Bar Harbor, Maine down the coast to NYC and then back. My 17 year old son was annoyed the second day; "If I had known we were going to be doing this much driving, I might have stayed home." Shut up and start singing Christmas songs with us.......

Marie and i drove an mgb to washington dc for vacation back in the day. We left jacksonville fl on a sunday thinking no big deal get a cold one in GA . Lady at the store dsaid got bad news and worse news Ga is dry on sunday and South carolina is also . Boy was I glad to see pepe .

A roadtrip in a 1958 Mercury Voyager wagon, 7 kids, one girl, the others restless and not well trained. "If I gotta stop this car..."

Mike was so small he couldn't see out the window so he sat on the door handle; Chris though it sould be funny to pop the handle to scare Mike. The door opened. What a hoot.

Before the trip was over the old man wheeld the four ton Merc off the road, grabbed Mark right through the window and hoisted him up into one of those cement trophy cup looking things at the end of a new housing development.

I don't know what the hell Mark was thinking, but we were convinced he was living there from now on.

Edsel Schmedsel, find another way to build memories, save your kids the therapy money.

Dan

Karl La Follette wrote: Marie and i drove an mgb to washington dc for vacation back in the day. We left jacksonville fl on a sunday thinking no big deal get a cold one in GA . Lady at the store dsaid got bad news and worse news Ga is dry on sunday and South carolina is also . Boy was I glad to see pepe .

That's Pedro, right?

We stopped there on a trip from CT to FL. All those road side billboards worked on me and my sister - we then worked on Mom and Dad. That trip was made in a '65 4dr Impala.

Great times, indeed!

Marjorie Suddard wrote: The story had a happy ending, though: I obeyed my father and rolled up the window, then turned to the side and puked all over my older brother, bringer of most of the indian burns, noogies, and other small tortures I endured as a kid.

Ah memories. We did a three way barf in the Mustang one Sunday. Sundays meant getting up late and frantic and going to church on empty tummies. Then maybe snagging some coffee and donuts after service, to best ensure the kiddies are bouncing off the walls and tummies are quivering.

Off we go for yet another torture session of a "sunday ride in the country". I still despise the phrase. My sister starts her whine, which can easily be translated into "I'm going to be sick". My father launches into a tirade about enunciation and proper speaking methods and such. He winds down and she answers by puking in the back seat. I don't have a strong stomach, so I promptly join in, and puke on my side. My mother, who was probably hung over, answered by throwing up in the front seat.

So, here we are, probably 50 miles from home, with a well puked car and no paper towels, in our Sunday best.

Still, it did have a good note, I don't think we did any more Sunday rides after that. And dad got a lot better at understanding little whiney voices from the back seat.

I visited my 12-year old nephew last autumn. Flew into 'Vegas, and after not seeing him for three years, on the 5 (?) hour drive way back to my brother's house in Cottonwood, AZ, all the munchkin wanted to do was play his PSP. One hour into the trip, after blowing off a question, the Playstation sent the entire week I was there in the glove compartment. What ever happened to looking out the window, using one's imagination, seeing stuff you may only glimpse or see once? When I was a kid, road trips were GREAT. Face glued out the window, and "let's go a bit further around that corner." If you don't instill a beginning of using an imagination and a sense of "what if?" then what happens to inventiveness? Sense of wonder, and questioning the world. Showing my age. Hey I made a go cart out of a Briggs&Stratton engine, a stop sign, washing machine pulleys, bicycle spindles, and wheel barrow tires. I don't think I would have been able to think like that would it not for the "go outside and play" from my parents. And find something to do with what I had. The nephew acted a bit lost without the PSP. It took lots of questions to get a good conversation going....

There'll be other road trips, and though it's sad that the Edsel won't make this one, well, the ol' girl IS quite elderly, cut her a little slack. :)

When I was a kid, grandparents lived in middle TN, we lived in western NC. Many/most vacations were made up primarily of an 8ish hour drive in back of the Caprice Classic wagon, or for a while, the 77 Eldorado. I still remember how agitated dad was about the Eldo's windshield wipers giving up about 4 hours from home or destination, in the pouring rain. I remember the time my brother got massively carsick and having to smell it for the rest of the ride. I remember some BBQ joint in Lenoir City or thereabouts that was full (FULL!) of all kinds of china/plastic/metal pig memorabilia. I remember my preadolescent glee at figuring out that I could make my sister squirm by looking at her ("he won't stop staring at me, mom!"). I remember that the road trips in the Eldo were tough because the back seat was shaped about like a canoe, and whoever sat in the middle (my poor little sister) was guaranteed to get smooshed.

Road trips, like most family vacations, are better regarded in retrospect. The shiny nitrocellulose glaze of nostalgia helps glaze over the rough patches. I wonder, now, how my parents feel about those vacations and what they remember- I guess I'll have to take my own kids on the road to find out.

Oh, and next year? Take the Edsel.

We never left home without these:

Yes, I hotlinked the photo, but here's a plug: looks like AAA sells them, $2.99 each for members.

"Policeman." "Where?"