AAA a member at heart 2/20

My grandfather was a member of the AAA. No he didn’t have a problem with the bottle only finding his way out of Illinois. He’d spend a Zillion dollars a year be a member and the American Automobile Association which would send him a guide to the area of the country into which he was headed. These were individually constructed road maps… with a red line you were to follow ...just follow the Red Brick Road and you’re in OZ.

Non of this preplanning rubbed off on my father. He yell out "Time to go" and we all piled into to the old Buick and bombed down the road sometimes getting to the place intended. This was the open road of the 50’s and 60’s , less traffic and many a less worry. Plus, the gas tanks were much larger then.

Today we have it make… no more AAA Tripticks. For now we have ‘talking dash boards’ and computer assistance telling us that we have just made another wrong turn. Putting the real dagger into the AAA are GPS navigation systems. It’s right there on top of your dash. Just follow the RED line – a right turn here a left there and over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go.

I mean the things are dumbie proof even my dad couldn’t get lost. They even tell you where to spend the night and the distance to the nearest gas station. But I sure do miss being my grandfather’s navigator, sitting in the front sit and turning the page of his Triptick as we headed up old highway 51.

Today’s gem, " You can’t rise above your achievements
nor fall lower than your failures –
but you always can make a wrong turn on the interstate."