50 Year Trip in Time
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
50 years in the making, our nation`s interstate system is younger than many may realize. Interstate highways weren`t laid out at the same time the horeseless carraige was becoming popular, but it`s idea was spawned during that time. A 50 year anniversary celebrates the original motor-cross and came to Kansas Speedway. A couple specific points in time and some long, winding roads bring us to a celebration that includes President Dwight D. Eisenhower`s Great-Grandson, Merrill Eisenhower Atwater. One of those points in time was 1919. The yet-to-be President Eisenhower led a transcontinental motor convoy accross the United States as a Lieutenant Colonel in the army. That trip took 62 days. It was a trek that stuck in his mind as president, and he signed the Interstate Highway act -- and the nation`s interstate system was born. That was 50 years ago this month. A celebration now re-lives that original 87 year old convoy under much better conditions. Says Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, "We don`t realize that it did take 62 days in the original convoy and we`re doing it, with all our stops, in 14. But if you wanted to get accross the country, you could do it in about 3 1/2 days, easy. The current trip, however isn`t without its throw-back problems. Five time road author and convoy participant, Dan McNichol, is driving a `51 Hudson cross-country. That means turning on the heat in the middle in the desert in the daylight to keep the engine cool. McNichol is passionate about what the interstate system means to the country, saying, "We`d be a backwater country if we didn`t have this system. The interstate system has sustained us through 9/11, it has kept our economy competitive with Europe and Asia." The cross-country trip has an unusual feel for the younger Eisenhower. He says, "Being a part of this is kind of eerie. It really is. I mean, you`re retracing the steps of one of the men that I admire most that I ever read about." And the trip -- all these years later -- still has a cowboy element to it. McNichol hopes his `51 Hudson simply gets him to Washington. The trip began in San Fransisco June 15th and ends June 29th, the date President Eisenhower signed the interstate act in Washington D.C.
