After World War II ended and cars and gasoline became available, my father, by then in his mid-40s, decided to learn to drive. A few months later he bought a used 1942 Nash, maroon in color, and we set out on our first family driving vacation -- from Chicago to the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was the first of a series of annual summer treks that took us in subsequent years to such destinations as Independence, Missouri; Montreal; New York; and Boston. This was long before the advent of the Interstate Highway System, when most roads were two-lane and many were unpaved. For a novice driver, such a trip was rather ambitious and I can still recall many of our adventures and misadventures from that summer.