We're proudly displaying our week-long facial hair from our road trip. Jack Sullivan, Bob Zimmerman and I decided to make a weeklong road trip in my 1957 Volvo 344 up to the Smokies and Mammoth Cave via Daytona Beach and Gainesville before I went off into the Coast Guard on 6/6/66. Jack had just finished his freshman year at the University of Florida, and Bob and I had just finished our first year at Miami-Dade Junior College. We had never driven by ourselves further north than Broward county before so this was a real adventure for us. We spent one night in an oceanfront motel at Daytona Beach, one night sleeping in a park in Georgia, one night in the car in Asheville, NC, another night in the car near Mammoth Cave, a night in a cheap motel in Murphreesboro, Tennessee and the last night on a park picnic table near the Georgia-Florida border. There were limited interstate highways back then, mostly I-75, so the driving on US highways and county roads was tedious and slow compared to today's driving conditions.

I kept a statistics book for the trip. We traveled 2891 miles, bought 118.6 gallons of gas, and averaged 24.3 miles per gallon for the trip.

The log that I kept states:

5-12-66: left at 9 am, traveled up the coast of Florida visiting Jonathan Dickinson State Park and Cape Kennedy area. Spent the night at Daytona Beach motel going to sleep around 1am.

5-13-66: left at 10 am, traveled across the middle of the state to Gainesville where we visited the U of F where Jack had completed two semesters. Entered I-75 and proceeded to Macon where we arrived around 8 pm. Unable to find our way around town we tried to sleep in the car. At midnight we took off and headed for the Smokies.

5-14-66: after driving all night we arrived in the Smokies at sunrise. Took pictures and went in to Gatlinburg to get some food. Taking the food back to a camping area we proceeded to cook it. We climbed Burnt Mountain (elevation 1500 feet). We left the park and proceeded to Asheville where we spent the night in a cabin motel on the east side of town.

5-15-66: after sleeping 12 hours we went to church. Leaving the area about 2 pm we proceeded north and visited Cumberland Park where we had a picnic in the Virginia part of the park. Drove during the night, almost hit some cows in Kentucky, and arrived in the Mammoth Cave area around 1:30am. We went to sleep in the car around 2 am.

5-16-66: waking at 6 am we proceeded to follow girls to a high school in Cave City. We arrived at Mammoth Cave around 8 am where we washed our clothes. Then we took a 4.5 mile, 4.5 hour cave tour. Met Becky Wilkerson who was charming. Leaving the area we drove like a bat out of hell and spent the night in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

5-17-66: leaving around 10 am we proceeded south. Visited Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga. Turned west and went through Alabama and turned east and went through Georgia. Hit Atlanta around 5 or 6 pm. Fueled up and ate dinner (donuts) in Atlanta. Proceeded south again and got on I-75 at Macon (rotten city). Slept on picnic tables and in the car at a roadside rest area from 2 am to 5 am near the Florida-Georgia border.

5-18-66: after waking at 5 am we proceeded to Gainesville where we ate breakfast. Proceeded through the middle of the state and spent most of the day in the Tampa-St. Pete area. Visited the Schaeffers who ran a child care center on the water in Gulfport that I went to when I was 4 or 5 years old. Left Sarasota around five and came down the Tamiami Trail hitting Miami around 10:15 pm.