@MIZZOU ASKS YOU

College Road Trips

@Mizzou readers share memories of college road
trips …

Mike Daft, Wayne Williams, Krissy Heitkamp and I set off for Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Miami three days after Christmas to the 1970 Orange Bowl and a date with the Penn State Nittany Lions. Mike, Wayne and I left from Columbia and went to pick up Krissy in St. Charles, Mo. She had a dance of some kind to attend, so we went along and danced until about 10 p.m. Then we loaded our stuff, including my cameras, into my 1969 Ford Maverick. I was covering the Orange Bowl for The Maneater.

Anyway, we left in a snow-ice storm, slipped and slid through Illinois and got out of the storm after about 200 miles. We drove all night and day, through Atlanta, sipping “refreshments” and eating on the run. We arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., where Wayne had relatives, an uncle who worked at the Budweiser plant. We hit the beach at about 3 a.m., soaked our feet in the ocean, ran, drove and napped on the beach. About 6 a.m. we went to the Uncle’s house, crashed for a couple of hours, had breakfast and then headed down the Coast Highway. Wayne’s mother was not far south in Florida (I think it was his mother), and we stopped at this old Florida home, trees draped in green foliage. It had a southern plantation look. I think we had lunch, sipped some refreshments and went on to Daytona Beach, Fla., where we saw the raceway and other great sites along the coast.

We arrived at Miami Beach, went to the team hotel, then to the press hotel, and I got my credentials to cover the Jan. 1 game from the sidelines. Then we went to a room we (or a friend) rented in a motel in Fort Lauderdale. We allowed a couple of other students to share it with us. The night before New Year’s Eve we had about 25 people. On New Year’s Eve, it may have been 30-40, and there wasn’t an unused spot on the floor. We drew straws for the beds; I was a floor guy. The time we spent in Fort Lauderdale and at the game is another story in itself. This road trip story resumes after the game, a loss to Penn State. We went back to the room, watched a replay until about 1 a.m., piled our junk in my car and started back.

We took a slight detour, driving all day and night, gaining sustenance and refreshment along the way, saw trees down and other hurricane damage from the year before, and ended up in New Orleans, a first experience for all of us. We found a motel and hit Bourbon Street about 10-11 p.m. We wandered the street, went into some great jazz places, drank some of the local specialties, had gumbo and New Orleans coffee and then went to bed around 5:30 a.m. We were out of bed at about 10 a.m. We headed back to the French Quarter, loaded a cooler full of fresh shrimp, bought local wine, bread and cheese and headed north toward Columbia. We changed drivers often and enjoyed the trip. We made it back safe and sound on Jan. 3. Now that was a road trip!

– Mike (Michael) Johansen, BJ ’71

I only made one road trip during my four years at Mizzou. It was spring break 1976, my junior year. My roommate Tim Cochran, who was a senior, had a brother who was going to grad school at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. We decided to drive Tim’s 1966 Ford Mustang all the way from Columbia to Arizona and stay with his brother.

We got pulled over in New Mexico by the state police for no reason at all. We weren’t speeding, and the speed limit back then was 55 mph. Later that night while watching the local news in Albuquerque, we discovered police were looking for two drug runners. I guess we fit the description – a couple of long-haired college students (that was the look back then). It’s a good thing that all we had was some Dr. Pepper in our cooler.

We were excited to see the big mountains of New Mexico and Arizona. We stopped off and stood “on a corner in Winslow, Ariz.” We also spit in a meteor crater. We wanted to escape the cold weather of Missouri for the warm weather of Arizona, but when we got to Flagstaff, Ariz., they were having a blizzard. When we got to Phoenix, the weather warmed to 70 degrees. We thought it was fantastic, but we were the only ones wearing shorts and shirts and laying by the pool. Everyone else in Tempe, including ASU students, wore sweaters and long pants. Seventy degrees was cold for them.

Well, we got our sunburns in Phoenix and headed for the Grand Canyon on the way back to Columbia. Like the meteor crater, we also spit in the Grand Canyon. What would spring break be without spitting?!

We also experienced another blizzard in New Mexico on the way back to Columbia. All in all, it was a great road trip. More than 3,000 miles on Tim’s Mustang, and I’ll bet we didn’t spend over $200 combined on the entire trip. Now that’s a college road trip!

– Todd Donoho, BJ ’77

I had been to every state west of the Mississippi River except Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Not getting any younger, I decided that this was the year. I flew from Kansas City to Salt Lake City, picked up a car and drove to Boise, Idaho. From Boise I traveled to Pendleton, The Dalles and Portland in Oregon. From Portland I went to Washington and the Olympic Peninsula, then down the Pacific Coast Highway, back to Oregon, then back to Nevada and Salt Lake City. I ended up driving 3,000 miles and saw some of the most beautiful scenery that I have ever seen. I would urge anyone who has not been to the Pacific Northwest to go while you can enjoy it.

– Jim Bikson, BS BA ’51

I loaded up my old Ford Explorer in Columbia and went to San Diego in May 2003. An MU friend, Addie Broyles, joined me on our joint journey. We crossed the rolling plains of Kansas and made it into Oklahoma where we ate at a place that crossed out every reference to French on the menu (“Roast Dip” and “American Fries”). We drove on through Texas before sunrise (my CD player stopped working at this point), crested the Continental Divide in the rain, tasted the sweat we couldn’t feel as we crossed the Painted Desert, and cooled off in a pool near a snow-topped mountain in Flagstaff, Ariz. The highlight of the trip was the smoke pouring out of my car on top of a mountain in Palm Desert, Calif., just two hours shy of San Diego.

On the ride back to Columbia at the end of summer, another MU friend, Ed Tribble, BJ ’03, rode back with me as we desperately searched for TV reporter jobs out West. We took pictures in Yuma, Ariz., but I broke my camera at the Grand Canyon. We swam in a natural spring in New Mexico, and I definitely stayed at the castle-shaped Camelot Inn in Amarillo, Texas. My car never broke down because I never let it. I checked the fluids religiously and never once let us run the AC.

That old car has taken me to all four major bodies of water in the U.S. and to numerous points across America. Right now it sits outside my window in Maryland, patiently waiting for the next road trip – maybe one that takes me back to Missouri.

– Rebecca Gannon, BJ, BA ’04

During my college years at Mizzou I took a number of road trips. Some were as short as going to Dunkin’ Donuts in Jefferson City, Mo., during finals week and others were as long as going to Las Vegas, Nev., for spring break. However, my most memorable road trip was the one I took last fall with two friends to Austin, Texas, for the Mizzou vs. Texas football game.

We started our trip Thursday night, driving to Stillwater, Okla., to stay with friends. Little did we know that it was their Homecoming weekend. We got to see the house decorations and the enthusiasm that goes into their celebration. We went out that night for a fun time at Eskimo Joe’s, a local bar. The following morning we got up early to finish our journey to Austin.

Once we arrived, we met up with some alumni for dinner and headed out on the town. To our surprise, we found a place called Sixth Street packed full of bars. Friday night quickly turned into a pub crawl because there was no cover at most of the bars. We visited places like The Library, Shakespeare’s, the Dizzy Rooster and The Aquarium, to name a few. Luckily the bars there didn’t close until 3 a.m., so there was plenty of time to see them all.

Our hotel was quite a few blocks from Sixth Street, so as we began walking home for the evening we decided we ought to find a ride. One of my friends went up to a van parked in the street and asked if the driver would give us a ride. We were in luck; she volunteered on the weekends to provide sober rides and agreed to take us back to the hotel. Since that night, we have referred to her as “our angel.” On Saturday morning we got up early to help set up the MU Alumni Association’s tailgate. The event was a success, and the football game was exciting – although we didn’t come home with a Tiger victory. Of course Saturday night we had to see Sixth Street again.

Most road trips would have ended on Sunday, but not for us. The football game was during the same time the Cardinals were in the playoffs. It was our luck that they would be playing in Houston on Sunday. We were able to buy tickets online and headed to there for an afternoon game. Unfortunately the Cardinals lost, too, but we had a great time. At about 9 p.m. Sunday night we finally headed back to Columbia. After driving all night long we were able to make it back about 10 a.m., just in time for class.

Needless to say, it was a fabulous weekend with so many memories and jokes that only the three of us understand. If there was ever a chance for us to go back to Austin together, we would do it in a flash.

– Mark Goth, BS BA ’05

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Last Update: March 12, 2007