Miss Helen's 1936 Road Trip

 Being a fan of travel ephemera, TSG was pretty excited to see this vintage Conoco "TourAide" guide at our local used book store. A competitor/alternative to AAA's TripTiks, TourAides came in a larger, spiral bound format with photos and descriptive essays. The "Prepared Especially for" imprint on the front cover was a nice touch.

 The only thing we could find online about "Helen Georrgia" was a 1939 headstone listed at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma -- a fairly likely match considering the Bay Area origination of the trip. Of course there's no way of knowing how Miss Helen's trip to Atlanta went, but we hope she enjoyed her journey.

We had a heck of a time matching the exposure/colors on all the pages, so please excuse the inconsistencies. And the Dallas map didn't get rotated to portrait mode...drat! Oh well, consider it an imperfection made on purpose like the ones in Persian rugs.

 

NOTE: the individual pages can be inspected here: 1936 Conoco Touraide Guide

You Ain't Nothin' But A Hot Dog

You would think no one would need instructions on how to prepare this "traditional element of American food culture, having obtained significant cultural and patriotic status from their association with public events and sports since the 1920s"(Wikipedia). But of course someone felt the need to provide documentation. This particular example seen in the galley of the USS LST-325.

Note: faded appearance of section images due to application of sharpening and contrasting tools.

The Lonely C-97 Stratofreighter

Heading into Dodgeville in rural Wisconsin, TSG did a double when we came across this:

Gracing the front lawn of the Don Q Inn, the giant cold war-era transport plane came into view like a desert mirage. Of course this required a stop to investigate. 

 

Turns out the hotel's owner was a commercial pilot with a penchant for promotion. He bought the plane in 1977 and had it flown into the now-closed Dodgeville Municipal Airport with an eye to converting it into a coffee shop. The plans for the coffee shop fell through so the plane ended up as a big expensive yard ornament.

 The exterior is in relatively decent condition and the cockpit instrument cluster is surprisingly intact. The rest of the plane's interior however is in pretty rough shape. 

Besides being an unmissable roadside landmark, this plane has another claim to fame. Before it took up residence along US 18 it co-starred with Farah Fawcett and a puma in a 1977 Mercury Cougar commercial.