Mapping the Way Across the USA With AAA

Patrick M. of Quincy, Massachusetts, racked up a lot of driving experience on a family cross-country trip right after he got his learner’s permit.

I had just gotten my driver’s permit, circa 1982. My older sister had graduated from college and took a job as a nurse in Los Angeles.

She, my father and I got a TripTik from AAA, since this was well before today’s GPS, and we were off to LA from Boston.

At the crack of dawn, we drove from Boston to Sylva, North Carolina, nonstop to my father’s cousin’s. Then we went from Sylva to Garland, Texas, to his brother’s house. We stopped in Las Vegas and then went on to Hermosa Beach, California, where my sister got an apartment and went to work at Cedar Sinai Medical Center as an oncology nurse.

My dad and I flew home. I’ll never forget flipping through those spiral-bound TripTik books. It was like analog GPS. I don’t know how AAA did that as it seemed like it would have been done by hand with a huge resource of maps. I got so much experience driving in my sister’s blue Plymouth duster. I learned to read maps and followed those TripTik-highlighted routes perfectly.

It was the first time I ever heard of AAA. Good times.”

For help planning your next road trip or vacation, reach out to a AAA travel advisor.

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