We're going back maybe 15 years for this one but I love this story. My Grandpa Pete was a man very set in his ways. He and my Grandma Ruth never traveled, ever. There's two fundamental problems with travel as he saw it; 1) Hotels are too noisy what with the elevator and the ice machine. 2) Relatives spare rooms are out of the question because it's probably going to be too hot and he can't sleep. Some holidays and rare occasions he would have no choice but to make the 250 mile trek from his home in Southern Door County WI to my parents house in Illinois. They would, without question, be driving home the same day. A four and a half hour drive to the average motorist one way. At some point in the stillness of rural WI my Grandpa became obsessed with trying to make the trip in record time. I recall he had made it in a blistering sub 3 hours. In a Buick Regal no less. Worth mentioning, as long as I remember his various cars, all big body Buicks, over the years the same Willy Nelson cassette tape made it's way into every one of them.
Recently I asked my Dad about it. He knew exactly what i was talking about. "The Guy was nuts!!!!", he says. He told me how he and my Uncle had to have a "talk" with him. Asking him to stop what he was doing. He didn't listen of course and they ended up refusing to get in a car with him even on short trips around WI. He would run stop signs as if they weren't there. My Grandpa, as it turns out, would leave to drive all the way home and as soon as he would arrive he'd run to the phone to call my Dad just to make sure he knew how fast he'd made it in.
His 3 hour record puts his average speed at least 85mph, and don't forget you have to stop for gas once. As far as I know he got only one ticket in the three attempts each year for roughly 5 years of the project, although it was a $900 ticket. He asked the police officer to give him a break and the officers responded "no one gets a break at 40mph over the limit".
Grandpa Pete was a cool guy and, despite safety concerns, that's an awesome idea for someone to be so passionately adhered too. He passed away a few years ago and the record still stands. I think it'll stand for years to come.
