For many Americans the open road is a place, and a state of mind. Often the journey lead “out west”, to the Golden lands of California. For many Australians this is easy to get, California dreaming is about beaches, the endless summer and surfing. We have that and the relaxed beach life is an easy translation for us, easy to “get”. But this is a possible mis-read, something missed, over-simplified. The energy and restless optimism of the open road to the western horizon is about more than beaches and sunset dreaming - it’s also about a desire and belief in change. Behind the t-shirt and relaxed California exterior is a significant drive, energy and importantly - confidence. With smart people and money we can change things. We just have travel a bit more to get there, to leave the past behind. That is the real tradition of the open road - to leave the past and get in motion.
Northbound on Interstate 95 near Hawthorne, Nevada at the foot of Mt Grant
Americans often yearn to be there, a place where you might be able to glimpse what is beyond or next or new. Beyond is sometimes better than here, and that can make you restless, needing to move, or move-on. That opt-out option, take to the open road, to seek what is new or just to renew what you have.
Somewhere on Interstate 10 in Arizona
The rewards can be high - some have succeeded - and don’t talk often about the failures. The Donner Party is a hard thought - but many went after, and some were OK. California is golden and not cold or “here”. How else do you dig deep enough to over come the fears - you look, you dream, you aspire and inspire to success.
Highway 93 in Arizona
There is hope on the road, change and excitement. Possibility and opportunity. If you don’t move you can miss them, get old and decay. On the road you are alive and living.
Something about the American west harks to the open-road and the possibilities that beckon from beyond the horizon. As the heart grows restless… change things, go west, move on.
Granite Dells near Prescott, Arizona
California became a part of the United States in 1850 but even before then, even before the Gold Rush, people in the East dreamed about the lands to the West. The explorers Lewis & Clarke showed that those from the East could reach the Pacific by land. Then came the “Mountain Men”, the tough trappers and adventurers, and they made trails and dreams for others to follow. Next came the settlers and those seeking riches. The flows of people never really stopped - moving populations. For some it was to escape cold winters, for others to get rich, and for some a chance to dream.
Looking into Nevada from US highway 93 south of the Hover Dam
To get to get to California from the eastern states, before the Transcontinental Rail Line and the interstate road system was built, you had two choices, a long arduous and dangerous sea journey around South America, or a long arduous and dangerous across-country trip by land. The land transportation technologies used - covered wagons and horses - would not be unfamiliar to medieval travellers.
After completing a land journey across vast desert expanses and hostile territory there was one final, massive obstacle. The Sierra Nevada Mountains form a north-south barrier between the west-most states - California, Oregon and Washington and the states to the east. These mountains - often to referred by those who live at the foot of them as “the hill” rise to 13,500 feet (over 4000m), with passes at around 9000 feet. The approaches and foothills on the California side of the range tend to be mostly gentler, while on the eastern side there are more steep drop-offs and sheer cliffs. Summers in the mountains are hot but the winters can be brutal and for the unprepared, deadly.
Emigrant Gap is a pass over the range between Reno, Nevada in the east and Sacramento, California in the west. West of Donner Pass, Emigrant Gap offered a plateau between the ascent on the eastern side and the decent on the California side.
Emmigrant Pass in the Seirra Nevada mountains
Beyond Emigrant Gap there are rocks bearing scars of wagons and the ropes used to lower the wagons where the way was too steep. If the deserts, hostile inhabitants or frozen winters hadn’t stopped travellers, the mountains still could, and sometimes did.
“It was a splendid population - for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home - you never find that sort of people among pioneers - you cannot build pioneers out of that sort of material.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It
Deckchairs at a beach resort on Lake Tahoe
The US system of interstate highways was built in over a period of decades and was formalized in the 1950’s. The Lincoln Highway was the first “road” for cars to cross the country, and it was mostly a collection of dirt tracks leading from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. When real highways opened significant waves of people took advantage drive on new roads like the famous 66, some visited, many stayed.
The tradition of moving on, taking to the road never left California. Still having one of the biggest road systems and a large population of towns and cities gives many the chance to keep moving. But the real restlessness is now intellectual, churning for new inventions, methods and approaches. The past still not important - its about what you can do - not what you have done. Your degree matters less than your github. Wealth is important, but so is the dream - it’s still the passion - the open road to the future that is open to all if we choose it.