By Kjell Åke Holdar
To find the way
M y uncle, Börje Jernheim, has a somewhat different hobby - he is
collecting roads. It can seem corny, but it is not as crazy as it seems to
be, and who knows, maybe it is hereditary because I have the same
desire to find new roads too. You are right, find new roads - or maybe
find the way back to the old forgotten roads. My family is not always as
contented as I am, so I am often told "no - now father has found a road
again".
What does Börje do then?
Well, he tries to avoid going the same way back when he has been
travelling somewhere, the trip is a big part of the experience. There
are more and longer highways and straight primary roads in the
country for each year and they are not built for journeys but rather for
quickest possible transportation between two locations. It not --either--
an easy thing for the oldie cars to ride along on those roads, so here
is my tip to you for the last excursion of the season.
Follow an old map
I'm sure many of you have among typical oldtimer accessories, an old
map from the childhood years of the car stowed in it's glove
compartment.
Have you ever tried following the routes shown on that old map?
If not, I suggest that you try. I have a 1952 PV equipped with a Shell
road map from the same year and a S-N map from 1957.
My son Martin and I --a couple of years ago-- decided to take the old
"Main Road 7" from Åmål to Gothenburg using one of these old maps.
Already in Åmål we had problems but were solved by use of the city
maps in the KAK road car atlas from 1981. Köpmannebro and the
crossing of the Dalsland Canal was simple, there were road signs.
The next problem arose in Vänersborg. We could not find the correct
approach despite comparing studies of the maps from 1952 1957,
1981 and 1997. In Vargön we found the correct road but there the city
had put concrete obstacles across the former "Main Road 7", how
unkind!
After that is was simple, we only had to aim at a railroad crossing on
the Västgöta plains and then to pass the Gärdshem church.
We came wrong again since the railroad was closed and excavated.
After Sjuntorp we discovered the next wrong driving, but then we could
not care to find the back again but went out on the new highway 45.
The trip took a little longer of course, but we had great fun and got to
see a lot of surroundings that still had marks from the great times
when the main road passed by. It you too have an old map, bring it
with you and make a long autumn ride with the car and find your way
back to the old through ways in your home area. You who are young
will see a lot of things you only heard of and you who are older will
have a lot of "ahas"
Happy travel!
Kjell Åke Holdar
Chairman
Translation by Dan Jansson. Thanks to Mark Hershoren for assistance
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