JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

This diagram reminds me of an enormous and mega-completed versions of the imaginary Joey the Juices’ “Stop ‘n Go Inn ‘n Out” motel down on the nice part of Rt. 1.  This exploded version of the motoring motel was meant for West Coast for travelers “aimlessly covering thousands of miles”, a giant influx of people riding the wave of massive new car ownership. This ranch was to welcome 420 people with room for 80 cars–which means, I guess, that people were traveling together–really together–five to a car, which implies that there were a good number of people contributing in an organized way to “aimless” activity. Perhaps people were just doing a lot of serendipitous driving as an organized crew. In any event I’m pretty sure that I’ve not seen plans for a motor lodge of this size, and thought to share it, finding it in the pages of Popular Mechanics for October 1922. 

Given the birth of a much wider middle class, and the capacity for some disposable income, and access to cheap/affordable transportation and the roads to ride these new cars on, a large part of the working population of the U.S. did have the luxury at this point of travelling for the sheer hell of it.