Sunday, May 14, 2017

My Travel Records Discovered




Earlier this week, while I was searching for documents I thought I had to continue a line of investigation of my ancestors - a letter I thought I had read recently and a few photographs I though my deceased Aunt had sent in a box that might be in my basement - I came across a collection of federal-green note books from the former Federal Supply Service, each one filled with lined pages with "Memoranda" on the cover. Years ago, these small notebooks were kept in federal office supply cabinets and were used by federal employees for all kinds of reasons.

The copies I have are mostly filled with irrelevant information, but there are two with entries that contain recorded information I long ago forgot I even kept...details on what would turn out to be my final 11-day permanent-change-of-station, or PCS, road trip from Anchorage, Alaska, to Grand Rapids, Michigan, after I had accepted my final promotion in a 30-year federal career. These were the paper records of that PCS move, including associated gas, hotel, and food receipts.

This blog entry is not specifically related to my own climb up my family tree. I am, however, very sensitive to the longevity of anything put on the Internet, which this will be, and hope that someday, in some way, these small data points might fill blanks for one of my descendants or might answer a question one of them might have as they climb their own tree and encounter my branch. They are the kind of records I wish I had for my own ancestors, but which I have neither found nor expect to find.

This small table might also give a reader some indication of how long a focused road trip from Washington to Michigan across the Northern Plains, done in Spring, in a 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 4X4 pickup with a Lance 1135 camper and everything I thought I would need for 60 days of temporary housing, would take. This was not a luxurious trip one might take on vacation, but was taken "to get there" and show up for work on Monday, May 7, 2007.

(For reference, this was about 2 months before I bought the house I live in now, just before the worldwide financial crisis of 2007/2008. Real estate in my part of Michigan has not improved much; my house continues to be "underwater," meaning I owe more than it is worth on the market.)

Here it is.
__________________________________________

April 26, 2007

Depart: Anchorage, AK
Mileage: 50013
Fuel price: $3.19

Arrive: Whittier, AK
Mileage: 50110 (97)

April 26, 2007 - May 1, 2007

Aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System vessel M/V Malaspina en route to Bellingham, WA

May 1, 2007

Arrive and depart: Bellingham, WA
Mileage: 50,110

Arrive: Seattle, WA
Mileage: 50,215
Fuel price: $3.59

Arrive: Vantage, WA
Mileage: 50,355
Fuel price: $3.9

Arrive: Coeur d'Alene, ID
Mileage: 50,532
Fuel price: $2.94

May 2, 2007

Arrive: Frenchtown, MT
Mileage: 50,685
Fuel price: $2.99

Arrive: Bozeman, MT
Mileage: 50,902
Fuel price: $2.9
May 3, 2007

Arrive: Hardin, MT
Mileage: 51,092
Fuel price: $2.99

Arrive: Gillette, WY
Mileage: 51,279
Fuel price: $2.76

Arrive: Western, WY
Mileage: 51,464
Fuel price: $2.99

May 5, 2007

Arrive: Chamberlain, SD
Mileage: 51,639
Fuel price: $3.06

Arrive: Sioux Falls, SD
Mileage: 51,774
Fuel price: $2.94

Arrive: Fairmont, MN
Mileage: 51,896
Fuel price: $2.97

May 6, 2007

Arrive: Rochester, MN
Mileage: 52,023
Fuel price: $2.99

Arrive: Mauston, WI
Mileage: 52,162
Fuel price: $3.05

Arrive: Rockford, IL
Mileage: 52,303
Fuel price: $3.15

Arrive terminus: Grand Rapids, MI
Mileage: 52,579

TOTAL MILES: 2,566

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