This story is about my grandparents (Clint and Lavon Jasperson). Much of the story is based on my dad's memories which he shared with me on the phone in 2020. Another source for the story is a Conoco Touraide booklet that Dad gave to me 5 years or so ago. I had it digitized so I could share it with others in the family (see download button below).
When you open the digitized version, pay attention to the Bookmarks in the file. I added them to highlight several pages. In addition, I added some comments on several pages (see blue annotation icon in the Touraide cover image below). Watch for these icons in the file to learn more. NOTE: I could not get the comment icons to work on my iPad or iPhone until I saved the file to my device.
In the late-1940s, Uncle Tex went to Louisville, Kentucky to ride racehorses. He was there a couple of years. While he was in Kentucky, Grandpa and Grandma planned a trip to visit him in Kentucky. Dad does not remember the year of their trip. He thinks it was 1947 or 1948. Dad is confident that Uncle Tex came back home in 1948. The copyright year of the Touraide booklet is 1946.
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| Grandma and Grandpa's Touraide cover (be sure to use the bookmarks in the digital version to review notes) |
The best information I found in researching the Conoco Touraide is an article in the Southeastern Antiquing and Collecting Magazine by Wayne Gilbert titled "The Conoco Touraide: The Mapquest of the 1930s". Mr. Gilbert tells that Conoco used the "Conoco Man" image and the free Touraides as a means to build customer loyalty. Interested customers could send a postcard with their trip start city and destination city to Conoco. Conoco would build a custom trip map (i.e., Touraide) and send it to the customer for free (see page 2 in Grandma and Grandpa's Touraide for some additional information and a picture of the assembly line that created Touraides). Grandma and Grandpa used this service for their trip to Kentucky.
Dad remembers that Grandpa liked to stop at the Conoco station in Cokeville. He thinks perhaps that is the connection to the Conoco Touraide idea for their trip.
Grandma and Grandpa invited Reed and Vona Vee Luthi to go with them on the trip. They had a wonderful time. However, Dad remembers Grandpa grumbled that Reed and Vona Vee went to a Roy Rogers movie instead of attending the races when they got to Louisville.
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| US Map with a trip overview (see pages 6-7 in the Touraide) |
Dad remembers the following highlight stories from their trip.
While they were in Kentucky, Grandpa drove around the countryside and stopped to visit a few horse farms. He stopped at the farm that owned Jean Valjean. They talked to an old trainer who told them he rode Jean Valjean every day. Grandpa told the trainer that he (grandpa) owned Jean Valjean's brother named Jean Lafitte. The trainer said "No sir, you can't own that horse. He is way out in Wyoming." Grandpa replied, "Yep, that's me!"
They stopped in Oklahoma City on their return trip (on Route 66). When Annette and I moved to Oklahoma in 1998, Grandma told us how she visited Oklahoma City. She was surprised to see an oil derrick right in front of the state capitol building pumping oil out from under the capitol building.
They visited Royal Gorge in Cañon City, Colorado. I found a round sticker from Royal Gorge between the pages of the Touraide booklet.
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| Royal Gorge sticker |
Dad remembers that they stopped at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico on this trip. However, the Touraide booklet shows their outbound and return trip on the overview map and Carlsbad is not included in the trip on the map.
My Mom and Dad visited Royal Gorge on their honeymoon in June 1966 because Dad remembered his parents talking about it. Annette and I stopped at Royal Gorge in July 2021 to see what my parents and grandparents saw. I added some pictures from our 2021 visit to Royal Gorge to the end of the Touraide file (see page 46).
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| July 2021 Royal Gorge |
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