Travel

Gas Was 36 Cents a Gallon, But a Cross-Country Drive Was Still an Ordeal. The Hidden Price of the Classic American Road Trip.

In 1965, filling your tank cost pocket change — but driving coast to coast was still an expensive, exhausting, and genuinely risky undertaking. The real story of the American road trip isn't about cheap gas. It's about everything else that could go wrong.

Mar 13, 2026

Flying to Paris Used to Cost Three Grand and Take Three Days. What Air Travel Was Really Like in 1965.

Before budget airlines and direct routes, crossing the Atlantic was an expensive, exhausting ordeal reserved for the wealthy. Discover how dramatically air travel has changed — and why your $400 flight to Rome would have seemed like science fiction sixty years ago.

Mar 13, 2026