Exploring close to home can be as rewarding as seeing the world.

Byline: Been there by The Register-Guard

TRAVELER: Nancy Garboden of Eugene and her husband, Jim, believe people should climb in their car and take a trip. "We have met people in our area that have never been to Crater Lake, a national park that's only about a two-hour drive!" Garboden wrote while preparing for this interview.

"We have met people that have never been to Brookings, Astoria, Ontario or Joseph. It is hard for us to believe that they are not curious enough to visit these locations so near to them.

"If there is any travel message that I could get out to Oregonians, it would be to see your state. There are many great things to see and do, and a lot of them do not take much time to experience.

"We would hope that everyone gets familiar with their state and everything it has to offer," she says. "We are fortunate to have found a group of friends who are ready to go (almost) anywhere, any time.

"Someone will come up with a location or an idea, and off we go. It could be for a four-hour drive to lunch or dinner; it could be an all-day event; or it could be an overnight visit.

"Once you have 'mastered' Oregon, then it would be time to take on Washington, Western Idaho and Northern California."

Garboden is a legal assistant in the law offices of Johnson, Clifton, Larson & Corson; her husband is a purchasing agent for Nielsen Fastener. They are members of the Cascade Corvette Club of Eugene and the Beaver State Corvette Club of Albany.

FAVORITE DESTINATION: "I think it would have to be the coast of Maine. And why? It so resembles the Oregon Coast," she said.

"We have always had good experiences there, not just from the sights we see, but from the people. They are a lot like Oregonians. They are very friendly, helpful and outgoing."

She has made three trips to the coast of Maine. Camden is her favorite place there.

FAVORITE WEEKEND DESTINATION: "Our favorite place is Bandon," she said.

"There are two places there that are our favorites. One is the house that we rent there, called Tintagel. I think the owners named it after a castle in Scotland. It sits on a bluff and has a great view of the ocean.

The other place is the Harbor View Motel of Bandon.

"We specifically always ask for Room 310 at the Harbor View," she said. "It's the only room there that has corner windows that look out on the bay and Old Town and toward the lighthouse."

MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE: "To date, it's probably being able to do part of Route 66," she said. "We have not been able to do the whole thing, but that's the goal someday."

Traversing the nation diagonally from Chicago to Los Angeles, Route 66 predated the modern interstate highway system and has been supplanted as a major highway by Interstate 40.

But the romance of the old road remains for people such as the Garbodens, who found you can, as Bobby Troup's 1946 song said, "get your kicks on Route 66."

Garboden said they have books about the tourist attractions, restaurants and accommodations that were developed to get travelers to stop along the famous route.

"In the last several years, probably the last 10 years, a lot of those places have been refurbished," she said. "The road isn't completely open like it used to be. You have to get on and off of it. You know, I think it's my age group - we like to go back and look at those older things," she said.

"We came on at Springfield, Mo., and took it as far as Kingman, Ariz.," she said. "We only had a week, so we couldn't stop at everything we wanted to. We picked two things a day that we could stop at. It was an experience; it was really a lot of fun."

The Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, Okla., is an example of one of the most interesting places they visited, she said.

"We stopped at a teepee motel in Holbrook, Ariz.," she added. "The rooms are shaped like teepees. And there's the Cadillac Ranch, where this guy has planted Cadillacs. There's like six of them. It's outside Oklahoma City."

(There are several Web sites with more information on Route 66. Try going to www.national66.com, the site of the National Historic Route 66 Federation.)

The Garbodens traveled Route 66 in September 1999 as part of a two-week auto trip. They drove their '96 Corvette roadster in a caravan of Corvettes traveling to Bowling Green, Ky., for the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Corvette museum there.

Then, when the three-day event in Bowling Green was over, people dispersed, she said. "And the group we were with - we decided we would do Route 66 to get home."

TRAVEL NIGHTMARE: "In 1992, we went to an event in Spearfish, S.D., and we stayed in Deadwood (where a friend lived). We took a week to get there. You know, we stopped in Yellowstone and we did all this.

"The second day we were there, the Corvette broke down. And in that part of the world there are no Corvette dealers - Chevrolet dealers that are familiar with Corvettes. So we rented a car for the rest of the time we were there, then we made arrangements: We rented a U-haul truck and a car trailer and we had to haul it home," she said.

It was a tedious trip, she said, because they couldn't drive faster than 45 miles per hour. A friend with a car trailer met them in Billings, Mont., to make the last two days of the trip easier.

ADVICE: "We do a lot of research before we go," she said. "There's a lot of free information out there, if you just call or write for it. I also have a file drawer with manila folders. Whenever I see an article about a place that sounds interesting - it could be in the Guard, it could be in a magazine - I rip it out (and put it in the file). Someday, I'm going to go to these places."

For travel in Oregon, she says, the first thing to do is to get a current Oregon map from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Then get brochures, she says, things such as: "Where to Stay in Oregon," published by the Oregon Lodging Association; "See All of Oregon in Lane County," available from the Convention & Visitors Association of Lane County; the "Salem Area Visitors Guide" by the Salem Convention & Visitors Association; and "Off the Beaten Freeway: A Guide to Oregon's Scenic Byways," published by the Oregon Tourism Commission.

We welcome profile suggestions. If you or someone you know has intriguing travel tales to tell, write Been There, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440; phone Jim Boyd at 338-2363 or [phone], Ext. 2363; or e-mail the nomination to jboyd@ guardnet.com. Include the nominee's name and phone number as well as your name and phone number.

CAPTION(S):

Nancy and Jim Garboden stand behind their Corvette during a navigational rally outside Frisco, Colo.