treaders,
The T-53 begat the YS-53. There's an existing thread here, started by the previous owner of the one I saw at Morgan County Airport:
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...gsby-t53b.html
On the driving side, I've now done about 1000 miles, mostly on Interstate highways. Since crossing the border from Canada, I have not seen a single accident or any police cars! Everyone seems to drive 5-10 mph faster than the limit, which has mostly been 65 (UT), 70 (MT) or 80 (ID). The traffic only started to become heavier in northern Utah and the number of lanes each way correspondingly increased from two to three or four.