Old Apple II games.

Hi! I'm trying to remember the name of an old apple II game I used to play. It's basically like "cross country usa" except without the commodities abd geography. You have to get your car from on town on a map to another, and along the way you have to choose when to eat/sleep/fuel at towns en route and which way you want to drive based on a crude map. The big thing I remember is every once and a while your car would "throw a rod" and the game would end. It's driving me nuts though. It's as though the game doesn't even exist! Also there was a series of games that you could buy when the school book catalog came out. The teacher would hand out the book catalog, and you could check off what you wanted, bring in money, and the books or programs would come a few weeks later. The one I really remember has a sailing part where you could sink yourself if you used the spinnaker while sailing into the wind, and also a part where you had to walk a plank and find buried treasure. also there was a game where you were a reporter and need to find the who/what/when/where/why (or how) of a story. It's driving me crazy not to be able to at least remember the names of these. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks!