Stop Flying!! America is truly the land of the beautiful! Drive to your destination and support the American restaurants, shops, attractions, and more! The airlines have overstepped and deserve to go down.They have outrageous costs, violate your freedom (TSA) let us not forget that, and they are happy to implement the mark of the beast shit. I have seen America in its entirety and trust me you only know it by experiencing it. America is the land that inspires songs!
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When I was a kid my dad wanted to take us to visit my uncle in CA for a couple of months. He was my dad's only sibling. His employer told him "no" so he quit his job. He was a talented machinist and he knew he'd have no problem finding another job. My dad and mom bought a small Shasta trailer and hooked it to our 1962 station wagon, packed up all we needed and three kids and took off. My dad being a history buff had poured over maps for days marking our route with iodine on a Q tip.(I guess highlighters hadn't been invented.) Our first stop was Mammoth Cave . From there we zig zagged all over the States on our way. We went to the Mississippi deltas and watched guys catch shrimp, and saw our first glow worm on the path. We slept just outside an old sugar mill and found lizards by the score. We tasted sugar cane, drank water from a roadside pump, saw where Billy the Kid was killed, went to a desert and camped by a highway with no one passing by for hours while we had a campfire and my mom and dad sang old cowboy songs. I would not ever trade that trip for one on a plane. Yeah, we would have gotten there faster, but I'd have missed all of these memories that I cherish to this day. That trip was made 63 years ago
Beautiful story - thanks for sharing!
Thank You ! I thought it was too long for anyone to stop and read it. I really appreciate you taking the time to comment ,too.
I don’t come here for anecdotes but I really enjoyed reading this. Bess your dad for having the balls to put family before work. Im sure it would fill him with joy to know that memory is so strong and vivid in your heart, all these years later.
Happy Easter to you and your loved ones.
Thank You. I know that it did . In the hours before his death I brought a beer to him at the Veteran's Home and we had a "cold one" together for the last time , I told him how I remembered the good things that he did for me. That and other trips were remembered with him and I told him how much I learned from them. He was a nature lover and had a great thirst for knowledge. I'm glad for all of those things.
Happy Easter to you also.
Thank You. I have done all of those as a child or a parent. I really hate flying . Last time was to D.C. had to fly because daughter had a small time limit. I was kinda miserable .I was pissed off at the airport and felt like they grudgingly let me get on their plane by the kindness of their hearts, and that I should feel grateful for the privileged to pay them 1,000 to do so.
Agree, made me think of the travels we did over the summer with my kids. My brother and I were teachers so we had the summer off to travel. We went everywhere and camped, slept in a teepee in Kingsman AZ, climbed the Grand Canyon, loved the badlands and Mt. Rushmore. He recently died in Dec. and I miss him very much. My kids have great memories of traveling all over with their uncle and mom.
That made me feel good like someone read it and it might inspire them to do a road trip too. I left out so much stuff to not be off putting . We went to Big Bend Park and I saved my sister from being stung by a scorpion because we'd been to a roadside attraction where you put a penny into a machine and a scorpion dummy struck a hand.
We met a Cowboy named Buck Newsom in a saloon and he offered my mom a swig from a whiskey bottle he kept in his boot. My mom didn't drink at all, but to be polite she took a swig. She coughed til she peed her pants. A month later there was an article about Big Bend in National Geographic and Buck Newsom was interviewed. My brush with Greatness.
Good for you ! Follow Route 66 and see America. Freeways are racist (ask Biden ) take two lanes and stop often. It really helps if you have no destination. Free Bird !
We drove when moving from tx to ca and its beautiful. We pretty much drive everywhere now. Better than flying with a 2 yr old anyways. I flew my whole life with my dad working for AA but the experience just sucks now
Funny you should mention Big Bend NP! On our first of 3? trips out west, we went to Big Bend; I was 6. Me and my two older brothers 9 and 11, went for a hike across a ravine from the campground we were in, and climbed up a talus slope to get to a point our Dad had told us "If you get to that point, I'll give you each a dollar". He wasn't aware of how far away things can be, and still look close, when you are in the clear and mostly un-vegetated lands of the west :) We did reach the point, and on the way back, started a small landslide, which we thought was the most hilarious thing for us; sliding down a moving mountain :) Our parents weren't so amused! The noise of the landslide echoed from the cliff behind the talus, back to the campground, where are parents looked on in horror. We did our dollar though :)
Our friends have four home-schooled kids and want to do something very much like this with them. What a glorious adventure.
It was. I think you need to do it at least once. I'm pretty old now and don't know if I can ever do it again. I'm so grateful for the memories that I have. I can pretty much relive what I remember in my head and it feels almost like I'm there.
Great memories. My parents started us tent camping early. I was one month old when I first went camping. I am not Brian Williams, so I don’t remember that trip LOL. I remember when our parents first bought our Skamper trailer, us kids thought we hit the jackpot. We took that trailer all over the east coast, north east and as far out as Michigan.
What do you remember about Michigan ? I grew up there. It is a beautiful state and few see it if not seeking it out. You can't drive across it from another state because of the Great Lakes. People have to have it as a destination. PS I was 3 months old when my parents took me deer hunting in the snow all bundled up in blankets. I'm sure they had no luck as my diaper's smells probably gave them away...
We visited relatives in Windsor, Canada. We went to the Detroit Zoo. I was younger and don’t remember where we stayed, but more than likely it was a KOA. I vividly remember the ride back into the US traveling in a long tunnel. One weird thing was they package milk in plastic bags in Canada. I remember my brother slamming the top of the cooler down and the milk bag exploded.
Had trip like yjisnintook with my kids and ex wife (we were married then) when we were moving from Washington State back down to FL. The boys still talk about that trip to this day. That was in '09. The daughter was born yet, but we're planning another family trip for her to experience later this year.
I'm sure she will have memories that will last a lifetime. Where are you driving? Old Route 66 is a place to get your kicks.