Vacation Memories

We are traveling this week. Three of our five member family are headed to a conference in Scottsdale, AZ while our two boys (men) are holding down the fort at home. The National Stuttering Association is having it’s annual conference in the hottest place in the states at the moment. Apparently they didn’t get the memo! 130 degrees. WHAT?!!! Of course it is a dry heat (like that matters?!!). Record breaking temps, they say. Here’s to being a part of history in the making.

 

Actually, now that we have arrived we’ve only seen it hit 110. Ahh…much better!

I was thinking as we were driving, and I had a lot of time for that on this 1,750 mile (one-way) road trip, about vacations of the past. My husband and I have taken our kids to a lot of places and have seen some really cool sights.  But I went a little farther back than that. Vacations from my childhood.

Some of my fondest memories are from those vacations of my early years. It seems like there was always an “incident” while traveling as a child. One such memory comes to mind. We were driving through the Smokey Mountains in our station wagon (probably a Chevy, just saying) when it overheated and died. If my memory serves me correctly, we were on a hill so my dad was able to let it coast to a roadside gift shop which was the nearest place to pull off of the narrow, winding road. I remember the shop because I purchased a souvenir  (with money I had saved), and bought a necklace. It would best be described as a shiny black rock on a cheap chain. I loved that necklace. I’m not sure what ensued next or how long we were stalled. It really didn’t matter. I was totally enchanted with my purchase.

Another memory I have was when we visited Michigan. We had just finished our tour of the Kellogg company and were at our car, my brothers and I wearing our Kellogg paper hats, while holding on to our individual serving size box of cereal both courtesy of the Tony the Tiger. We always carried an insulated “jug” of water with a nifty lid that you could use as a cup…which we did. My younger brother had poured a cup of water and for some reason sat it on the back seat of the car. I climbed in to take a seat and overlooked the cup of water, and promptly sat in it. I was wet, and ticked. So I got out of the car, poured up another lid/cup of water and threw it in my brother’s face. Bam! I don’t remember any details after that either but I bet it had  something to do with parental intervention.

And the last memory of incident came to mind was one of our trips to Florida. Don’t get wrong, I’m not saying there weren’t more, it’s the only one I have left at the moment to write about.

On our long, hot drive to the Sunshine State we stopped for gas and a potty break. When I returned from the Ladies room I could sense something had gone awry. It seemed (and I’m not pointing any fingers here) that someone had locked the keys in the car. It was hot. We were tired, and we were trying to staying cool-ish by standing under the shade of a palm tree. I’m unsure of how long we waited until we were able to get in the car. I do remember a few disgruntled family members…myself included.

I can’t end the post, however, without including one of my favorite memories. Lunch. My folks would pack a cooler full of off-brand soft drinks, some lunch meat and such. It wasn’t about the food, but those roadside picnic areas that we often found along the way. This was the day before all the fancy schmancy rest areas. My brothers and I would often do a little exploring after we ate, before having to pile back into the car for another leg of our journey.

Although our trips today are, at times, prone to an incident or two, my love of travel is still alive and well.