Daily writing prompt

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

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This time around, it’s a trip we took as a family in the summer of 1964, when we drove from our home in central Massachusetts to Sycamore, IL.

There were seven of us– Mom and Dad, my two brothers and two sisters, the youngest of which was less than a year old. I was 10. We were riding in a maroon 1960 Pontiac Catalina station wagon, a boat-like vehicle with few modern safety features– if there were seatbelts, they weren’t used, and there might have been a padded dashboard. The speed limit on I-90 was at least 70 MPH most of the way.

I forget where we stayed the first night, probably somewhere in Ohio, but I do remember seeing Lake Erie for the first time. My Dad pointed it out by saying something like, “Look over there. See that blue that looks like sky? That’s actually water.” Or something like that. It was an amazing sight.

I don’t remember everything about our stay at our aunt and uncle’s place, mostly bits and pieces. I do remember a thunderstorm that forced us to sleep on the living room floor one night (we had been sleeping in a screened-in portion of an outbuilding on the property). We got to meet some folks on my uncle’s side of the family, connections we’d have for the rest of our lives. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and took in a Yankees-White Sox game at Comiskey Park. Whitey Ford was on the mound, and I think both Mantle and Maris were playing.

I remember, on the way home, stopping at Niagara Falls and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. And I also recall that by the time we got to Cooperstown, we were all getting tired and cranky from sitting in a confined space for extended periods of time.

When school started back up, it was the experience I shared with the class when we talked about What We Did This Summer.

Daily writing prompt

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

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I have to go with the bus trip from MA to NM in 1968, when I was 14, with a group of fellow Boy Scouts and adult leaders, to Philmont Scout Ranch.

We were gone for almost a month. Along the way, we stayed at military facilities– Carlisle Barracks, Air Force bases in Ohio, Texas, and South Dakota, maybe a couple more; YMCAs in St. Louis, MO, Cheyenne, WY and Chicago, IL, and a hotel on the Canadian side at Niagara Falls, with supper overlooking the Falls in one of those high rise restaurants.

I look back on this every now and then and think how amazing it was, that we got to see so much of the country while probably not fully appreciating the opportunity or giving it sufficient thought at the time.

It included my first visit to Gettysburg, a place a quarter century later where we’d be living for four years. It included visits to the top of the Gateway Arch, the Truman Library, a ride on the cog railway to the summit of PIkes Peak; Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, various other places and landmarks along the way, and lots of hours on a Wilson Bus Lines bus traveling through various topographies and locales and getting a sense for how big and varied the American landscape was.

And of course the hiking in the southern Rockies for eight or ten days– can’t remember exactly how long we were on the trail, anymore.