Long car rides

For all of my complaints about my parents, they did some good things too.  When I was 8 we started the practice of annual family vacations.  My Dad loved to camp and so we went every year to national parks, west of Kansas City.

The first year we went to Yellowstone, but I have also seen Yosemite, the Petrified Forest, Brice Canyon, Crater Lake, Three Forks Montana, and about every other Park in the west.

My Dad had a 1965 Ford Fairlane, 2 door, which the five of us rode in on these trips.  Just the thought of three kids in the back seat trying to get along on those long drives makes me shake my head today.

Anyway,  along the way we would do all kinds of things to make the time go by.  We would count windmills.  We would make a list of license plates from various states.  We would play the a, b, c, game... "I am going to Yellowstone and I am taking an apple."  Then the next person says, "I am going to Yellowstone and I am taking an apple and a bear."  Etc.

Later, our family made such trips in the LTD station wagons with the rear seat.

My friend Georgia wrote about their family trips in the Ford Wagon...
"Our wagon had the rear seats that faced each other. My parents even had a foam pad cut to fit the back and we used to crawl around and play games, etc back there on long trips. That was before seat belts, of course. When we were fighting, one had to sit in the back seat, one in the far back and the really bad one had to sit up front between mom and dad!"

Anyway, I hated taking our kids on long trips, until the miracle of car TV's came into being.  Thank God, when we finally got a little TV and VHS player, the children were finally entertained.  Today of course, kids have ipads and telephones but I am sure that they still ask, "Are we there yet?"

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
Send replies to jsbrink57@gmail.com