Road Trip

Good afternoon everybody.

Welcome to the Petrified Forest.

Can you say Road Trip?

We just got home from our Grand Canyon trip with Blaine, 13 years old, and what a trip.  I will be writing about it for the next few days.

Today I want to write about days gone by.  Look at the old car above.  Just beyond the car are the telephone lines that ran along Route 66, the ROAD, the mother ROAD.  From Chicago to LA.  We can only imagine what a journey people had making that long, hot trip in most dessert without air conditioning.  The hubby shared with Blaine some about his trip when he was 12, just about the same age as Blaine is now.  In a station wagon without air conditioning there were five adults, two 12 year-olds, and a baby, making their way from the middle of Arkansas to LA.  Coming back they added another adult and another baby.  Would you consider making a trip like that today?  I can answer that!  NO!  He said they planned their timing to cross the desert in the middle of the night.

Times are different these days....air conditioned cars, expensive, repeat, expensive hotel rooms, expensive gas, more expensive food.......or so it seems.........compared to the days when we were first married and taking road trips.

Johnny and I and our kids made a lot of trips over the years.  We saved and saved for these trips and thought they were important for the culture of our children.  We set aside our money each month, scrimping by just to make those trips.  (In fact, it was kind of amusing how I managed our money back then, but worthy of its own blog post so I will save that memory for another time.)

We looked for inexpensive hotels (motels as we knew them back in the day) and often we would find one for less than $30--remember this was in the 70s and 80s.  I'd fry chicken before we left and we'd have a picnic everyday along our route.  When the chicken ran out, we'd grab some luncheon meats and bread.  Those picnics gave the kids a chance to run and burn off a little energy before hitting the road again.  If it was too hot for a picnic at noon, then we'd hit up a restaurant and save our "picnic" for our evening meal (spreading out the tablecloth {oh yes, I packed a tablecloth} on the bed, piling on and enjoying the Olympics or a political convention on TV--they always seemed to be on at the time we were traveling.)

We traveled but on a thin dime, but nonetheless, the trips are etched forever in our memories and hopefully in our children.  Times were simpler back then or so it seems.  Maybe our expectations were less and our wonder greater. 

Take a road trip....they are the greatest............

I love you.