As the baby of 8 kids my life was quite interesting as a youngster. Older siblings always make for good stories but I will refrain from picking on them as a couple tend to read my blog every now and then. And I do love that they visit, they are learning all sorts of things about me.
However, this post will be about the many trips I was fortunate enough to take with my mom and dad. Trips that are embedded in my mind forever. Trips that taught me a lot about my mom and my dad. Perhaps a married couple that not many of my siblings got to know very much about actually.
Our childhood, like so many others out there, had more than it's share of moments that we would all just love to sweep under the carpet. Horrible images of what used to be, sad tears of confusion. But my mom and dad, as a twosome were quite something.
My father was a truck driver for over 17 years. Each year he would get a three week vacation. These vacations didn't start really becoming a big deal until my brothers and sisters were pretty much 18 and out of the house. Before these extravegant vacations I will speak of, we would usually spend the three weeks up at 'the cabin' lounging, water skiing, fishing, swimming, quite a luxury now that I have my own family actually. Too bad I was too young to really know that though.
I have been to over 36 states in the United States. Road trips, ohhhh, how I hated the car trips, getting my butt dragged out of bed at 4:30-5:00am every morning of these 'vacations'. I had not a clue the impact those trips would make on my life. One in which my siblings never got to experience unfortunately.
My father loved to travel. My mom, well, she always complained and said how she hated to leave the house but I can still hear her ooooh and ahhhh over the mountains that we saw. Hear her laugh as her and my father would walk through the hotel room door after going out to dinner and a few drinks. God, the memories I have of my parents.
My father would spend hours at the table planning out these trips. The first was pretty minor although splendid. We went to the Badlands in South Dakota. Of course to a 14 year old, this was pretty boring and I couldn't really figure out what all the hoopla was about. But my mom and dad sure did love the view.
We spent a day travelling to Mt. Rushmore. I of course was impatient and bored out of my skull. That first year it was just my mom and dad and myself. On the way up to Rushmore, we got to experience the Blackhills. Beautiful, beautiful place! Winding roads, rivers, pine trees. Just breathtaking. But as I said before, boring for a teenager. It wasn't until I was about 25 that I started to really grab on to these road trips.
We would stop at scenic overlooks along the way and take things in and my dad would sneak up behind me as I leaned on the rails thousands of feet from the ground and grab my waist saying 'don't fall' and scare the crap out of me. Probably why I'm afraid of heights now. My mom would yell at him to knock it off while I walked with shaky legs as far from that rail and he would be standing there laughing.
My father is a joker. To this day, I have not lived down one thing that occured on our way up the mountain. I wound up getting car sick missing about a half hour of the drive up. I fell asleep because I was dizzy and hot and felt nauseous. My dad will never forget that. He joked that I had missed seeing a bear and the mountain goat that he only got to see at bear country which I will speak of in a bit.
We also went to Yellowstone. I remember my father being on the lookout for mountain goats and buffalo. He was very determined to find one or both in the wild as he would stand at the foot of the mountains with his binoculars glued to his eyes in his blue shorts, baby blue dress shirt, white socks, black dress shoes, and his hat tilted just so. I have a photo of him in this stance actually from that trip. In Yellowstone we got to see a couple of wild buffalo and of course the wild burros. Those things were quite comical. We pulled over to watch them and they walked right up to the car and left their drool all over the windows. Of course they stood in front of the car too so we sat there for about 10 minutes not knowing what to do. We were advised to stay in the car if we saw any animals so that is what we did.
We also went to one of my most memorable places, Glacier Nat'l Park in Montana. If there is one place that I would love to go back to it is definately there. The blue of the water set against the mountains, I still look at those pictures and can smell the cleanliness of the air and feel the peacefulness. We took some hikes in the mountains actually and I remember being in awe of the snow that was melted in such a way that we could walk underneath it. And at the time I was in shorts and a tank top and could feel the coldness of the snow but the warmth of the day. It was so heavenly to experience. I mentioned a photo that I have of my dad with his binoculars. He is standing on a dock with his eyes glued to a mountainside swearing up and down that he could see something. A bear? A mountian goat perhaps? My mom and I were laughing at him and rolling our eyes because he was so dead set on seeing some sort of animal that she told me to snap the picture.
One other thing that we did was something that I think that both my mom and dad planned for my benefit. We attended the greyhound races. And we did so more than one time during our stay in South Dakota because I begged to go back. I had a theory that worked pretty good. If the dog went to the "bathroom" before the race, I would choose that particular dog and that theory made my parents laugh. Of course my choice would win maybe 3 out of 5 times so it really wasn't the best way to make a choice but it satisfied me. And it sure was fun to throw it in my parent's faces when theirs would come in last. LOL
I would compete with my mom and dad every night that we went. I don't recall how many times we went but I do know that I was learning to read the dogs pretty good as well as the weather. Each night just before darkness would settle in, dark clouds would loom over the Black Hills and rain down. It was like clockwork and the most interesting thing to watch the progression of this mass moving towards the mountain tops. And I also remember that the bike rally in Sturgess was going on. Wow, all the motorcycles. Never have I seen so many.
Oh, Bear Country. This was a place that no one was allowed to leave their car for any reason. There were bears, lions, buffalo, moose, mountain goats, and other animals roaming freely around the grounds. It was a drive-through zoo so to speak. And it was great. There were so many bears around, we had all sorts of animals coming up to the car windows. But the greatest moment of that tour? When a bear wouldn't get away from our car on my dad's drivers side door. He stood there with his butt up against the door and we started to hold up the cars behind us. My dad was getting impatient with it and all the sudden he laughed and said, 'Watch this' and opened his door and rammed the bear in the butt. My mom was freaking out and I just started laughing as he quickly slammed the door shut. That bear stopped, gave my dad an annoyed look over its shoulder and s-l-o-w-l-y walked on his merry way. That story has been one of many laughs to this day.
I was lonely on this trip but at the same time very curious. It was the first time in my 14 years that I had really seen who my mom and dad were without all the stress and outside bull that was our life at home. I was in love with what they had, it was more special than anything that I had ever seen in our house. That first 3 week vacation was really something of an eye opener for me. It taught me many things about me, them, and I secretly couldn't wait for the next trip and on that one I got to bring a friend.....
No comments:
Post a Comment