40 Days and Counting!

Wow, only 40 days to go before lift-off!

I am reminded of all the road trips ending in the Plains states I have taken through the years. I really never counted all of them before and it comes up to 12 at least!!! And that is not counting the ones by train (3), not really a road trip but at least on the ground.

The trips were always a learning experience. How to do things a different way...cook on a camp stove, over a fire. When I was in the 6th grade we had my sister in diapers, and no pampers in those days! We had a Pontiac station wagon and that was quite a car! LOTS of room under the hood and my dad had places for the diaper pail for rinsed diapers stuck in a strategic place till we hit a laundromat. Sounds gross now, but it worked fine at the time. You did what you had to do. That was before seat-belts, too. We put the back seats down and my sisters each had their own little suitcases for their dolls and toys and they would sit back there and play. I was the oldest so I could put up the jumpseat in the middle and sit there, going over the maps and the miles - I was the navigator! Gas stations gave away free maps in those days and I would collect maps of each state as trophies!

My Dad loved to see new things and he made them so interesting. My mom mainly just wanted to get there....to see her family. So, there was a little push and pull with time. So I learned to be flexable when we went on our trips with our kids.

When my dad passed away I had to take a road trip (1978) as a rite of passage, I figured, no more parents so I just have to grow up. My 2nd son and both daughters joined me as we went by way of Yellowstone and Mt Rushmore to get to Sioux City, IA where my husband and oldest son joined us and we all came back together. We had lots of adventures and memories a long the way! Our oldest son and my husband flew in and joined us at the end of the line and we all came back together.

I have been on many other trips but those road trip were always outstanding and taught us many things about life and ourselves. And it was like walking in the shoes of those pioneers that crossed the country with their families! And they survived without the horsepower we have, without a store at every town, cell phones, AAA, etc.