In July of 2002, I was 18 years old. I had just graduated from high school, I was bored to death at home, my dad had me training for basketball the following fall, & then I got called for a family meeting (my parents held a lot of these!)
They sat all 5 of us kids down (18, 16, 14, 11, 8) in the den & told us each to pack 7 days worth of clothes, and that we were going on a family vacation.
We were pumped!
We were jumping up & down, “Where are we going?! Where are we going?! Where are we going?!”
“We don’t know yet. We are leaving tomorrow. Be ready by 7 am sharp.”
As we were pulling out of the driveway the next morning I heard my dad say,
“Jane, are we going east or west?” And as he said it he held up two stack of maps, one stack said East & one stack said West.
She said West.
And it was the BEST.VACATION.EVER.
We drove over 4,000 miles, went to 9 different states, & we were gone 14 days. My mother jokes that she had to take the maps away from my dad just so we could make it back home.
We saw the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Jackson Hole Wyoming, everything there is to see in Yellowstone National Park, like grizzly bears, Ole Faithful, moose, & buffalo. We ate buffalo hamburgers, went to the Wall Drug Store (first place to serve free ice water ever during the Great Depression.) We went to Colorado & rode horses through the Rocky Mountains. Basically, we did everything there was to do out west.
There were late nights of being delirious from so much driving that produced the best family jokes that, to this day, can get one of us laughing so hard that our sides hurt.
Sometimes, renting that condo in Florida for a week isn’t always the best vacation. Doing things a little differently, not having a plan & just being spontaneous leads to some of the best memories of a lifetime.
And for that, I will forever be grateful to my parents for teaching us all that lesson those 14 days.
that sounds awesome – stopping by from mama k's – now following! http://www.momma-licious.blogspot.com
Very cool. We want to go West this summer. I don't think we can handle all that driving. Hopefully we can channel some of that magic while preserving our energy with a nice easy flight!
What a cool vacation! And it lasted 14 days instead of 7? It sounds really, truly wonderful. I've visited that part of the US, and it is really spectacular.
PS – When I try to put my name in the "subscribe" box, I'm directed to photobucket. ??
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Sounds like my kind of holiday!! 😀
Your posting really staenghteird me out. Thanks!
Thanks for the heads up on that! I have no idea why it was doing it but I put the box back up & it's working now…so weird!
The west is really awesome isn't it?!!!! It was such a fun trip!
I can't wait to do stuff like that with Lboy (and any future children.) My parents always did stuff like that, just on a smaller scale. We called them "halifax" days & it meant there was no plan & we were just going to end up where we ended up. It was usually a lot of fun, sometimes a movie, but a lot of times we went and did something outdoors.
Thanks for following! I stopped by your place, it's cute! I followed you back!
I hope y'all have fun!!!!
I think now that my siblings & I are all adults & most of us are financially on our own & accustomed to doing things our own way, there is NO way we would go on a trip like that together! We would all have to have separate hotel rooms…
When we would go on trips as a fam I would throw the biggest fits because of all the snoring people. It drove me nuts…another thing that drove me nuts…when people wanted to sleep with the TV on all night, we always fought about that! lol
I wouldn't do it with my almost 2 year old, I need a schedule for him. But when he (and any future children are older) a road trip like this might be in the works for us.
Thanks for stopping by! Road trips are awesome aren't they?! One time my mom pulled out a map of the state & told my cousin and I to pick a spot to drive to. We just closed our eyes & landed on "Frog Town." Yes, there is a town called "Frog Town" and we drove there, took a pic of the town sign and drove back. It was so much fun!
KB – How bout that, great pictures good lkoniog young man good thing he doesnt look like dad lol jk Sam. Congrats on the new edition Sam and Rhonda. When can i get my picture lol