On the road with Mom and Dad
On the road with Mom and Dad
I've been lucky in my adult life to have traveled far and wide with my family. As mom and dad got older I got to be their driver on several adventures. In August of 2001 I flew to Memphis and drove them to Park Grove for Homecoming. Laura was visiting her mom in Washington, Il. and took the train from Chillicothe to Warrensburg where I picked her up for the family reunion.
After the reunion we all took their Cadillac and headed for Washington state. We made the most of our trip stopping in several places in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Washington.
We had lots of stops we wanted to see in South Dakota, but this was the first First stop-Mitchell S.D for a tour of the world famous Corn Palace. If you've never been, you have to go!
After Mitchell we continued west to Wall, S.D. and what we'd all be waiting for. Wall Drug! The anticipation built for hundreds of miles!
Mom couldn't wait to get on the bronco and try and break it. Kind of reminds me of the time she had to get Peanuts under control. Of course we had to have our photos with all attractions
After we left Wall, we headed to Badlands National Park.
We took a few short hikes and enjoyed the sight seeing.
We spent the night in a small motel in Belle Fourche and went to Mt. Rushmore and Devils Tower the next day.
After Mt. Rushmore we went to Sylvan Lake for a picnic and moved on west to Devils Tower.
We made a quick stop at Last Stand Hill where Custer lost his battle with the Sioux tribes.
After a brief stop there we continued west to the Missouri Headwaters State Park just to see it.
We then went to Helena and the capitol of Montana and walked around the grounds.
We again headed west and enjoyed our beautiful drive across the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park.
We spent the night on the road and made it back home to Buckley the next day.
After our visit in Buckley, we took a swing through the southwest on our way back to Memphis.
Our first stop was in Salt Lake City.
Dad's interest in genealogy made him curious about the Mormon library.
From there we went to Moab, Ut. to explore Arches National Park. Mom and I took the 3 mile hike to Delicate Arch, but dad didn't want to do it and stayed at the car. Probably a good thing. On the hike out, there were two 20 something girls that were trying to stay ahead of us and marveled at how an 84 year old kept getting ahead of them. Mom loved the arch and loved laying around on the warm sandstone like a lizard.
From Moab we worked our way east to Ouray, Colorado where Aunt Ruby worked as a nurse. We drove on down to Silverton and Durango where we spent some time exploring the steam trains.
Our next stop was a fun one to Ruby and Claire's ranch house in Gunnison, CO.
After leaving Gunnison on Sept. 11, 2001, we were blissfully ignorant of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center until we stopped for gas somewhere in Kansas and our credit card was denied. The clerk said everything was down because of what happened in New York. That's when we learned what happened. Kind of put our good times in the back of our mind.
We did stop in Missouri for two days to visit Metz and Helen.
Then it was on to Memphis. As my flight home was cancelled indefinitely and Laura said she wanted me home, Dad gave me his old Oldsmobile and I drove home in around 36 hrs. with short rest stops in Salinas, Kansas and Boise, Idaho.
