My parents Bless us as children with Camping Vacations in the Western States. A tiny 15 foot trailer is a great home base keeping us dry, off the ground and playing board games in the evenings. The summer plan is discussed and designed during the winter and generally we have a Theme Vacation. Dad gets a huge number of days off in those times. We have three whole weeks to travel and camp from one recreational park to another. There are no phone reservations, just who arrives first gets the spots.
We generally leave our camp site after breakfast and get to our next destination early afternoon. All the spots we go to are already mapped out before the leave home. I am always anxious to see if we can get into the next campground. Arriving and cruising through looking for a good space is really exciting. There might be a creek (with pollywogs) or a huge sandy area just to jump around in. Some big trees might be ready for a little girl to climb. And the Fritos with Chili on top are already making my mouth water.
Many of our sites are what we call dry camping. There generally is water and restrooms, but no electric or sewer hook-ups. The evenings have us all slammed up together at a tiny table playing board games with the kerosene lantern hissing. Mom is the dessert queen and will come up with something she bakes in the propane oven. Whatever it is always tastes so much better than at home!
Just a side note:
We have a huge old Plymouth station wagon that seats 9. There’s five of us, so my folks are in front, two older brothers in the middle, and me the baby in the rear sear facing backwards. This is not a good choice my parents make. Just saying. I do the ‘honk your horn’ arm signal to the truckers as we pass them. How can they resist a little girl flailing her arm with a big smile. They honk and my Dad suspects me but he can’t see my arm! I’d sneak one of these events in every so often.
Our Daytime Adventures in the Southwest
Our vacations always have a Theme. One is about rock hunting and fossil hunting. This is my favorite of all the theme trips. We head to Utah and end up at a private R.V. Park at Mr. Fisher’s Rock Shop. I don’t know the real name, just this one. It’s a rock shop, tourist store and its really a trading post for the local Navajos. It is the ultimate candy land for me. I am nuts about rocks, rock hunting and Mr. Fisher is a huge teddy bear/grandpa type.
He takes us in as a whole, and puts together maps for us to follow for finding Native American Artifacts and Rocks! We come back to him with boxes of rocks he will sell and we keep some too. Mr. Fisher lets me work there a few hours for a few days in his shop, and I am guessing I’m about ten. I get a wonderful turquoise ring that I still wear today. The price is $10. Of course the memory is priceless!
After we know Mr. Fisher really well, he announces to us that he is color blind. We have loaded up his Rock Shop with rocks he can’t visually pick out. We are so happy to help him out, and his generosity is huge. My dad has built a family room addition on our house, and the end of the room is entirely filled with built-in book cases. One of the shelves has the rocks, fossils and artifacts we get in Utah. We have other shelves to fill too. We will plan for the next trip of our Recreational Vehicle Life, so the theme is Narrow Gauge Railroads in Colorado.
Colorado Rockies
My brother is a Narrow Gauge Train Nut. I really have no clue how this love affair develops and he’s not with us to ask. He buys miniature brass trains and sets up his tracks. The trip for his love is Spectacular in the scenery, one of my favorites. As we get near the mountains, he knows the small mining towns and literally sees the mountain canyons he knows have the mining tracks for the trains. They match up with the books with photos that he owns.
In some cases we park the car on the side of some back country road and start our climb. We find the areas of where the tracks were or the tracks themselves. He scours these areas and instead of collecting rocks we collect railroad ties. He would have grabbed a piece of railing if he could have. Many of these areas are very steep and I personally learn I am not afraid of the height. The views are incredible and I adopt the mountains as my own.
This trip becomes the next collection for the shelving in the family room. Mom and I still find a few rocks in the mountains to add to the shelves as well. I still walk into a parking lot, and if there are rocks in the landscaping, well I take a pretty good look. My rock of choice is Agate. When I can’t find them I look for heart shape rocks.
Fishing Up the Coast
This trip is for me. When I am five, my grandpa needs a run-off lake drained and the catfish saved. My earliest memory of fishing is catching one on the line and not knowing how to reel it in. I point away from the water and start running, dragging the poor fish along the ground. Then we put our catch into these huge milk cans we never see anymore. They’re put into another pond until repairs are made on the lake. I Love Fishing!!!
So from five on I am a nuisance, wanting to fish. So we head up the west coast with our trailer and find campground after campground on the ocean, sometimes back a little ways with a stream or creek. This is the big bonding time with my Dad. He’s not too excited about rock hunting like Mom, but he does like fishing with his daughter. And I find trout is the only fish for me! We even do the traditional camping, cooking the trout in a pan over our outdoor fire. It’s even better than smores.
We don’t have fish bones for our family room shelves, but my Mom and I find Agates all over the Oregon beaches along with those lovely creeks filled with Trout. Ask my husband about this collection. He has been moving rocks for years that are in my terracotta bowls or glass lidded canisters. They makes Great Bookends! Anyway, back to the Recreational Vehicle Life.
I am eight years old on this coastal trip, and I know to my childlike core that living in the suburbs where we are is not where I belong. I start telling my parents I don’t live in the right place for me. They do go back up the coast in a few years later and again this is the best place for me. More trout and more rocks and fresh air are a something you must experience. My resolve to live on the northern west coast is now confirmed.
Each Summer
Each summer my parents have our trips to these three basic areas. We end up visiting Utah and the Four Corners a few times, and seeing Mr. Fisher is a huge Blessing. Rolling up camping at his little sites is thrilling for me. I am always excited girl about seeing the west coast, and the mountains are always calling my heart as well. These times and memories are so wrapped around our family. We do not like board games normally as adults, or Mom’s Chili on Fritos that much. But each summer we want outdoor fires and smores, guests having pulled pork sandwiches out under our Gazebo, and hiking in the local hills for our much desired fresh air.
It’s time to introduce our granddaughters to trout fishing this coming summer and see if they love it as much as I do. We’re playing board games with them at their house too, since we don’t have a trailer to play in. My husband and I raise our kids with camping trips and travel trailers but those days are behind us. It’s now a time in our lives where we are going to experience bed and breakfasts. This summer there will be ten of us. Yellowstone Park is calling our name. I am thinking maybe the Colorado Rockies might be a good place for another Bed and Breakfast next year.
Gotta make some summer trip memories for the grandkids and have them over as much as possible. We’re even thinking of renting a motorhome and sharing our experiences with them, live and in person with the outdoor fire, trout cooking or having the Chili on Fritos. They will get to see the Camping Life in a recreational vehicle we are always talking about. We definitely will make sure not to forget the Smores.