Not too bad, considering how hard it is to draw in a car. With pen. Obviously thats me in the bottom center (wow, I still wear those sandals), my youngest brother to my left, Thain to my right. There's Jimmy with his rebel hair up on the left, with Kiera to his right. Did anyone else have one of these gargantuan vans?
We didn't start buying big roomy vans until we were older.
Before that, we had no less than three VW vans (that all malfunctioned spectacularly)
and a classic station wagon. Wow, vacation in that vehicle was no fun at all. My parents tried to put two of us in the back sideways-facing seats, with all of the luggage piled between us and the rest of the vehicle's occupants. I was certain we were going to suffocate to death, especially because the air conditioner couldn't reach us. (Not that we usually had air conditioning on vacation).
When we mentioned it to my mother at one stop, she got all angry and offended, then in her best martyr manner, she sat back there in isolation and let all of us sit up front. It wasn't until the trip home that we decided to squeeze all five kids on the main seat, with mother restored to her bucket seat next to dad. It was squishy, but it sure beat the back chamber of suffocation!
Breakdowns: another wonderful facet of childhood vacations. Maybe this is the reason I'm scared to drive on the freeway by myself: almost every single family vacation included a breakdown in the most inhospitable of conditions. We were often driving through the Nevada desert on route 93 in the hot blazing sun, when we'd have a blow-out, or the engine would overheat.
(yes, this is actually that road!)Inevitably, we didn't have the right tools to fix the problem, and we'd have to sit and wait for a benevolent stranger to help us out.
The one incident that takes the cake was when we bought a new van just a week or so before our trip, and it completely died in Oregon. We had to buy a new van on our vacation! Luckily, we were in the unusual circumstance of having extra money available, or we would have had to take our new van and head straight home.
Incidentally...we've had our first three cars (since marriage) break down in the middle of the road at least five times so far, on busy I-5, and I-15.
My driving fears are well founded, I say! Of course, two of those times were the tire incidents in March, but still.
Anyway, I've talked enough about this. What memories do you have of traveling by car on vacation?
10 comments:
That is a nice drawing. It reminds me of our old van. That was a really nice van. One time we tried to go to Nauvoo, but about half an hour into our journey, something happened with the radiator, so then we had to go home and cancel our trip. That stunk. We did end up going later.
We use to have a Volvo station wagon and took trips in it all the time. That car had noooooooooo power what so ever, and we always found ourselves having to get out and push just so we could make it up hills. On one summer vacation we were trying to get to China peak, but inevitably the car wouldn't make it up the hill, so we had to turn around and camp down at the lake. It was fun though, because the lake had flooded that spring and where we camped there was a little island that formed from the road washing out. So, we were able to swim across and have our own private little picnics. We also had a funky old tan van that we took on trips when I was a in jr. high and h.s. After that my parents bought a nicer van that the bench seat in the back buzzed down into a bed. That was a nice van, but the tv didn't work half of the time. Still...all in all...goooooood memories. :)
I don't remember any car trips until after my parents bought thier first minivan. We never had one like your drawing. We went to South Dakota one year, and somehow got a portable toilet for the trip. We took turns using it in the back of the van while stuck in road construction. Good thing that van had tinted windows!
I actually remember your parents' station wagon!
The only thing I can say is when you're traveling with someone like my dad, who is verbally colorful, and you get a flat tire - put in ear plugs.
cardine- at least you still got to go in the end. Ugh.
denedu- Wow, I'm glad we didn't have a car we had to push! One of my worst fears is being in a car that won't go up a hill, and having to push it. Sounds like you had some fun memories though. We never had anything with a tv in it. But for me that would have been extremely annoying.
kara- ahh! I didn't know you could even do that! I could see where one of those would come in handy!
missy- ha! Thats pretty funny.
I think you are totally justified in dreading car trips!
Trips when I was young consisted of going to Vernal, my parents' home town, to see family. We usually travelled at night, so us kids slept most of the way. Now whenever I start on a trip, and I'm not driving, my first instinct is to go to sleep.
Wow, I love your new blog layout. I've been so out of the loop...but it looks great!
Cool artwork!
Very nice drawing!
We traveled in a big tank-like Suburban with peeling paint on the hood. As a materialistic teenager, I cringed in the very backseat and tried to hide. :)
julie- we did an occasional night trip; they are definitely cooler (temperature wise).
jen- thanks!
liz- thanks for stopping by and sharing your story! Some of my siblings were pretty embarassed too, but I didn't care that much about our junky vans.
Car-cations. Good times. Actually almost all my childhood vacations, as well as my adult vacations are car vacations. And I don't have any horror stories that I remember. I do get a little claustrophobic in the truck cab on about the 3rd day of driving (we've driven from SoCal up to WA several times) - the 5 of us PLUS the dog (on the hottest or coldest days) all together in a truck cab is a little bit toooo cozy for comfort.
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