It's 2011. Carol, Diane and Kathy are on their sister trip to Perdido Key, FL and we discuss the fact that Daddy is getting low on funds. We're not sure how much longer he can support our sister-trip habit.
One thing leads to another, and soon the decision is made. We will take our longest trip ever - a re-creation of our family trip to California in 1966. We'll drive, of course, and we'll go on the same route that Daddy drove, drink Shasta colas and have picnic lunches at roadside parks along the way, stay in the cheapest motels possible, lose some underwear in the desert (it won't be dirty underwear this time), stay overnight in Gallup, NM and explore Hoover Dam, the painted desert, the redwood forest, Las Vegas!! We'll go to Anaheim and visit Disneyland; we'll ride as few rides as possible because our ticket book will only allow 6 or so rides per person, one of which MUST be "It's a Small World". We'll go to Knotts Berry Farm, look through the gates, turn around and drive off, because "it's just a bunch of rides like Disneyland". We'll sneak a peak at the old Glen McDaniel home in Belair, a suburb of Los Angeles, though we spent the night there in '66. While in Belair, we might have to walk into a drugstore that serves breakfast, see how expensive it is and walk right out, all of us exclaiming how hungry we are. We'll drive up to Salinas and check out the homes of relatives, just to see how they've aged gracefully....or not. We'll go to San Francisco and ride a trolley car; go to Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown; get a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we'll head back home to complete two fun weeks of togetherness.
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| Hatter kids in California, 1966 |
This time will be different. This time we won't have Robert to laugh at or to annoy or to be pestered by. We won't have Moma and Daddy telling us to quit talking or laughing or fighting or asking "Are we there yet?" But you can bet, we'll think about all of them very, very often on this trip.
There are other reasons why this time will be different. Since WE get to make the decisions, we'll go to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, because we're awfully close and it would be a shame to miss it. We'll actually get to gamble in Las Vegas if we want, with no fear of getting in trouble like we did in '66. We'll go south a little from Anaheim and share a meal with cousin Lisa, who now lives with her husband in San Diego and who graciously agreed to drive up the coast to spend time with us. We'll do a wine tour in Napa Valley because we're old enough and brave enough. We'll tour Alcatraz, because you just can't go to 'Frisco (as Daddy called it) without visiting Alcatraz. We'll be adventurous and ride a Duck Boat and maybe rent segways for a couple of hours to see the sights.
We are all very excited about this journey. We're taking old pictures so we can compare what we saw then with what we'll see now. We'll miss Robert, Moma and Daddy, but we like to think that they're in Heaven, looking down on us and laughing with us and being ever so happy that we love each other so much that we'll drive for 2 weeks in a small SUV in an effort to relive a memory that has lasted forever.....well, at least 45 years!!
Look out, CALIFORNIA, here we come!!!!!
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| Robert, Kathy, Carol, Diane in Arizona |
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| At Hoover Dam |
