dixiegirl

When I was about 11 years old we lived in Connecticut.

My Mom was an adventurer. She put me, my 6 yr old brother and my 6 yr old sister in the car and we headed out.

We were on the interstate and we got off in a town called Putney, VT. The first place we stopped at was Basketville. Like the name inplies, there were gazillions of baskets.

We went down the road a little ways and there was a lady on the side of the road, in the middle nowhere that looked like Aunt Jemima, complete with the white towel wrapped around her head. She was in the middle of a humongous bar-b-que pit and had a big stick with a towel wrapped around it and she was slapping sauce all over chicken & ribs. We bought some.

We got back in the car and went a few more miles and found a place called "Love's bakery". It was a big barn in the middle of nowwhere. The people who ran the place were hippies. (1969) The guys all had really long hair and the girls wore peasant dresses (I think) and had hair growing under their armpits. I should tell you, we lived in the suburbs in Enfield, CT. Didn't get to see too may hippies there. So this was amazing to me at 11 yrs old. They were very friendly & so was my Mom. They took us out behind the barn and let us pick blueberries. (Probably knew we would have no idea what weed looked like!) We bought some of the organic bread that they made and headed down the road again.

We made another stop at some kind of tourist place and bought some pies and I think we ended up on the bank of a river near the Mohawk Trail. We had a picnic and ate our Bar-B-Que chicken, ribs, organic bread and pies and watched people fish.

This truly is one of the most favorite days of my life. We got to see the most interesting and unique people that day. I will never forget the smell and taste of that organic bread.

I will always thank my Mom for that memory.

lscott

My first long trip (and I did not have many trips in my childhood..even going to the county seat to buy supplies was considered a Trip!) I was 3 yrs old and our Sunday School took a bus to the Cincinnati Zoo. This was in the 1940s when the zoo had a huge orangutan called Susie The Monk. I was so fascinated by Susie and talked about her so much afterward that an uncle started calling me Susie The Monk, a nickname that stuck.

Scarlett

Arriving in Hawaii (where we would live until I was 6) when I was 4 and having a lei put around my neck.

Sitting on my dads shoulders as he went out into the ocean past the breakers..Chinese New Year in Hawaii..lots of firecrackers..learning to hula dance..
That was my first Travel memory ( many more after

margot55

Thanks for posting this feel-good thread! My best childhood travel memory was in June, 1959 when I was 4 years old - we took a family trip to Winter Park, CO and stayed at a ranch called Beaver Ranch (Beaver was the owner's name!). I remember first and foremost how great the weather was, with crisp blue sky and very pleasant temps...the ranch also had a lake with paddleboats and canoes, and I loved going for rides in them! But the best part was the horseback riding - I was given this old mare named Dixie (how's that for a coincidence, dixiegirl?!) to ride, and given my age, they had Dixie tethered to the group leader, while the adults rode untethered. I can still smell the clean pine scent of the trails we rode on...at night, dinner was held in this chuckwagon type of atmosphere, and the entertainment was basically sing-a-long type stuff. As it happened, much to our surprise, when we got the Beaver Ranch brochure for the following year, there I was, on the front cover in my red pants and matching red and white top riding Dixie! (I still have that brochure) Thanks afgain for taking me back there, dixiegirl!

ElendilPickle

My first trip to San Francisco. I think I was around 8, but I'm not sure. I remember my parents having a big earthquake discussion. We had cioppino at Scoma's and I remember going to Chinatown.

A couple of years later, we spent a week on the California coast. We rented an apartment in Cayucos, across the street from the beach, and visited several of the missions. We went north to Monterey and south to Solvang and Lompoc, went on a cruise of Morro Bay, and enjoyed July 4th in Cayucos.

Such fun! Thanks for starting this thread.

Lee Ann

cmcfong

My dad was a career soldier. In 1952 he was sent to the combat zone in Korea. When he came home at the end of his tour the plane landed in Burbank, CA. My brother (aged 4) and I (age 6) had been living with my mom at her parents' house in North Carolina. My mom decided we would make the trip to meet my dad a grand adventure. She drove us from Winston-Salem across country. "Us" was my brother, me, our wire haired fox terrier, two parakeets, and two school teachers who came along for the ride. No air conditioning, long stretches without food stops or convenient bathrooms...I can only imagine what it must have been like for her. My brother and I both thought the highlight of this trip, which included the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert and numerous other sights along the way, was getting in a swimming pool at the end of the day.
I still cry every time I see the news coverage of soldiers returning home to their families. The memory of standing on that pavement and seeing Dad for the first time in thirteen months is so vivid. Of course, my mom abandoned us and went wildly racing across to leap into his arms.
Thank God for men and women willing to make huge sacrifices for the rest of us. And thank you, Dixiegirl, for letting me think about that trip a bit this morning.

sallyjane3

As a sixth grader, I was a school safety patrol who was lucky enough to take the annual trip from GA to Washington, DC...in 1956. I was extremely shy. timid, and rarely felt comfortable in my own skin so this venture without any family members was a courageous one for me. I remember feeling awkward and frightened...until our group walked into the National Cathedral.
I was instantly transported into a peace that returns today as soon as I enter this beautiful place. As a very non-shy adult, I have been fortunate to walk inside cathedrals in Europe and have been in awe of the workmanship, but no place on earth can touch my heart the way our own cathedral does.

cyberUK

Every year until I was about 14, my family would head upstate NY to Saratoga racecourse, for the Summer meet.

Luxury hotels and fine dining some years, when the ponies cooperated

Motels and diners when it was not going so well.

Feast or famine

But always great fun

girlonthego

Almost every summer as a child, we would pack the car for the 8 hour drive to Lake Winnepasauke NH. We drove up from NJ (sometimes in a car without A/C, two parents smoking like chimneys, and either the Beach boys or The Music Man playing on 8 track! MY mom would throw bags of candy in the back seat and we had the line of death you did not cross. (I had two brothers). At Lake Winnipausakee, we stayed in cabins at the Piping Rock. No A/C, no TV, just flashlight tag, and charades, and putting on shows for my parents. There were other families that always rented the same two weeks. The men all rented a boat and took us water skiing. I learned how to fish! We all learned how to swim there to get to the float(no formal training, just a desire to grow up). We sang all the popular top 40 AM gold,(it was the early 70's) and we all learned how to hustle on the grass lawn.LOL.. I loved those two weeks every summer. It was so simple and yet we had the best time. All the parents would sit around and play charades with us. It was truly a family vacation. I wish I could recreate something like that for my kids. I think it is just not the same today. Thanks for this great thread. I am sorry, because I know I am misspelling Lake Winnipasaukee!!

yale

We traveled all over in a motorhome when I was a kid. My brother and I would lay in the overhead compartment and stare out the window (this is probably illegal nowadays). Didn't matter where we going. But I loved that.

Also, every summer we would travel across the country to visit family for 3 weeks. They had a lake house and we spent a lot of fun times waterskiing on that lake.

And who could forget the first trip to Disneyland. I was five. We went with my whole family including my grandparents. That's a great memory I have with them.

luvmaui71

When I was 5 years old (1977) we went on a road trip from Napa Ca, to Cassville Mo, to visit my Dad's sister's. We stopped at the Grand Canyon, Royal Gorge Colorado, Great Salt Lake on the way back. I can remember too, just looking forward to getting to a motel at the end of the day, so we could go swimming! It was a great experience, traveling by car, so many kids miss this beautiful country of ours, by so much plane travel.
Lori

mpf

Okay - back in the 40's my dad took us on a trip from Chicago to the Ozarks. I was about 8 years old. On the map he noticed a shortcut, and it became a very long ten miles, over an hour. We bounced up and down along the gravel road, and around many farms (seemed endless). The winding road went through a stream - the same one three times. Also, we encountered a very slow milk truck going from farm to farm, no passing -- it was an adventure for a city girl, and definitely off the beaten path. It's a very fond memory of good times with my dad and mom.

utahtea

When I was 11 I was living in Richardson, Texas and my Grandparents came to visit from Los Angeles. They asked if I wanted to go with them to visit relatives in New York and Michigan. We rode the greyhound buses from Texas to New York. My Grandparents weren't driving back then. My Grandma loved to sit in the front seat so we were always the first on the bus. I got to sit next to her and we had the best views!

We went spent some time in New York City. My Grandma and I went up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. The torch was closed back then. We went to the Empire State Building, but I didn't want to go up by myself so we just saw it from the ground. We went to Niagara Falls and when I went back to Niagara Falls some 30 years later, I remembered exactly what the place looked like. I spent a lot of time with my second cousin that was my age. I remember going to an amuesment park and riding in those swings that twirl around.

We visited this one friend of my Grandparents and she made me drink apple juice every morning...yuck!

We took the train home from Detroit. I remember we changed trains at Grand Central Station. From there to Los Angeles we rode on a double decker train. I loved going to the lounge car and playing cards with my Grandma and watching the scenery go by.

My parents came for their annual summer visit to Los Angeles and then took me home.

Utahtea

JJ5

These were very enjoyable to read. Sorry to say I have no childhood travel memories. We didn't. We all, including kids, worked in the grocery store my grandmother owned/operated/lived behind-which is now part of the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago.

We were immigrants and never had a dime toward the next pair of shoes until I was in about 8th grade.

I do remember that once we took a ride out to Little Red School House in the area west of Palos Park (suburb of Chicago) and that it was like packing to go to California. We went in a high sided vegtable truck- with about 8 kids packed in the back and it took all day. OSHA rules then! NOT!

Now that is so funny because I would do that little stop in about an hour all told. Once we went to Wicker Park to swim in Indiana right over the border, and we also packed food in quantity coolers) as if for an invasion. That was it.

But once I could get on the buses on my own I would take off to Lake Michigan in summer to swim Rainbow Beach (79th and the lake).

My dad hardly drove then, and my mom was so tied to her large Italian family that I grew up in a "real" family of about 35-40 people. We were our "own vacation, reality show, and all kinds of entertainment" in one. It was actually a marvelous beginning.

MsWitty1

When my brothers and I were younger, pre-teen, my parents didn't have a lot of money but believed that vacations were important. We went to Table Rock Lake in MO and stayed in cabins on the lake. We went fishing, swimming, and ran around outside until we fell into bed exhausted.

I remember that one night a week they would hang a sheet in the trees and show movies. We would get popcorn and all lay on blankets until we fell asleep.

I remember my dad taught us how to swim while we were hear and can remember riding around with my arms around his neck and feeling on top of the world.

I caught my first fish, got sprayed by a skunk, and will never forget the memories.

atlswan

This is going to sound kind of hokey because it isn't anything grand. But I can remember going to a Florida beach. It was St. Augustine or Siesta Key (my memory is cloudy) with my family in the early 80s. I wasn't a teenager yet (my sister was and rarely came out of our hotel room).

Every day, without fail, my father would take me out in the ocean to a point where the waves came in. He would hold my hand and together we'd "jump" the waves. This was so exciting to me! Sometimes we got our faces full of water but usually he pulled me up just in time. We laughed and had a blast. I felt so special to have him all to myself.

My father died in late 2003 of Parkinson's Disease and to this day, this is my favorite memory of him.

Fodorite018

We used to go every Memorial Day Weekend to some very rustic cabins on a lake in central Oregon. It was our family and my cousins family. The cabins are still there, and so last year we went back. It was so much fun remembering everything! In a couple weeks our family and my brothers family are going together for a long weekend. We are coincidentally staying in the very same cabins that we stayed in when we were children! It will be great to give all the kids the same wonderful memories we have. Fishing, finding snakes and frogs, hiking, and making s'mores in the huge fireplaces.

Chele60

What a thoroughly enjoyable way to begin a Friday morning! Love reading all these memories of others.

My dad was always on the go, but we didn't have much money and plane travel was expensive back then. (1960s) Consequently, we did a LOT of road trips! But one that really stands out was the trip we took to Yellowstone. My mom's sister went with us - she had just moved to California. And I can remember stopping at Hoover dam on the way. We were at the top, looking down, and I remember being both exhilerated and afraid of the great concrete "beast". It was difficult for me to comprehend this was something built, that it hadn't just "come into existance." Amazing.

At Yellowstone, I remember feeling as though I were in some kid's paradise. Seeing all the bears along the roadway, renting a small cabin, doing the nature hikes while leading the way with the Park Ranger. I felt SO important - for a 5 year old!

But one of my fondest memories on that trip was finding myself suddenly awakened in the wee hours of the morning and feeling very afraid. I remember the cabin had two beds, and my mother and her sister shared one, while I shared one with my father. When he noticed I was awake, he whispered that everything was okay and to be very quiet. Then he motioned me to the window, where I watched in amazment at 2 bears rummaging through the trash cans just 30 feet from our cabin! At first I was very afraid, but I remember my father telling me they wouldn't bother us, that they were just looking for food. I felt comforted by that, and by the knowledge that he had been awake and watching out for his family. I think I fell asleep in his lap, as the next morning I woke up in bed.

My father passed just a little over 13 years ago, and it is so nice to bring this memory up today. Thanks!

(BTW, whatever happened to the "great American family vacation road trip"? It seems no one really does this anymore, and I find that so incredibly sad.)

placeu2

Great family road trip....

I have done several of those with my kids but alas they are now early 20's..no more.

As a kid we often did road trips and always camped. I have lots of stories but will share one: In 1966 we did the go west thing (from Wisconsin).

Staying in Yellowstone I distinctly remember bears coming right through our campsite at least once per day. We would retreat to the car or camper and just watch. Several times they would ransack a neighbors cooler who did not heed the advice to keep those in the trunk.

I was 8 years old then and on a Sunday in Glacier Natl. Park, I was chopping some wood for the family fire when a glancing blow put the hatchet into my leg next to the shin bone. So my mother goes running down the camp roads in something of a panic looking for a ranger. Eventually they got me to town (and found a DR. to come in on Sunday) where I got my first stitches...actually only 3 stitches and the vacation went on. 39 years later I still show the scar if the subject comes up!

LoveItaly

My first vacation was after the end of WWII. People could finally buy enough gasoline to take a trip. My parents took us to Clear Lake CA. Not a fancy resort, little cabins, the lake and the beach. Lots of families traveling for the first time in years. Watching fireflys after dark, eating outdoors, just relaxing with everyone else who were so happy to finally take a vacation.