Hmmm ... the VERY BEST summer of my life started in June of 1953, our family of five moved from Boston to Los Angeles, pulling a 35 foot long trailer with a '49 Ford Coup. We used Triple A (AAA) Trip-Ticks as our guide, and traveled well over 15,000 miles in three months, starting out going South on US 1 from Boston to Orlando (long before there was a Disney World), then North to Canada, then back South to Texas, then North back to Canada, then South to New Mexico and on old Route 66 finally to Venice, California (no two letter State designation then). I turned 10 on that trip while we were in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We watched the July 4th Extravaganza of fireworks while sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, and watched a Rodeo in Texas put on (my Mother told us later) but some "young cow hands" that saw my disappointment of missing the Rodeo that had been in town. We took several side trips to just "see what was there," as Dad put it, including The Grand Canyon, and Bolder Dam. This whole trip gave me a sense of wonderlust, and to this day I still love watching travelogs on TV.
The next best Summers where all the years we spent at Bass Lake (north of Fresno) where we would take the old tent, sleeping bags and the family dog, and just "go camping" for a month at a time. Mom and we kids would go to the lake, pitch the tent, spend two or three weeks, then Dad would join us for his yearly vacation. We did this for almost ten years until all us kids grew up and moved away from home.
Mom and Dad are gone now, and the family is spread out all over the US, from Boston to Texas, to Arizona and several places in-between. We seldom get together as a family anymore, but I would like to thank Satellite AV for bringing these memories back. What a 'trip,' (pun intended) to travel back down Memory Lane just to write this.
Photto