Aug 22 '76
Colo
Matt and I slept in Dave and Hugh's Room. They'll (sleep) down stares
The next morning I arose early. The toy helicopter we'd been denied access to the day before had been in my dreams ever since, and I wanted my shot at it. Hugh was sleeping nearby like that bulldog that was always kicking the crap out Sylvester the cat, so I only got a couple of minutes of glorious tethered circular flight before I was discovered and shut down. An argument ensued and it was suggested by the adults that we find something to do outdoors.
We soon forgot all about the helicopter.
“David R.” the next door neighbor, also my age, was one of the coolest kids I had ever met. He had a 8-track cassette of the hit trucker song “Convoy” and other current music that impressed us. He had bright blond hair, a deep tan and most of all, a trampoline!
The trampoline is at the top of this drawing.
It wasn't just any trampoline. It was set in a large hole his dad had had excavated so the tramp was flush with the ground. One simply walked out on it instead of having to climb up, plus if one went tumbling off there wasn't far to fall.
David R. and my cousin Dave were quite good and could do all sorts of tricks but my brother and I set right out to practice all we could. I don't remember Hugh being around, he was probably inside playing with the helicopter or sleeping.
uc ucu (Uncle) chuck took us to see flash flood Debris. Hugh slept on chuckwag. Had (hard) time, kept rolling off (we) tried to hold (him) back was told not to let go He fell down Woke up went up to bed and doozed off.
Three weeks before, the Big Thompson Canyon flood had done $35 million in damages, taking out bridges and roads, and killed 139 people in around the nearby Estes Park. Uncle Chuck was a volunteer fireman and had worked on some of the rescues and clean-up. He drove us, in our own van, around to see the damage. A police road block prevented us from seeing very much. As a fireman Chuck could have gotten through the road block but... “I doubt I'll be able to convince then with these New York plates.” he lamented as we turned back.
The narcoleptic Hugh was fast asleep on top of the chuck wagon in the back of the van most of the time. We had great fun laughing at him when he would roll over on top of Dave and I who were sitting on the bench just in front of the chuckwagon/bed. Hugh would wake up and groggily complain that we were shoving him. When we arrived home. Hugh remained asleep and we were told to just leave him be. We complied only partly, staying behind in the yard to see how long it would be before he awoke to an empty van in his own driveway. When he finally arose, he staggered past our giggling at him, up to his room and went right back to sleep.
Met aunt Vi and Dady Charles at sup. (supper)
These were my mom's aunt and uncle. I remember them as any eleven-year-old would, just a couple more old folks that I was compelled to be nice to until they were done inspecting me for whatever old folks found fascinating about kids and I was excused to going back to being loud and unruly with the kids they had already inspected.
aug 23
Colo
Went to rocky mt. n.p. (Rocky Mountain National Park) Hugh slept all the way and rolled off the chuckw. Saw chipmonks at over looks went to Cont. Divide got headache
Uncle Chuck had to work and Aunt Carrol was busy with the baby so just Hugh and Dave went with us to the park to camp overnight. My five-year-old sister was also left behind. Chipmunks weren't that unusual to me but I had never seen the tame people-fed national park chipmunks before. I was intrigued that they didn't run away and seemed to acutally be saying. “What, you never seen a chipmunk before? So shut your gappin' jaw and make with the bread and the chips and such.”
The headache I got was certainly from the altitude. Loveland itself is over five thousand feet.
Aug 24
Colo
Viseted Cent. City, (Century City-a ghost town turned tourist attraction) Saw lost goldmine real gold ore! Saw glass blower made glass swans
Saw face painted on barroom floor. Saw old cemetary, (spooky.)
Hugh Dave matt Dad mom and me camped out had spaghetti and meet balls
On our tour they took us into an old gold mine and told us there was actual gold ore dust still in the walls. I was standing next to a wall as everyone exited the cave I thought how cool would it be if I just had a few grains of real gold ore. Hey, what difference would it make? I brushed some of the loose ore into my hand from the wall. The tour guide saw me and chastised me in front of the whole tour group. I felt like a criminal, worse, I had embarrassed my parents.
Aug 25
Colo
Broke camp went to rocky mt np (Rocky Mountain National Park) Climbed mt specimin (Mount Specimen) Saw chipmonks and marmits (a sort-of mountain woodchuck) a plane wave wings at us. When got home coached tramp olimpics for tomorrow but thats when we leeve for n.y.
I learned 2 tricks kneen flip + for. flip.
Climbing Mount Specimen was a lot of fun. The trail head itself was over ten thousand feet above sea level, nearly twice the height of the highest point in New York State, higher than I had ever been on solid ground before and since. We had two thousand feet to go. We hiked past the tundra line, where trees can't survive and only delicate lichen grew on the rocks—we were warned not to trod on or touch them. My mom and sister hiked to a certain point around eleven thousand feet and my dad, my brother, our cousins and I went the rest of the way. Even though it was August there was snow in a shady area below the ridge. I wanted to climb down to it just so i could say I made a snowball in August but my dad said it was too dangerous. A big valley was spread below us and a small plane was flying by nearly eye level with us. We waved and the pilot tipped his wings back and forth to return the gesture. The marmots were comic little creatures that seemed to have no fear of humans. Were we that far from civilization?
When we returned to my Uncle's house there was still daylight left. We jumped on David R's trampoline and prepared for what they were calling the “Tramp Olympics”. One of the tricks I learned I diagrammed with stick figures in my journal above. I remember landing right on my head during an early attempt at a forward flip. Apparently I was a coach of some sort, but the 'Olympics' themselves were scheduled for the day we were leaving to head home.
Aug 26
Colo. Wy. and S. Dakoda
Helped David losen this morning (for the Tramp Olympics)
Hated to say good by long lonely trip
Camped at a KOA kampground.
It really was tough to say goodbye especially to my cousin David. We had become good friends the way only kids at eleven can in such a short time. I was going to miss him and I could tell he was going to miss me. I never saw him after that.
We drove North through the Eastern most sliver of Wyoming which left me a bad impression of the place. It was hot flat and featureless. Our only stop was at a rest area to have lunch. It was filthy and in dire need of repairs. Hornets swarmed our food and we couldn't wait to get into South Dakota.
It wasn't our best day of travel but there was one thing we looked forward to. Friends of my parents, the Rensbergers, had given us a box of wrapped presents, one for each day of our trip. They weren't anyting fancy, things like activity books and a compact mesh hammock but we looked forward everyday to get to open another gift. On days like this one it was even more of a treat.
aug 27
S. Dakoda
Saw mt rushmor (not much) and mt Crazy horse sculpture (it's going to be huge) olsa saw flintstone village had neat play Ground. Went to famouse Wall Drugs ate supper there. See Family scrapbook for Wall Drug map.
Saw Badland nat moun!
I'm not sure why Mount Rushmore didn't make a very big impression on me. Crazy Horse seemed to impress me more even though it was so early on in it's construction that it was little more than a hole in the side of a mountain, but from the scale model of the finished sculpture at the guest center at the base of the mountain it was going to be spectacular.
As it turned out, thirty-five years later Crazy Horse is still only partly completed.
In the background is the mountain being carved
to look just like the model in the foreground.
Sadly The mountain didn't look to much different in 1976,
only the face has been added since that time.
Flintstone Village was a schlocky tourist trap quasi amusement park that my parents wanted no part of. We begged and pleaded them to go until they acquiesced. It was at once a disappointed once we saw how run down and cheap the place was but it was also a hit of much needed kid fun. After seeing so many wholesome historic and natural attractions we were hungry for some good old kid sugar and Flintstone Village, in all it's plastic colorful splendor, was just the ticket.
It was tourist franchise hell, but the kids won out over the adults
As we pulled out of Flintstone Village I saw something I'll never forget. There was a Native American dressed like a traditional chief with the head gear and the whole nine yards. He was so drunk he could barely stay on the horse he was riding. This conflicted with every image of Indians I had ever seen, including the old Indian that had given me the arrowhead in Eastern Colorado. Yet those two contrasting images, to my knowledge, were the only two Native Americans I had ever seen in the flesh.
If you've ever driven across South Dakota you know about Wall Drug, it's impossible not to. Wall drug started out as a small country drug store in the '30s that offered free ice water and dirt cheap coffee to travelers. They expanded both the store and the signs that advertised the place to the point where Wall Drug has become a mecca of restaurants, gift shops and attractions (almost a mall) that has signs nearly every miles for sixty miles in both directions. By the time we got to the Wall Drug exit we we so curious we simply had to stop.
One of the many, many Wall Drug billboards across South Dakota
The famous Wall Drug
In Mitchel SD, we drove by the famous Corn Palace. The fact that it was decorated with elaborate designs done in corn somehow I understood as the place was 'made of corn'.
You certainly have noticed that for a family vacation there is an absence if family photos. When we returned from our trip and processed the many rolls of film we shot almost all of them were lost. The few we have I wasn't able to have my dad scan in time.
aug 28
S.D. And minn
Climbed rocks, took guided nature tour got late start
stopped in minnasoto (Minnesota) for night
My journal for the day before before states that we saw the Badlands, but I was probably playing catch-up with my jounral and writing those entries a day or two after the fact. It was too dark to see anything when we set up camp in Badlands National Park. The next morning we woke to see where we were. It was as if we had taken a wrong exit and ended up on Mars! The landscape was like nothing I'd ever seen or dreamed about.
Most importantly there was few things my brother and I loved to do more than climb rocks, we lived for it. When we saw the climbing orgy of the badlands formations before us just begging to be scaled, we could hardly contain ourselves. The climbing was easy, we were sky high and nearly lost in no time. It's a lucky thing we didn't run across any snakes of other nastiness.
In Minnesota we stayed with some more college friends of my parents. After just a couple days of camping it was nice to be in a bed again. My brother and I explored the residential neighborhood and to our delight discovered some active rail tracks only a couple blocks from where we were staying. I climbed into an empty box car and sat in the open doorway. As was often the case growing up, I was doing something dangerous and stupid and my more sensible brother was nearby saying, “Uh Joel, I don't think this is a good idea (just ask me about the alligator in Florida). No sooner had he said that when the train lurched into motion. My only thought at the time was “awesome!” but I knew the fun was over when the train started to accelerate. I hopped off pretty quick preventing me from being able to tell a great story about how I accidentally skipped a train to Chicago or Milaukee.
(August 30th -date left off entry)
Min. Wis.
Left minnasota. Changed route
went wisconnson instead of canada
Visited Websters for night.
Apparently, we had planned to go home via Canada. I don't remember why these plans were scrapped but we may have simply been tired and eager to get home. We kids had never been away from home this long, nearly three weeks. The Websters were the only son and grandchildren of my Grandma Irene who was my grandfather's second wife so the Websters step cousinswere a family I had only met once before. The only thing I remember about that visit was that those kids started school the morning we left. I remember thinking how insane that was. Everyone in the world knows you don't start school till the Wednesday after Labor Day. That's a law of nature for heaven's sake!
Sept 1 '76
Wisc, Ill, Ind and Ohio
left wisconnson saw chickogo (Chicago) Ill. Ate lunch in Ind. Stayed at Holiday Inn, Swamm in indoor pool cut foot on side of pool.
Staying at a hotel was a big deal for us. We were all tired and there must have been a little extra money in the budget to splurge. The indoor pool was amazing to us as well. The fun was cut short when I did the same to my foot. My dad complained to the management, but nothing was done. We may have eaten dinner in a restaurant too but I don't remember.
Sept 2
Ohio Penn and NY
left Toledo (were we stayed) Plan to visit gramma Irene in Fredonia
(at the very bottom corned of the last page of my journal I wrote...)
Help!!
That night, sleeping in my own bed was wonderful. I didn't even mind starting 6th grade the next week because I had something to brag about. I had gone on the biggest trip of my little road warrior life. I had seen the world,
Or so I thought.
| DOUBLE J's Double Take |
| A Music & Personal Update |
| My last couple of practices, due to lack of time and a certain degree of laziness, I just plugged my bass into my guitar amp instead of the guitar amp/bass amp dual rig with the pedal board and various effects and tuners and cables. It is true however that there will be times that I will have to show up at a small club, plug into only the guitar amp with my bass, sing into a single microphone and still be entertaining. It sounded pretty darn good actually but I won't be selling all the other gear either. I am starting to plan for a Rochester ,New York show that will correspond with my wife's birthday. We will be in town for Christmas and she's met so many new friends from my old stomping grounds that she wanted to have her birthday at a club and have me play. I sure don't want to disappoint! I will provide details as they solidify. My weight loss has sort-of plateaued this week, but not because I've been bad or lazy. I kept up my diet nicely and exercised for an hour every day. Just one of those things I suppose. I'm less than 10 pounds away from a major goal. I must also confess that even though it's a little childish, I find myself motivated by the prospect of my celebrity crush, Lindsay Davenport, noticing I am slimmer when we started producing "US Open Tonight" at Tennis Channel in a couple weeks. If not Lindsay then perhaps some of the other crew who haven't seen me in a year. It could happen. |
No comments:
Post a Comment