Road trip memories

This donation to our garage sale last summer (thanks Susan-but I kept this one for myself), prompted a belated posting regarding the Family Road Trip. It's amazing to me how this one thing prompted so many membories.

My parents used to take my brother and me on one or two road trips a year, either to stay with Texas relatives in Ingleside or Fredericksburg, or to Colorado in the summers once we were a little older. I remember stopping at two different retail outlets whose very existence depended on the Family Road Trip. One was Nickerson Farms and the other was Stuckey's, and one had a blue roof and one a red one (I don't remember which was which). Stuckey's sometimes had a snack bar, and Nickerson Farms had restaurants attached. I remember getting the BEST burgers there, old school style with thick bread slices instead of buns, and grill marks all over, and dripping with grease. Yum.

My brother and I were also allowed to spend a very thrifty sum on crap for the car at these establishments, and we took our role as consumers very seriously. I remember spending quite a bit on books like the one above. I also remember turning little cows and pigs upside down to hear the very unrealistic noises that were supposed to be moos and oinks, kitschy salt and pepper shakers, road trip bingo cards, every rainbow color and flavor of candy cane you can think of, lots of things to write on and write with, and alot of glass and ceramic items that I guess were meant to be gifts for whoever was waiting for you at your destination. (I always looked at that stuff as extra stuff to dust, and not much more).

I don't remember if Philip and I fought in the car very much. I remember we sang, as a family, early on, before I thought it was very uncool to do so. My parents bickered from time to time. I remember one particularly stressful trip to Colorado where my Dad got lost for awhile. We were all very hungry and apparently in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. We accidentally drove onto an Indian Reservation somewhere around Taos where they were having a festival of some kind, but we were not allowed on the property. We finally stumbled on an old and not very well-stocked grocery store where we at least bought beverages and snacks to hold us over until we found civilization again. I think my Mom started speaking to my Dad again once we got to the Colorado border.

But I mostly remember fun times, especially on the way to the destination.

(posting from Belle Vernon, PA, where we're having a wonderful time)