The Event ~ Journeys Through Time

Everyone  likes to reminisce and recall  pleasant, enjoyable events experienced throughout life. Trips ~ big and small ~ should be among those memories. I’m in the process of planning another big trip in celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary.   Tim doesn't know about it yet ~ it will be a surprise on our 40th!  Planning this trip has led me to ponder over previous trips and places I’ve been in the past.

Reaching way back to my childhood, this will be a challenge to my memory:

1. Yellowstone Park with my family as a child.  I was in awe seeing "Old Faithful"!

2.  Minneapolis, MN ~ as a child with my Dad.  I remember him taking me to a boxing match.  I think it was a business trip for him.

3. Chicago ~ when in high school with my parents and brother, Kelly.  We camped on the beach of Lake Michigan.  I think that was a no-no.   I remember how beautiful the dairy state of Wisconsin was as we drove through it. I would like to do a road trip through Wisconsin again.

4. Several summer trips to the mountains in Big Timber, Montana for week-long church camps from the time I was in 4th grade each year through 8th grade. Those were some of the most fun memories of childhood. I still have a dear friend I met in 4th grade camp. Heidi and I were maid-of-honor in each other’s weddings, and she is a Godparent to Janel.  A life friend was made at camp!

5. Mobridge, SD ~ summers 1964 and 1965 for church camp when in high school.

6. Los Angeles, CA ~ 1967 with a side trip to Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm my junior year in high school. The State chapter of FHA paid for all presidents and vice presidents of local FHA chapters to go to National Convention. I was vice president of the local chapter.  All the girls had to wear hats and suits on the plane. I took the train to Billings to get on the plane.

7.  Rapid City, SD ~ June 1968 to attend National College of Business (where I met Tim). I went the summer semester right after high school graduation, and continued through the second summer, finishing in December 1969.

8. Denver, CO ~ January 1970 where I worked for a law office for 10 months before getting married.

9. Sacramento, CA for our honeymoon in November 1970.  I remember being really frightened driving over the sand desert of Utah at night.  The moon shone so brightly on the sand I thought it was water and the water was right up to the side of the road!

10. Bartelsville, OK ~ 1976. Tim and I, Janel and Alexis went with my parents and my brother Kelly to see my brother Vern who was going to college in OK. It was a road trip in my Dad’s big Cadillac limousine. Tim and I and the two girls fit comfortably in the back seat while Mom, Dad and Kelly were comfortable in the front seat. We had lots of room. Can you imagine that many in one car on a long road trip. I think I remember visiting “Little House on the Prairie.”

11. Orlando, FL ~ January 1979 when Tim when received a sales trip from Vigortone.  We went to Disney World.




  12.  Black Hills, including Hot Springs several times when the kids were young. We would take an overnite trip to go swimming in Hot Springs, and the tourist attractions around the Black Hills.

13.  Hazen, ND ~ 1979 to see my grandparents one more time when Janel was 7 and Alexis was 4 ½.  As a child I would take the bus to Hazen and spend a week or two with my grandparents. 

14. Disney World, FL ~ December 1981. We bought a van with Tim’s cousins Connie and Rich. With them and their 3 kids and our three kids (Janel 9, Alexis 7, and Cash 8 mo), we embarked on a 17-day road trip through Texas, Arkansas, New Orleans, LA, three days at Disney World, Busch Gardens, Daytona Beach, Christmas in Nashville, TN, and wherever else the road led through from here to there and back. We still laugh today at the fun memories made on that trip.

15. Phoenix, AZ ~ 1984; New Orleans, LA ~ 1985; Las Vegas, NV ~ 1986 for REA conventions when Tim was on the REA Board of Directors.



16. Las Vegas ~ 1987 to celebrate a friend's (Jim Moranville) 40th birthday  along with Kamtz and Loxtercamps.  We did an all nighter walking the streets of Las Vegas.  Hit the bed about 6 a.m. 

17. A four-day covered wagon trek ~ summer 1988 in the southern hills between Bayard and Scottsbluff with Tim and Cash. I would do this again! It was an awesome vacation and 30 minutes to home when it was over.

18. Canada, Glacier Park, Ronan, MT summer 1989 to visit my brother and family. A family trip with all three kids. Nephew DJ joined us for part of the trip into Canada.

19. Phoenix, AZ ~ December 1990. The whole family flew as guests of the National Dept of Transportation for Janel’s winning essay on transportation. Cash left his new hot pink Arizona cap on the plane returning home.





20.  Nashville, TN sometime in the early 1990's in early December.  Tim and I went to his National Transportation meeting.  We stayed at the Opryland Hotel.  That was a magnificent hotel, especially when it was all decorated for Christmas. 

21.  1988 through 1996 I attended eight National Chamber of Commerce Membership Directors conferences in: Chicago (1988); Miami (1990); Cleveland (1991); Palm Springs, (1992); Virginia Beach (1993); New Orleans (1994); Scottsdale (1995); New York City (1996).





Janel and Alexis went with me to Miami in 1990. We three flew into Orlando, rented a car, visited Disney World and did a road trip from Orlando to Miami Beach. Today I can’t imagine that we did that by ourselves.   While in Orlando with the girls at my side, I was awarded the trophy for the best small Chamber in the nation, based on a written application I submitted, winning over Naples, FL and a small city in New York. 



Janel flew with me to Virginia Beach in 1993; and Alexis joined me in New York in 1996. Those were really fun trips with my daughters.



  22. California trips to visit Alexis:  fall 1993 when she nannied in Pleasanton.  We went to the mountains and stayed in a friend's really cool cabin,  and  rode roller coasters all day!  I love roller coasters!

1996 while Alexis was attending Diablo Community College. We spent four hours in a Honda dealership helping her to buy her first new car. 

1996 and 1998 road trips to California

A road trip to California in 1998  took us through beauatiful Tahoe, with Tim and Cash when Alexis attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.  Her roomate worked at a swanky beach resort and  got us a complimentary  room on the beach - Cash stayed with Alexis! 



On the trip back from California we stopped in Las Vegas.  Cash and I rode the roller coaster on top of the New York New York building.  I love roller coasters! 

A second road trip in 1999 driving through the desert through Bakersfield and LA with Cash and Tim for her graduation from Cal Poly.  We stayed in a beach cabin of a friend - that was cool.  Janel and baby Jakob joined us.  A  fly-in with Janel in 2004 for a girl's weekend and to go wedding dress shopping with Alexis.



Thirteen family members took a train to California in 2005 for Alexis' wedding. Tim and I flew again in Feb 2006 to Oakland and Feb 2008 to Sonoma to visit Ryan and Alexis. Tim and Alexis enjoyed a great wine-tasting tour while Ryan and I stayed dry and ate the munchies in wine country around Sonoma.




 

23. Fort Worth, TX (1998), Albuquerque, NM (1999), Phoenix (2000), and Las Vegas (2001) to attend the National conferences through my job at Farmers Irrigation.  In Las Vegas I took time to go see the newest show on the strip - Ron Lucas the ventriloquist.  It was awesome. 

24. Boston, MA ~ 2000 to visit Alexis when she was a graduate student at Boston College. We went to Cape Cod and Rhode Island. A great girls time together.   Boston again in 2002 for her graduation from Boston College.

25. Boston and the New England states ~ September 2001, just 10 days after the terrorist attacks of 9/ll. It was scary to fly at that time. The planes just started returning to the air. We rented a Ford Tahoe and toured Vermont, New Hampshire, a little of Maine; and Alexis took us all over Boston.



2002  in Sioux Falls, SD

  26. Chicago,  IL ~ 2001 to enroll Cash in Moody Bible Institute; 2002 to return him to MBI, taking a road trip through Sioux Falls, SD to meet up with Janel and Alexis (Janel and family were living in SF at the time, and Alexis was visiting there); 2003 to attend Founders Weekend with Cash; and 2005 to attend his graduation.

27. Elkhart, IN ~ 2006 to visit Cash when he worked in a Baptist church. We took the train from Lincoln to Elkhart. It was a pleasant train trip this time.




Allen's Idaho camp site 2003 (Allen, Ambree, Suzy)

 

28. Utah, Oregon and Idaho ~ 2003. A road trip to visit cousin Jim Frickie in Salt Lake City, a college friend (Carol Pomeroy) in Oregon; and brother Allen and family at their campsite in Idaho. A great road trip.

29. Germany ~ October 2006 to visit Daniel Meurer and his family. Daniel was an exchange student that lived for us for a year in 1996. We had a layover in London, England, en route to Cologne (Koln). Daniel took us on a day trip to Brussel’s, Belgium. Rolf took us on a day trip to Dusseldorf. We spent six days with them before taking the train to Rothenburg for a day and Munich for three days.






Salzburg, Austria 2006

 

We took a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. Wow. What beautiful country. It was hard to imagine that most of it had been destroyed in the 1940’s during WW II. I would return there I think before going elsewhere in Europe.




Tim, Waltraud, Sandi, Claudia, Daniel, Rolf
With the Meurer' family  in Germany 2006

 

30. Phoenix, AZ ~ Thanksgiving 2007 and 2008 – both road trips;  March 2009 by plane for niece Kadi Jo’s wedding.

31. Buena Vista, CO ~  White water rafting:  2004 by myself  and then again with Tim and nephew Justin from Phoenix who was staying with us; 2005 with Tim; 2006 with sister-in-law Kathy; 2007 Tim and I went again, each year to white water raft with Cash who was a rafting guide at Noah's Ark. 

 

Christmas 2007 in Estes Park

 32. Estes Park, CO ~ Christmas 2007 with all of Tim’s family – 22 of us in a fabulous 7-bedroom lodge. It was a great family Christmas!

33. Kentucky ~ July 2008 and 2009 to attend the International Ventriloquists Convention.



 

34. Skagway, AK August 2009. By plane to Juneau; by ferry to Skagway; by helicopter to the top of the glacier. Wow, that was cool!  Cash took us all over in his tour bus, and a side trip to the Yukon. A train ride on the Whitepass & Yukon scenic railway.   Alaska is magnificent! 

35 Lincoln, NE and the surrounding area many, many, many, many times in the last 20 years since Janel went to college near there and then
settled there after getting married. And since she keeps all seven of my grandkids east of Lincoln (Eagle), we will continue to go there often.

Well, for a family that doesn’t have very much fun, it appears that we did indeed take time to take time off! Each journey is an eventful memory from my past. Wow, I didn’t realize how much of this great country landscape we have really seen.  Not bad for a couple who doesn't get around much!

Next ~ the surprise trip I'm planning for Tim and I in celebration of our 40th anniversary to be revealed November 28.   Just planning the trip is an eventful time!