First Family Vacation

When Eva and I got married, she told me that she had never been on any real family vacations before. She told me about going to California via bus when her older sister had her first child. She told me a few things about the bus ride and how long it was and she talked about being in California with her sister’s family and helping take care of Michele. Eva said the only places her Dad would take them were to Mexico or to the town where they grew up to visit family. I really did not know much about her family when we got married or about her life growing up. I had known her from school from the 3^rd grade, but I really did not know much about her. I know that must sound strange; however, it is how it happened.

With all of the changes that had occurred early on in our married life including job changes, our first real vacation together was not until September 1965. Eva had been working at Gulf Oil long enough to take a vacation and there was a break between Missions at NASA so I could take a vacation. We had already bought some lots and signed a contract to build our first house, but I wanted to take Eva on a real vacation. I don’t think she had ever been north of Dallas at that point, so I suggested that we go to Colorado. We had two weeks off and we could just go and enjoy our time.

Our trip was planned to start the same weekend that my brother’s family was going to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. Eva and I had never been there before and wanted to join in the fun. Kim and Pam, their two daughters were at the age that they could enjoy the rides and we could spend some time with Maurice and Charlotte. We had a great time with them and that was our first to visit a park like that, but Eva and I would share many of those days at many parks around the country over the years. I am not sure if Kim or Pam remembers that weekend, but I do remember it.

We stopped and took pictures at the state lines to have a record of going into the states and at other special places. Back then, Eva did not mind having her picture taken to show where she had been. I remember the feeling that I was watching her experience real excitement almost like a small child. No matter how tired we had got traveling the day before, she was up early the next day and excited about what we would see or do that day. Eva was so pretty when she smiled.

We went to the Royal Gorge, the Puebloan Dwellings, Pike’s Peak, the North Pole, the Garden of the Gods, and Estes Park. What I did not know was that during that time of the year, many of the places above Denver were closed. Our trip was the last two weeks of September and that was when it was the time between summer tourist and the winter season. The Rocky Mountain National Park was closed and Estes Park businesses were closed to make repairs for the winter business. We decided to go to Wyoming because I had never been there before so we drove to Cheyenne for the night and we would decide where to go from there.

We stayed at a Holiday Inn for the night and our room was right by the pool. When we went to the restaurant to eat, we saw the pool was drained. In the restaurant, we noticed there were just a few people in there but did not think much about it. When we got back to our room I noticed it was warm in there, but I had turned the air on when we first got into the room. I contacted the front desk and they told me that the A/C only worked during the summer months. I began to get the picture – the pool was drained and the A/C turned off. Well, the windows don’t open in a Holiday Inn and the only thing for ventilation was a vent above the door. So I opened the vent to get some fresh air only to realize our hotel was located next to the Cheyenne Regional Airport.

We talked about where we would be going the next day and decided that it would not make any sense to keep going in a direction where things might be closed for the season. We would head back through Nebraska and Kansas, to places that neither of us had been. The next morning I went to check out while Eva was finishing up packing. I noticed people there checking out wearing heavy coats and warm clothes. I’m standing there with a short-sleeved pull-over shirt and dressed for hot weather – thinking what looks out of place here? As I was paying the bill, the clerk tells me that they are expecting heavy snowfall today. I told Eva that we were heading in the right direction and what I had learned in the office.

We stopped at a few places in Nebraska to take some pictures, eat, and get gas but mostly drove toward Kansas. When we got to Kansas, I wanted to go to Dodge City and get some pictures of Boot Hill and other places. Our car only had an AM radio so getting news required finding a local radio channel when we got close to bigger cities. When we stopped for the night, we learned that Cheyenne had gotten 18 inches of snow during the day since we left that morning.

The next day we traveled to Oklahoma and stopped at a few places there before going to Wichita Falls for the night. We heard on the news that the front had moved south that day with snow and falling temps. However, it was still very hot in Wichita Falls that night and we would be home by the next night. When we left the next morning, it was very warm and we talked about that as we left for home. That night we heard the temperature in Wichita Falls had dropped by over 40 degrees during the day.

It was good to be home, especially because neither of us had a jacket or any warm clothes and it would not have been good if we had got stranded on the side of the road during a storm. A trip to remember, a great time together, and a learning experience all at the same time.