First Trip to Florida – 1968

After Tammy was born, we bought a water softener for our house to make the water better for our baby. As a bonus, we were given a free three-day stay at a hotel in Miami Beach. We decided we would take Tammy on her first trip in May 1968 before schools would be out for the summer.

Tammy had just had her first birthday, so we borrowed a car bed from Charlotte and Maurice for our trip. Our car was a 1964 2-door hardtop Valiant with not much room for a small child. The car bed was metal that would adjust to fit between the back part of the backseat and the back of the front seats. It had hooks that hooked onto the top of the front seat backs. We laid quilts on the car bed and a sheet on top of that. Cars did not have seatbelts in 1964 and there were no state laws requiring the use of them then. Tammy could play and sleep in that area while we traveled.

By the end of our first day of traveling, we realized how much more difficult it was with a baby. However, we were going to enjoy our time in Miami. When we got to Florida, I got my first experience with toll roads. I was not a happy traveler with having only access to gas, food, and restrooms at the few places built as part of the toll road system. There were no other places that you could go to, and the prices showed the lack of competition. When we got on the toll road, we were handed a ticket that showed where we got on and the date and time. When we got off the toll road, they calculated our cost to get off and they could determine our average speed for the miles traveled. If we had not stopped for any reason along the trip and our average speed exceeded the speed limit, we could be issued a speeding ticket. We had to stop at one of the travel centers for gas and to eat and it was a busy place.

When we got to the hotel in Miami Beach, the only parking was by valet parking. That meant we had to unload everything before our car would be taken to another location to be parked. After we got registered for our free room, we had a meeting with someone that gave us our schedule which included a four-hour session to hear about investment opportunities in the area. Our first exposure to “Time Share” chances of a lifetime. When we got to our room on the 8^th floor, it was a small room with only a double bed and no place for our baby. The room did not look clean, and I could tell right away that it was not going to work for us.

We had only been in the room for less than ten minutes when I called the front desk and asked for someone to come get our luggage. I told them that I was upset that the whole trip had been misrepresented and I would not waste any more of my time with their games. Our stay in Miami Beach was less than two hours before we left to go to the west coast of Florida. I saw on the map a road that went across to the west coast that looked like the fastest way there. It was a narrow two-lane road with nothing built along the road and no crossing roads. It was getting later in the afternoon, and we had seen very few cars on the road. After a little while, it was obvious that we were both looking and expecting to see alligators at any minute. When we got to the other end of that road, there was a toll booth and realized we had been on a toll road that had no notice posted at the other end. We were so happy to be off that road that I just paid the toll and went on toward Naples.

We took Tammy to the beaches at Naples and Fort Myers before going to Tampa where we would visit the Busch Gardens. At that time, there were some rides, but the only thing we could ride with the small child was the train. They had a lot of animals that would be native to the different sections of the park, but Tammy was most excited about seeing various kinds of exotic birds. The area where a large number of flamingos were bathing, and feeding was one of her favorite areas. She got excited seeing several peacocks just walking around and showing off their beautiful feathers. They came within two feet of us and spread their tail feathers.

We traveled the highway along the west coast back up to Panama City and then to Pensacola, stopping at more beaches before heading back home. We enjoyed our trip and learned about traveling with a small child. We also learned there are no “Free Lunches” or free trips. We were glad we had gone to Florida, but we understood that we had been naive about what we had expected when we planned our trip. While Tammy was too young to remember her first family trip, these memories can be shared with her family as a part of her early years.