Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
About 5 years ago I wrote a small book about all my vacation experiences to share with my daughters and my grandkids. I swear in my youth every single trip was a nightmare. On our first trip we had a tent. Dad wanted to just drive around New England. One goal was to visit Boston where he went to airplane mechanic school during WWII and also where my Mother and Father got married during a one day pass back in 1942. They wanted to find the church and all they could remember was that it was near Fenway Park. Problem was he didn't know where that was located and damned if he was going to ask anybody for directions. We circled around Boston for hours and finally by accident, found it.Back in my late teens, I went camping (only once) to a camp site up in New Hampshire. There were about 12 of us, and some pitched a tent and slept there. Others, like me, slept in cars. I figured if a bear strolled into camp, I'd be safer in a locked car.
On the way there the plan was to stay in a campground just over the Vermont/Mass border for a few days. We had a car breakdown on the way delaying us for a few hours and got to the campground late and shortly after arrival it started to rain. We stuck it out, cold and wet for two days hoping for sunshine that never came. On the third morning it was still raining so we wrung things out the best we could and headed to Boston.
From Boston the next stop was Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine and a campground on Cadillac Mtn. On the map it was only about 3 inches from Boston to Bar Harbor but it was a lot of miles away. We didn't get there until after Midnight and the office to check into the campground was not to be found. As we wandered up the mountain we went around a bend in the road only to find a family of Bears casually crossing the road. That convinced my mother that none of use were ever going to leave the car until daylight less we all would look like a plump buffet for the Bears and their friends. We slept sitting up in the car until dawn when through the fog, Dad continued to make it to the top of the mountain and all we could see was the inside of a cloud. l believe it was at that point that my Mother made the command decision to head home. Our two week camping adventure lasted only 5 days and the tent became history. That also marked the beginning of the travel trailer obsession. I might add that was not the end of amazingly disasterous travel vacations that we endured in those childhood days. That was just the tip of the iceberg and the start of why I never got the fever. My thoughts were this, if I can't afford a hotel/motel then I can't afford to go. Hard stop!
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