Winter weather where I lived in Illinois as a child was unpredictable, especially near Christmas.  I don’t remember once taking a family vacation during Christmas vacation. But, I remember the inches of snow to build snow forts, make snowballs, and shovel during that vacation.

The vacations I remember occurred during the school’s summer vacation. My Dad was in the Navy, and he tried to arrange his annual leave for the summer months. It allowed him to spend part of it with family in Kentucky or Indiana.

Starved Rock

The only trip not to family was to Starved Rock State Park in La Salle County, Illinois. As the story goes, in 1760, a group of Illinois Indians was attacked by Potawatomi and fled to a 125-foot sandstone butte. A park ranger told us how the Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians surrounded the butte and remained there until the Illinois Indians died of starvation. Hence the name Starved Rock.

Granddad Harris

Most of the trips to Granddad’s Harris’ place were unremarkable. He had a small house that we made smaller, filling it with an extra six warm bodies. My parents shared a spare bedroom, and the children slept on blanket pallets in the kitchen. Grandfather led prayers every evening. Sometimes we listened to mystery shows or the Grand Ole Opry on the radio before bedtime. We kids spent the day outside playing with our cousins living next door.

But…one vacation, we were at my Grandfather Harris’ house out in the country. I played in the yard with my siblings when my grandfather called us to get in the house. He was frantic that we obey. I shepherded my sister and brothers through the front door but stopped to wait for him.

He ran to his car, a 1940’s something, and backed it up several feet. He left it and entered the house, dragging me with him. Granddad had us lay down, and we listened as something sounding like a freight train passed. When the noise stopped, he led us outside. His car sat between two fallen trees. It escaped damage because of the few feet he backed it.

Another trip to Granddad’s

We arrived on another trip to find my Granddad had a dog he kept chained to a doghouse. I think it was an Alaskan Huskie. One night after we went to bed, there came a sound, unlike anything we kids had ever heard. My grandfather said it was a bobcat or cougar. Anyway, we settled down when it didn’t come again.

The dog was gone the next morning. Granddad said not to worry because this was nothing new. The dog had figured out that it could get on the flat roof of the doghouse and leap off, breaking the chain. (I never understood why he chained it if it could get away whenever it wanted.) He said the huskie likely went after the cat. Sometime later, he came back a bit worse for wear. It appeared he found the cat.

I saw a bobcat or cougar on the way home from his house one trip. I was lying on the ledge before the back window. It was dark, and I was staring out the rear window when a big cat jumped out of a tree and ran across the road. One moment it was there, the next gone from sight again.

Grandmother Knott

Some trips to Kentucky were to visit my Grandmother Knott, who lived in Owensboro, Kentucky. Her husband died when I was less than two-years-old. She shared her house with my Uncle Carl, who took care of her and the house’s needs.

My brother, Cletus, and I spent some time with them one summer. That was the summer one of them gave us some steel-tipped darts. Hours of playing pretend-dartboard left the front porch marred with tiny holes. Grandmother was unhappy with the damage, but my Uncle Carl more for he had to sand and repaint the porch. The next time I saw real darts, I was a First Class Petty Officer in the Navy, far from porches.

There were a few brief excursions to see other families before I left home after graduation to work in a foundry located in Skokie, Illinois.

More

We spent a couple of days on one trip with my Uncle Albert and his family. My uncle had lost an arm in a farming accident. I remember I was uncomfortable as I tried not to stare at the empty shirt sleeve.

Sometimes we visited my father’s sisters, Aunt Imogene and Aunt Merici, but nothing stands out in my memory.

Everyone is gone now, but I have the memories.

Objectives

This trip was the third we have taken in the thirty-two foot class C. Three of our seven grandchildren joined us on our adventure. We had several goals for this excursion.

Prime was to pay our respects at the gravesites of my wife’s parents and brother. This is something we hope to do annually on their birthdays and parent’s anniversary for as long as our health permits. That their birthdays and the anniversary are in the same week makes it possible with one trip.

Getting to the cemetary by RV meant days driving to cover sixteen hundred miles to and the same home. The television and cd player received extensive use by the passengers as my wife, and I piloted through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisanna, and finally Texas.

Scott, LA

We stayed at the Lafayette KOA Holiday in Scott, Louisanna on the trip down. Our site was near the lake, and we were treated to a beautiful scene as the sun rose. The kids enjoyed a round of putt-putt at the eighteen hole course in a light drizzle.

After a short visit with relatives in Houston, we traveled on to Sandia. We spent nine days camped next to my wife’s cousin’s house. They once had an RV and still had a working electric hookup and dump site. Electric was critical as the air conditioning was essential when temperatures broke the one hundred degrees heat factor for six of the nine days.

At Sandia and Mathis

The grandchildren were not bored. Sunscreen became their best friend as they spent days swimming in the pool with cousins they hadn’t seen in a year. Their good times continued well into the early morning. Reports of their antics mentioned 1 am, and one occasion 2 am with popcorn or other snacks.

We spent much of the time visiting a great-uncle who lives on Corpus Christi Lake. He is 88 years old. Though in poor health, he and I spent hours talking about many things. He spent time in the Air Force, served in England where he met his wife, and of more adventures.

We were reminded that between last year’s visit and this year’s, three relatives had passed–his wife, my wife’s aunt, and her cousin.

Crossville, TN

The trip back had a stop to visit my uncle and cousin in Alba, Texas. They are in their 80’s and having medical challenges. It was a nice visit, although marred by learning that a cousin, son to my uncle, had passed in January. I left wondering if my wife’s great-uncle, my uncle, or cousin would be here to visit next time.

The route home differed from that coming down. We went from Texas to Tennessee via Arkansas. It didn’t shorten the route home but provided different scenery for much of the drive. We stopped one night at the Crossville/I-40 KOA. The campground is two-thousand feet above sea level and has many amenities. The young ones enjoyed the game room with pool and table tennis. The next morning found us relishing the outdoor temperature in the seventies. Such a change after the near one-hundreds of the past days.

Home

Welcomed home by our dogs and passing the children to their parents, my wife and I have spent the last two days recovering. Vacations can be very taxing! Yet, we look forward to another and soon.

Did you take a vacation this year? Care to share it using the comment form? Please do, I would love to hear about it.

Vacation to high temperatures

Who takes a vacation to South Texas in July? We hesitate to say it is my wife and I. And we brought two grandchildren with us.

It was in the high 80’s when we left Maryland in our RV. We saw the temperature gradually rise as we drove south. The first night we stayed outside of Knoxville. The air conditioner ran until sleep time. Even with it off, everyone slept well.

The second night found us in Lafayette, LA. We spent the night there. The temperature wasn’t bad, but it was very humid. Sleeping without air conditioning meant wallowing in sweat. Air conditioning became the norm after this stop.

This is SUMMER!!

We spent the third day and night with relatives living outside Houston, Texas. The temperature stayed in the high 90’s the entire visit. A trip to the pool did not cool anyone off, the water was too warm. Grandchildren and cousins were the ones asking to leave, the adults were glad to leave than swelter in the shade.

We reached our destination on the fourth day. It was 105 the day we arrived and passed 100 degrees each day since. Heat indices reached 109 degrees.

“Who takes a vacation to South Texas in July?”

We do it to commemorate the birthdays of my wife’s mother, father, and brother. We will celebrate these and her parent’s anniversary—all between 23 and 31 July.

That we can ignore the discomfort caused by the weather, and enjoy the time with cousins, nephews, and nieces is an added benefit. Catching up with happenings of the last year adds value to the trip.

“Who takes a vacation to South Texas in July?” We do.

Thanks for reading and I hope you will use the comment form to let me know you visited.