Memories ~
From Falls Church to Kilmarnock
© 2007 Abilini's Computer Services
Westward Journeys (1969, 1974 and 1994)
My first
westward journey
began in April 1969 and ended in May 1969. My brother, Rick, and his wife,
Wanda, took me on a trip to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Our trip
started on a Saturday. Rick estimated that it would take four days to drive
across the country from Virginia to Wyoming. He didn’t estimate how long it
would take with a ten-year old in the car. The car was a Chevrolet Camero, the
‘first design’ with electric rear quarter-windows.
The first day there were no problems. We stopped for the night in Ohio and
checked in to a motel. I, being ten, watched some TV – Hawaii Five-O was on at 8
pm. The next day, Sunday, we only made it to Indiana because the car broke down.
The repairman told Rick, “that he would have to order a part and it would be in
the next day.” We spent the night in another motel. I immediately turned on the
TV, again at 8pm, and we watched the same episode of Hawaii Five-O that we had
watched the night before. Monday, the part came in and we hit the road again.
It was about 5 pm and I was asleep in the back seat. It was starting to rain so
Ricky put the back window up and I gave out a deathly scream! I had fallen
asleep with my foot partially sticking out of the back window. Ricky swerved. I
was screaming and crying and then he finally pulled off the road and stopped.
(It felt like he took forever, to pull over!) After assessing ‘what was going
on’ he put the window down, so I could get my foot back into the car. At this
point, Wanda was on my side and made some statement like, “Rick you should have
checked before putting the window up.” And then she asked if I was okay. We
stopped at a motel in Iowa at around 9pm. We went in, and as usual, I turned on
the TV and we watched the exact same episode of Hawaii Five-O (I think this is
where I lost Wanda’s affection). Tuesday and Wednesday, we followed the same
routine: Drive nine or ten hours, find a motel, turn on the TV and watch the
same episode of Hawaii Five-O. Finally, on Thursday, we arrived at Yellowstone.
We checked in to a cabin in the park. The first thing I noticed… no television
set!
We spent Friday morning driving around the park. At some point, I’m not sure
what time it was, Ricky pulled over and stopped. He was looking at a huge deer.
He said, “It’s an elk, be quiet.” He got out of the car and made sure that the
door didn’t close. As he was sneaking up on the elk, I got out and then Wanda
got out. Rick was just about to reach out and touch the elk when the door
slammed shut. The elk ran off and Rick turns and screamed at me “Robbie! Why did
you slam the car door?” I was standing halfway between Wanda and the car and
Ricky, and I said “Why are you yelling at me, she did it.” Wanda said, “sorry I
was getting the camera and forgot why the door was open.” He was furious. He
walked over to me, grabbed me by the arm and pushed me into the back seat. We
drove around for a few more hours and no one said anything. We stopped, this
time, at the ‘Old Faithful Geyser’ exhibit. The sign stated that the next
eruption would occur at 5:09 pm. Rick looked at Wanda and said, “What time is
it?” Wanda said, “I don’t know, my watch has stopped.” So we went into a
restaurant to find out what time it was and the waitress said, “It’s 5:10”. We
ran back out and sure enough ‘Old Faithful’ was shooting steam. Rick said “dammit!”
and we went back to the restaurant. The waitress said, “Sorry you missed it, but
it will go off again tomorrow at 5:10 pm.” Rick said, “It figures, we have to
start back tomorrow.”
That’s all I remember about the trip!
Many, many years later I was told that mom and dad had ‘paid’ Ricky to take me
on that trip. I have always wondered “was it worth it?”
My second westward journey was in March of 1974. My sister Anne and I
flew out to Salt Lake City to visit my sister, Nancy, and her husband, John.
When we left Dulles Airport it was 30 degrees. Anne and I played cards on the
plane and about 4 hours later, the captain came on the loud speaker and said,
“We are about 50 miles from the airport. Flight attendants, prepare for
arrival.” We put the cards away and peered out the window. About ten minutes
later, we saw another airplane flying below us and there was a helicopter flying
in front of the airplane. We said, “Look at that plane, it has a hole in the
cockpit!” It seemed like everyone in the plane moved to our side and watched
what was happening outside. We watched as someone was lowered to the airplane
from the helicopter, by a tether line. Right as it appeared everything was fine,
all of a sudden the person being lowered was released from the tether line and
everyone watched in awe, as a parachute opened a long ways back. Then our
captain came over the intercom and said “Don’t worry ladies and gentlemen, they
are filming a movie, called Airport 1975.” Our plane landed and everyone
was talking about what they had seen up there! Nancy met us at the airport and
asked, “Did you see them filming?” We said, “Yes, it was neat.”
The next day, John took us further up in the mountains to do some skiing. He
told us how to stand, on the skis, how to change directions and how to stop.
What he didn’t tell us was “what to do when you are heading for a creek!” So I
just sat down and prayed it wouldn’t hurt too much. He said, “You did it right.”
I said, “Thanks a lot, you could have told me that sooner!” On the way home,
from our ‘skiing attempt’ we met one of their neighbors. John introduced us as
Nancy’s brother and sister and we said, “Hi, pleased to meet you.” We thought
their response was rude when they said, “What an accent. Where is you from,
‘downnn souuth’?” John quickly replied, “Yes, from Virginia, just like
Nancy.” John apologized for their behavior (in front of them I might
add!) and we left and went home. John told Nancy how the neighbors reacted and
what he had said. Nancy said, “Oh, just ignore them they are Mormons.” I looked
at Anne and thought, to myself, “Aren’t John and Nancy Mormons?”
Anne and I spent a couple days with Nancy and John. Then we rented a car and
drove down to the Grand Canyon. It took a whole day to drive down, especially,
since we stopped in Zion National Park and took about 6 rolls worth of pictures!
Eventually we got to the North rim of the Grand Canyon. The North rim’s motels
were full. We were told, at one of the motels, that they could make us
reservations at their South rim’s motel. Anne said, “Great and got directions.”
Thirteen hours and one very, very long bridge later, we finally arrived at the
South rim’s motel. We were exhausted and checked in to the motel, around 9 am.
(It took 6 ¼ hours to get to the bridge that crossed the Grand Canyon and 30
minutes to cross the bridge and then another 6 ¼ hours to get to the motel. They
need either more motels or more bridges!)
We stayed at the canyon for a couple of days taking a lot more pictures and then
drove back to Nancy and John’s. We talked about the beautiful sites but mostly
talked about the length of time it took to go from the North rim to the South
rim. The next day was our last day before we had to head back to Virginia. It
was 18 degrees when we left Salt Lake City, we stopped in Denver, we didn’t have
to get off the plane. It was 12 degrees in Denver. About 4 hours later, we
arrived at Dulles Airport. The captain said, “Ladies and gentlemen welcome to
Washington’s Dulles Airport. Please, don’t get upset, but the temperature here
is 96 degrees.” 96 degrees in March! What the heck is going on? People
on the plane were stripping off jackets, coats, and shirts.
My third westward journey was in 1994. My boss, Frank (very good friend,
too) and I had to train Army personnel in Sierra Vista at Fort Huachuca. We left
Richmond Airport and the temperature was 50 degrees. We flew into Tucson,
Arizona, and the temperature was 105. Arizona has a relative humidity level of
6% ± 2%. That means: Arizona’s 105, felt like Virginia’s 85, with no humidity.
Frank and I thought it was very comfortable. We were going to be there for three
weeks.
The first week we taught the personnel and that Friday, a lieutenant from the
class told us that we should drive up to Tombstone, to see the O K Corral
re-enactment. We said “Thanks.” And Frank got the directions.
Note: Sierra Vista is a strange place, it’s right on the Arizona / Mexico
border. For example, the radio stations gave the weather forecast and high
temperature for Phoenix, not Tucson, not Sierra Vista and definitely not for
Tombstone. However, we knew that if the temperature was going to be, let’s say,
110 in Phoenix then subtract 10 for Tucson, subtract 20 for Sierra Vista and
subtract 50 for Tombstone – unless weather was expected, then subtract 70 to 80.
We got up early Saturday morning to drive up to Tombstone. Frank asked the
breakfast waitress about Tombstone and she said, “Tombstone is in the high
mountains and they are calling for an afternoon cold front to move through.” So,
we brought our heavy jackets. We got to Tombstone around 8 am. We stopped by the
tourist’s center and picked up the usual stuff: map of the area and a
re-enactment schedule. The schedule stated that the O K Corral shootout would be
at 4 pm, so, we brought a long our heavy coats. Other tourists thought we were
crazy. We first went to ‘Boot hill’ and took pictures of the head stones. We
laughed at the good ones: here are a few: “Here lies Lester Moore, 4 slugs from
a 44, No Les No More”, “ Bill Blake – Was hanged by mistake”, “Rebecca Freeland
1741 She drank good ale, good punch and wine. And lived to the age of 99.” and
lastly “here lies AN atheist, John Doe All dressed up and no place to go!”
At 3:30 pm, we headed towards the re-enactment arena. The clouds were moving in
and the temperature started to drop. We put on our heavy coats and watched as
people in shorts and short-sleeved shirts started leaving, quickly. We watched
the gunfight, while it was snowing. We talked to the ‘re-enactment actors’. One
of them said, “You can tell the city tourists, cause they aren’t wearing the
right gear.” We talked and laughed with these guys for a while and then we left
around 6 pm. Frank and I joked about the roads. The road sign would simply
state “Dip Ahead” and Frank and I would determine the size of the ice-cream cone
by the drop. The first two or three were single dippers, then we hit a
triple-dipper. Frank slowed down a lot after that one!
The next weekend, Frank’s boss, Louise, flew in for a meeting. Frank always
drove and I rode in the front passenger seat. Louise was in the middle of the
back seat, leaning forward and talking to Frank. We decided to drive to an
out-of-town diner, in Bisbee, about 15 miles east of Sierra Vista. We were
in the right lane when we saw a sign that read “Right Lane Ends.” Frank and I
looked at each other and at exactly the same time we went: “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Louise sat back, in the seat, and said, “Oh my God, they are both crazy!”
Frank and I both laughed and said, “Yep. We are crazy.” About 10 minutes later
we arrived at the restaurant and Louise looked at the salads. Frank and I
looked at the steaks, on the menu. One of the steaks was listed as a 64 oz.
Sirloin and it stated on the menu ‘Eat the whole steak and it’s free.’ Frank and
I looked at each other and said “nope, not today.”
Frank and I made three more trips to Fort Huachuca, over the next two years. The
first was by far, the best! However, on our last trip in June of 1987, we
stayed off base at the Marriott. The Marriott had a pool, yet, we never saw
anyone in the pool. One night after work, Frank and I went down to the pool. The
water was delightful. Then, we found out why no one was using the pool. The
evaporation rate was so fast, because the humidity is so low, that when we got
out we nearly froze to death! (That will wake you up, in a hurry.)