Chapter One: Day One as I Remember it. And the whole story as a matter fact as seen through 50 years of rose colored dusty old glasses.

We were using a White 1966 Oldsmobile we had purchased in 1967. It was the first car we ever had with air conditioning. Makes me wonder if my parents were actually plotting this trip far in advance because you can't go through the southwest or California in July without air conditioning or you would fry. Dad used Triple AAA maps plotted for him to follow, for destinations and sight seeing alog the way. That is known as Google Maps or MapQuest today, lol. 

We had packed up suitcases and put things in the camper we were hauling. We had the camper for 2 years, since 1966. The items may have included a Coleman stove, groceries and the cooler. Suitcases were probably in the trunk and I don’t know what else. But Dad had made a plywood piece supports by a couple nailed on 2 by 4’s that served as support beams. This was for the back seat foot wells. We could reach under neat and get games and comic books out etc. But he made it so we could crash and sleep on the way. We put some kind of blanket over it to avoid getting slivers. Uncle Vane had lent us his tiny screen portable TV, a black and white, to use in campgrounds. I think it operated on a big battery and/or DC with a power cord. I don;t know why Vane had that unless he used it at th ePX store where he worked at Oscoda Wurtsmith Air FOrce Base. We drove to Missouri that day. 

At the camp we set up for the night and fooled around. But I distinctly remember when we plugged the TV to the electric outlet post, we had to squint to see the picture, seemed about an 8” by 8” screen. Suddenly there was an advertisement for the CBS showing of A Hard Day’s Night. As a 12 year old Beatles Fanatic, I went ballistic. I’d never seen it. Better on a dinky screen than not at all. Remember there were no home videos/disks back then. Hard Days Night was already 4 years old and things had already changed in a short time to hippies instead of well dressed mop tops, but I didn’t care. Whatever! This was childhood. So the parents let us watch it. It ended at 11pm but perhaps it was really 10 pm because we had crossed the time line into Central Time by then. Wow! What a great start to a great vacation! "Wahoo Gilligan!" What? Oh wait , I never said that back then, that was later with my kids…besides, Gilligan had been off the air for a year or so by then. And the Monkees had been cancelled. Brother was probably really bummed about that. Kung Fu showed up about 2 years later and all was well again, lol.