Deborah and I drove to
The drive north to Ft Collins (home of CO state U, Tari Wilks' alma mater) was in the dark, so I couldn’t enjoy the mountains to the west along 25 N – but the exit to
When I was 16, my parents decided that it would be fun to take us (Kim, Tom, Emmie & me) on a 6 week tour of the west, via car!!! Did I mention for six weeks in summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school??? In our station wagon. Pulling our Golden Apache camper!!! Each of us had one beer case in which to put everything we wanted or needed for 6 weeks ( remember those great beer cases, the heavy ones with lids that were halved lengthwise down the middle and opened up and out like the front doors of a DeLorean or a Lamborghini?)
Anyway, as you might imagine, I was NOT HAPPY about being away from my crowd for 6 weeks in the SUMMER..... but ...... off we went, and in retrospect, it was the vacation of a lifetime.....we still laugh about all the crazy things we did that trip. The disappearing woman in the desert, laying / lying (never can remember which one is correct) on the ground in the desert, in the dark, (carefully, since we were told to avoid the cactus, scorpions, and tarantulas that live there) so we could better see the constellations in the sky that we had just seen earlier that day at the Planetarium in Salt Lake City, where we ran into Jerry Snider (not sure that was his last name) a teacher at Wilson Jr High in Hamilton and a teacher's bowling league buddy of my dad's at the Walgreens in Salt Lake City! That was my first experience of "it's a small world". These are just a few of the MANY great experiences that Mom and Dad bestowed upon us that trip. But more on that later, in another entry, if anyone reading this is interested in those fabulous and funny adventures and makes a request for more. Heck, I still have the photos that my Kodak "instamatic" camera took that trip! Bryce Canyon! Grand Canyon! Mesa Verde! Mormon Tabernacle Church and organ pipes (Mom, remember how irritated you were with me that day because I just could not believe that those "lines" in the front of the church, behind the "pulpit" area, were the organ's pipes? Possibly because they were 2 and more stories tall and my only organ pipe experience at that time was the organ that Lisa Thomas played in the sunroom in her home, pushing something with her feet to activate something in the organ.
Anyway...... you are probably wondering where this is going.....
The reason the whole going west the summer I was 16 is relevant to today's trip is that when we reached Greeley, CO, we stopped to visit my mom's high school music teacher. Which I thought was a little weird, I mean how long had Mom been out of high school? But then, I know there are quite a few of us Barb Dayton grads who would gladly stop in and visit with her today (am I right???? - give me a show of hands!!!)
And I fell in LOVE with this area. And begged my dad not to make me go back to Ohio. His compromise (like he was going to OK my staying with the music teacher, or anyone else, for that matter!) was that I should apply to go to college here. And I did. And I was accepted. But the out of state tuition was stiff then, too, and I had the opportunity to go to Miami with some tuition credit assistance from all the student teachers my dad had "trained" over the years, so, Miami it was. I was being financially responsible. (How boring for one so young!) And didn't make it back this way until circa 1993 or 1994, or maybe both, it's fuzzy now. And now I'm here again ..... and still as crazy about being here as I was then. Probably not to live here, but definitely love visiting. But then, I haven't driven into the Rockies to Nederland, so who knows......
No comments:
Post a Comment