Ski Trip

In was 1959. We were on a trip to go skiing in upper Michigan. We encountered a "whiite-out" snow storm.

Shortly thereafter we had a head on collision. Fortunately, both cars were only going about 15 mph. with no visible road markings to determine who was on the proper side of the road and with little damage and no injuries we exchanged names and numbers.

About 3 hours in cleaner weather an airplane glided over our car from behind and silently landed on the road ahead of us. No damage. No injuries. The plane had icing problems and had to land.

Two dates later, after some wonderful skiing, we headed south. At around 2 a.m. we passed as a small town 35 miles from home. There were 3 or 4 orange columns of light coming from the sky. We watched for about 20 minutes, as we continued driving.

The next day in the paper there was a front page story about "orange lights" shining above a town where we had passed the night before.

Charlie Wilson

Boat Camping

Our most memorable summer vacations have been those where we went boat-in-camping. We tried to do this several times a summer. A girl friend and I decided to take an impromptu trip right after the boat was serviced.

We pack every up, head for the lake and motor ourselves out to a great, secluded campsite reachable only by boat.

Jumping forward next morning, rising to a beautiful morning & incredible sunrise until my eye spotted the bow of the boat sticking out of the water. The boat was 3/4 submerged in the lake.

Being the stubborn women that we are, we turned down help from a boat of 3 fishermen on a fishing trip.

using a logs as a fulcrum and a huge rock that was miraculously not far away, we found the strength to raise the boat and as it came up bail with a dish pan. We then took the motor apart, dried it out and actually got it running.

Later that afternoon we came across the fishermen who were dumbfounded to see us nonchanatly motoring along.

Phyllis Knobelauch

Ostrich Attack!

3 years old driving what seemed forever in the back daddy's "Green Dad" mazda car.

family vacation down south to wild animal park

mom & dad bickering 387 miles - mom completely irritated. dad feeling he is head rooster of the car.

finally got to the park. Dad's window is rolled down and we keep telling him to roll it up! nah-nah. Then a big ostrich fancies him and stuck his long neck in the car - biting at his glasses, took them and continued to peck at his face. my mom rolling in laughter.

Laura Mayo

London Underground

Once a year, our parents took us to London on the train for day trip. One year, we were traveling on the underground when my younger brother aged 8 at the time got on the train jsut as the doors closed and the rest of the family were still on the platform. For 10-20 seconds all sorts of things raced through our minds... but there was a happy ending as the doors reopened and he jumped out!

John Muncaster

Parent's Tent Collapsed

When my sister and I were little, we went camping by the ocean with our parents. My sister and I camped on a small hill by some trees. A huge storm (80 mile an hour raging winds) and rain came pouring down. Our pup tents plastic bottoms kept us dry enough and the trees protected us from the winds. But when my sister & I woke up in the morning, we found our parent's tent completely destroyed and collapsed. My mom had held it up with her nose all night long - she couldn't find her way out - and dad slept through it, as usual!

cindy melton

Snow!

My wife and I decided to go to the grand canyon. We planned to drive from sacramento through Yosemite, down through death valley over to Las Vegas, over to Zion and then to the Grand Canyon.

We figured since it was late April, there would be no problem getting throught any roads because the snow surely had melted by then. Boy were we wrong.

We drove from Sacramento and as we got closer to Yosemite, we kept seeing signs that the road was closed. We assumed that they had just not taken the signs down yet because it had been hot. Well sure enough the road through was closed so we had to drive south and try to cut through at the Sequoia National forrest but low and behold the road was closed there as well. We stayed the the night in some one horse town and set out to get to Vegas.

We drove further south through Bakersfield and on through Death Valley. We were told that death valley was in full bloom and beautiful. We saw dirt, dirt and more dirt, but no flowers. We made it to Vegas that night but every hotel was booked. Dirty, hot, and tired we came to Caesers and the clerk took pitty on us and gave us their last room. The room turned out to be a 1300 sq foot suite. So far the highlight of the trip.

We left Vegas the next morning heading to the Grand Canyon. We went through Zion without a hitch and it was beautiful. Just outside Zion I just happened to stop at a tourist trap and mentioned to the man at the shop that we were on our way to the Grand Canyon. He informed us that the north rim was sniowed in and we whould have tio drive around through Arizona and enter through the south rim. I couldn't believe it. We turned around and headed to Bryce Canyon which was also partialy snowed in but beautiful still the same.

I decided we needed to start heading home and was determined to get to Nevada. We drove and drove and drove and made it into nevada but there were no hotels to be found. As we got off the Extraterestrial Highway we began to climb a mountain. It was about 9pm and started to rain. The it started to snow and hard. It snowed so. Bad that we could not see more than 3 feet in front of the car. I followed the tire tracks from a car that was 5 minutes ahead of us and prayed that the hadn't driven into a ditch because I would have followed right behind them. We drove about 20 mhp for 10 more minutes and then we saw the sign saying we were at the summit. My wife and I cheered and a few minutes later, the skys cleared and all was good. We made it a small town, grabbed a room and went to sleep.

We drove the next day through Reno and as we went over the summit we were stopped and required to put on chaines. I couldn't believe the luck. MORE SNOW!!!!

We finally made it home and we look back on this trip as a really good time even though we had so many difficulties.

Terje Miller

Las Vegas to Ventura

Road trip from Las Vegas to Ventura in August with the following in the 1964 Chevy Impala:

Family - Mom, Dad, Debbi, Dennis, Tomi (me), and Shelly.

Animals - Hoss, German Shepherd; Jiggy, Collie; Bird Cage and Bowl of fish.

Dog was car sick and had a bad case of gas.

Long Trip!!!

Tomi Freed

Air Mattress

While rafting down the Trinity River on an air mattress and hit a log. A branch on the popped the air mattress. The air mattress went down the river. I ended up wrapped around the log. The water was moving so fast around me it sent part of my swimsuit downstream. I on the other hand could not get off the log without assistance.

Denise Crase

2 Happy Campers

In 2003:

5,500 miles
7 national parks
1 vw bug

2 happy campers

Best Road Trip!

Linda Drake

Yosemite Road Trip

My parents were divorced when I was quite young. My mom always went to great lengths to ensure I didn't feel any lack due to her being a single mom. So, when I was about 8, she took me on a "family" trip to Yosemite. She packed me into her 1970's WV bug and we hit the open road. Now, if you have ever driven to Yosemite know that there is a portion of road that becomes a two lane, very steep climb that winds up a mountain. I thought it was great! I plastered my face to the passenger window and exclaimed, "wow! Look how far down it is!" Little did I know that my mother, being terrified of heights was gripping the steering wheel, white knuckled and trying desparetely to ignore the steep drop off and just keep driving. "BE QUIET AND SIT DOWN."

We finally got to Yosemite and pulled into the parking lot at the Awahni (sp?) Hotel. It was, and still is, a very fancy hotel, but the significance of the place was lost on me. "When can we go to the pool?"

The next morning we had breakfast in this great dining room. All I could say though is, "mom, there are only old people here."

At the hotel pool, I was the only kid, and quickly got board paddling around by myself. Again, I asked, "mom? Where are the other kids? There are only old people here."

I think mom got tired of my complaints at the pool so we headed off for a valley tour. Now this was fun! We saw deer, a big waterfall, big trees and BIG rocks. This was MUCH more fun than that place with all the "old" people. Still on the tour, we passed by the other hotel in the valley. As we turned the corner, this other hotel's pool came in to view. It was *packed* with kids! Laughing, playing and screaming kids. "Mom?! Why couldn't we stay *there* instead of that place with all the old people??"

It all goes to show, how great a place is really is a matter of perspective. My poor mom. Looking back now, as an adult, I can appreciate how much effort she put into that trip for me.

Jennifer Blake

Dog ate my golf bag

Trip to Cambria and played golf at Morro Bay. Left some candy bars in my golf bag after the round and left my dog, a beagle, in the car with the bag. After we ate dinner, went ot he car and saw pieces of green paper everywhere. As it turns out, the paper was candy wrapper. My loving dog shredded my golf bag and ate the candy bars!! I mean, shredded!!! I had to toss the bag.

Angela Grodin

Who are U?

On the Greek Ilse of Korfu in 1980, it was known in the backpackers word of mouth that there was a mythical party beach to sleep!

Common knowledge the police swept the beach and olive grove at sunset to discourage overnight "squaters".

Scott, my male travel partner and I stayed out sight during the evening raid. Once the coast was clear, we staked out our camp site and pitched our tent. Our attention turned to a beach / Iuzo party.

In the morning, I woke to find an addtional female inhabitant between Scott and I, which I did not recognize. (Subsequently discovered Scott did know our newest friend) - we made a new travel friend for several Eurpean camp sites.

By Joe Grafton

Ecoterrorism

Trip w/ grandparents in Montana... Selfish idea to bring a snake back to Santa Barbara via Air Cal... got through airport onto plane to LAX... drove up to Santa Barbara... asked grandparents if I find a snake can I keep it (already had it!)... sure enough, 5 minutes later I showed them my snake... a selfish idea may have led to ecoterrorism.

Luke P - Table #22

Whale Watching

Trip to Molokini on a catamaran with my 3 year old grandson. the experience of seeing his reaction of a humpback whale's tail coming out of the water about 100 feet from the boat was priceless.

Made me appreciate the moment with my grandson and the awesome creation.

Andrey Bender

Yellowstone Trip

Family left Minnesota, mom, dad, sister & twin brother. Arrived at Yellowstone exited the car and sat at a picnic table with nothing except a map to plan what to do. I noticed a black bear in the distance walking toward our table. My Father and I remained at the table while the rest of the family went to the car. My Father kept repeating to me: We have no food and if we don't startle the beer he will not bother us. The bear came all the way to my side of the table and started licking my left knee. I learned that I was the food, so I ran to the car!

Scott MacDonald

Fighter Escort?

My family we so planned a raod trip to Disney Land.

Armed with a oerfect plan, new family van, AAA cutom road maps, dual air conitioners for the trip we headed out from Tucson to San Diego.

We with settled in to a nice rhythum of comfortable travel, kids sleeping, when there was an enormous boom! The van rocked violently.

I did some as quick course corrections to the van on the road. As I looked down the road the saw the fire of an an afterburner from a Naval Fighter plane. He was on a run to the Yuma gunnery range and decided to buzz some civllians along the way.

I was quite a memorable 'bump" in the that required some quick course corrections to a well planned trip.

John Dees

Smack into a Tree!

When I was in Jr High, we lived in the flatlands of Illinois. Our church youth group sponsored a canoe trip to the boundary waters of Minnesota. There were 15 boys and girls and 5 "adults.". After 2 days on the lake, things were getting crazy. We set up camp on a small islnd in the middle of a lake, with the girls on one side, and the boys on the other. Boys being boys, we decided to sneak over to the girls camp in the middle of the night and drop their tents. It was pitch black, and we snuck through the woods to the other side of the island. We executed the operation with precision, dropping every tent at the same time! The girls' reaction was predictable, and we took off running into the woods! Unfortunately, we had forgotten it was pitch black and we couldn't see a thing. As we were making our escape with the girls hot in pursuit, I ran smack into a tree! As a result, I was the only one "captured" and had to help put all the tents back up. I'll never forget that trip!

Craig Wells

Raft Trip 2000

During the summer of 2000, my dad took my sister, our 2 best friends and myself on our annual trip to a dude ranch on I-5 just short of the Oregon broder. We convinced our dad to let us go on a rafting trip just the 14 & 15 year old girls. He dropped us off and we were off. Down the Klamath we went. 6 hours later, we met him at our meeting point under the bridge. What an Experience.

Laura Henry Table 44

Family of nine

My family of nine went to san diego fro utah in a honda civic. Two in the hatchback, four in the back seat and three in front. At each stop we all got out and got feeling back in our arms and legs.

Lance Heninger

Left by the side of the road

Driving to florida to visit the granparents.. My two older sisters we,re fighting all the time. My father threatened to drop them off on the of the road and walk home. .my sister called his bluffm. . So my dad pulled over to the side of the road and made her get out of the car. We drove off and left her on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. When we went back she got in The car and Did not talk the remainder of the day

Mary danli

Mud

Coming back from england driving through france it started to snow. My wife and I where driving a BMW appox 110 mph as we can from under an over pass we hit some black ice. The next thing I knew the backend was trying to meet the front end of the car. Lucky they wherE doing road construction and we ended up in the mud. I proceed to try and push the car out of the mud and my wife floor the gas and mud coverd me from head to toe. At this time a french family drove by and pulled us out of the mud. Laughs where heard for days after.

Teddy Halidy

The foul drive

On a trip to Monterey a friend of mine accompanied me on the trip. We stopped for a bite to eat at an A&W somewhere in the middle of the trip. About an hour after the pit stop a foul order came thru thje vents. I tried everything to air out the car. I looked over at my roadtrip buddy and asked if he smells that. He just looked straight ahead, not saying a word. A few minutes later the foul stench came back even worse. He still didn't peep a word. By the third time that this horrible roadkill smell came back, I looked at him and said, You do it again and you're walking to Monterey.

Leesa Williams

Map out the window

When I was 16, my 17 year old brother, my 14 year old sister, and 7 year old sister took a road trip to Disneyland. That was before I5 connected all the way south.

My brother was checking the map. There was no AC so his window was down. He had the map very close to the window and the paper map was rattling in the wind. I asked him to close the window or move the map. Being a typical big brother he held the map closer to the window.

A giant chunk of the map ripped off and hit the car behind us right on the front windshield, of course the driver's side.

There was pandimonium on the road. Cars honking, swerving - it was chaos. My siblings were laughing hysterically, while I freaked out!

Truly the only thing I could think to do was speed up and get out of the way of all the very angry drivers behind me. It took hours and several asprin befor I was totally back to normal.

Lori Bailey's Vacation Summer 1975

Tow Truck Driver

When I was ten years old, my family was traveling in the backcountry of eastern Oregon. Our truck with camper broke down in a driving rainstorm.

This was before cell phomes, so my dad got out and walked toward the nearest town, leaviong my mom, younger brother, and me in the truck.

Thre hours later a tow truck pulled up. My dad emerged. Accompanied by the scariest looking, bad teeth, stinkiest and most disturbed looking man i'd ever seen.
He towed the truck into town and we got the repairs done (after two days), and everything was ok. But I'll never forget that tow truck driver.

- Michael Stokes

Strange Things

My family and I. Were visiting. Family in Idaho when we all decided to go to Yellowstone National park. En route to Yellowstone several very strange things happened. While driving through the desert in Idaho we encountered hundreds of animals scattering across the road all moving from left to right. Soon we more closley approached the site one of the nations largest nuclear sites. Towers were spewing glowing smoke and animals were still scattering. After driving for awhile my father swerved hard nearly rolling our motor home over. He quickly pulled over and left the motor home. Through the rear window we could see a large man swinging a very large breaker bar. We soon worked our way safely clear of the situation. Somewhere between the desert and Yellowstone a meteor fell from the sky and hit a tree near a farm. It appeared to burn the tree to the ground. Yellowstone was wonderful and without incident.

Table 28

Ferret roadtrip

Before my wedding some friends and I traveled from gallup new Mexico to Ventura california. While in Las Vegas, my friends ferret but him and he yelled stop. Luckily I thought he was yelling at me so I slammed on the breaks and narrowly avoided nailing the Elvis impersonator crossing the street. Later just before the ag inspection station, I remembered that ferrets were contraband in Cal. So we had to smuggle in the animal who saved our life. Thank goodness we didn't have fruit!

Rob uchison

3 hour tour!

While visiting an ex girlfriend in Poland with my girlfriend whom are both Polish I drove for 3 hours to go 16 km. through every turn about in warsaw because every street name in poland is 8 consonsnts-skiego, until I almost got arrested in front of the place I wanted to get to.

Singing to the Oldies

I went to Southern California on a roadtrip with my two teenage children who love hip/hop music. After about an hour of listening to their music I decided to chang the mood and put in my CD's from the 70's. It turn out to be a nice trip with my son attempting to guess the names of the artist.

Pants fell to her ankles!

In 1964 my. Family moved from PA to Oklahoma. My great Aunt Annie drove with us as we drove acrss the country. She was from NYC typical new yorker! We travelled in a station wagon with two kids two adults two dogs and my pet hamster! Finally got to OK, stopped at a drive-in cafe for lunch. Aunt had unbuttoned her pants to be comfortable. She forgot and when she got out of car her pants fell to her ankles! All she could do was stand there and say ,ooh, ooh,ooh, ooh. The young couple eating in their car were just as mortified!

Cathy courtney

ate Fish for 5 days

Four of us were backpacking in the Trinity wilderness we were awre of the bears in the area so hung our food securly in trees. While we were off fishing for the day, along came Mama bear her cub. Although Mama bear could not reach our food, the baby bear managed to climb the tree, slid down the rope and began bouncing on the pack until the roap broke and they feasted al ALL of our freezed dried food and even the cigars. Luckily mt hubby is an accomplishef fisherman, so we ate fish for 5 days and were able to even trade fish with others for REAL food. So always, always have a backup and team with the right skills for the job-

judy leezer.

Machine Guns

Heather went on a road trip wioth other friends when she was 17. They decided on a whim, to continue down the coast of California to Mexico. They found a deserted beach to camp on, and thought they had it made! The next morning, they woke to find Federales patrolling the beach with machine guns! This put a slight damper on their adventure. There is more, but sorry.....we are out of time. :-)

2 1/2 Hours locked in bathroom

Janelle's father was a lumberjack and she spent part of her childhood in logging camps. Her parents purchased a BIG trailer after having spent time living in the log cabins.

The family picks up the new trailer and the girls were left to their own devices in the trailer. No communication with the parents and on a substantial roadtrip. Sister goes to the bathroom and you guessed it - she gets locked in the bathroom while this big trailer bounces to and fro' down the highway. 2 1/2 hrs locked in the bathroom....ugh!

Plastic Jesus

On our roadtrips, my father taught us the following song and we would sing it on all of our road trips. I taught this song to my children and now we sing it on our roadtrps. We had a Plastic Jesus statue on our dashboard.
Dad said it would protect us and look out for us always.

P.S. My wife HATES this song.
Here it is,.........

I don't care if it rains or freezes

Long as I got my plastic Jesus

Sticking on the dashboard of my car......

Red, Yellow, Green and Blue

I got that ol' magnetic crew

Sticking on the dashboard of my car

AND..........

I don't care if roads are scary

Long as I have my Virgin Mary

Sticking on the dashboard of my car

They follow me. Wherever I go

But the magnet sure messes up my radio

Sticking on the dashboard on my car!!!!!!!

--------------------------

This is Paul Donohoe's story.

Ranger visit

When I was much, much younger I went to northern Maine with my friend Garnett. We were in college and poor so we camped along the way. As we drove around the nearly full state park we ran into a campsite inhabited with a group of girls about our age and spent the next few hours visiting with them. Around 1:30 we went looking for a campsite. We amazingly found the perfect spot in the pitch black moonless night, so we pitched our tent and crashed for the night. Around 5am a ranger came by and asked us who said we could camp here. In a sleep induced panic we said a park ranger had told us to park here. The ranger obviously didn't believe us, but we stuck to our story. The ranger asked us to come out of our tent. Once we exited we immediately knew why he did not believe us. It seems that we had pitch our tent in the middle of the park's main road. To this day neither Garnett nor I have been back to that park.

Gerry Dupuis

Cricket Soup

We were moving from California to Florida and decided to drive cross country when we got to LA we stocked up on water and had a five gallon plastic water container on the floor in front of my wife As we were driving through AZ my wife saw a sign for Chambers AZ her college roommates name was Chambers so she wanted to take a picture in front of the sign Of course I blew by the sign but decided to get off at the next exit and go back since there was bound to be a sign on the other side of the freeway There was one but it was a small one out in the middle of a field I had a 4x4 so figured why not With the windows down we entered the field We got about half way there when about 20 crickets jumped in through the windows My wife freaked out kicking her feet and in procedd smashed the water container flooding the interior of the Blazer I stopped and went around to her side to shoie the crickets out and scope some of the water out and when I opened her door instead of getting crickets out I let more in. We ended up not getting the picture she didn't speak to me for a good portion of the rest of the drive that day we did eventually get all the crickets out and the car did dry out

Scott Ferreira

Bear following her car

Devi was in yellowstone in her car when a bear was following her car. She waited half an hour and finally the bear walked away.

had to separate the parents

We had a 2 week road and camping trip with my parents and teenage sister when I was 19.

During the trip my sister and I "reverted" to kids with laughing and singing and having fun. However our parents started bickering and we had to separate them to the front seat and one in the farthest back seat.

Verinica Mino

Surrounded by Tepees!

My parents would drive to Utah every year to visit family. We lived in LA at the time. We would always pull over in the middle of the night on dusty roads to sleep in the car. This one time, our white ford 54 station drove way off the roadon this dusty dirt road, I slept in the front seat and mt brother and folks would put down the back seat. Place a mattress and fall a sleep with my little brother. When we woke up in the morning we were surrounded by tepees and indians peering into our car.

What an experience!

Brenda Buccellato

Fishing with Dad

One time I went fishing with my dad to spend more time together and as the pail got full of fish I started throwing them back in so we could spend more time together on the lake.

Lisa hammonds.

Horse Tail Falls with a Dog

A trip to Horse Tail Falls and it was full of granite.

Had a dog who was with them during the trip.

They tried to get the 110 pound dog over the rocks by pulling and pushing the dog.

The dog ended up cutting up his paws.

They used clothing to carry the dog down from the hills.

The were stuck on a cliff trying to get down.

There were these guys who we're looking over the cliff and they spotted the people and the situation that they were in and helped them get down from the the granite hills.

Good luck to all participants!!!

Kathy Schlosser's best story of the table.

Trip 2 the Snow

Trip 2 the snow. Little girls first time. Tried a snow angle but ice was so hard she.hurt her head. Built snowman got frost bite. Hit with snowball and knocked unconscience. With her family, had a great time!

Pearline Lang

Montana Move

I moved from California to Montana with a two year old, my trusty dog, and a car that overheated so I could only drive at night. The car was old and cranky. I had to pack it three times to get the load light enough to go over the mountains. Do you know how hard it is to get a motel room in the morning? I would show up with my daughter and dog after driving all night, they just feel so sorry for. They would even let my dog stay in the room. When we got to Yellowstone National Park, I told my daughter we would start seeing lots of animals. I didn't see one, but my daughter did. She got so excited, "Look, Mommy, a hippopotamus. My, Yellowstone had changed since I had been there as a little girl. We made all the way to my grandparents house in Billings Montana in four days with only one boil over. On to the next adventure.

Lee Gasnick

"Not Another Picture!!"

Another take on "are we almost there yet??!". When Janet Wilde was 9 yrs old, her dad had just finished studying photography. So mom, dad and 4 kids packed into the car for roadtrip to Yellowstone. At every opportunity, dad would pull over to side of road, haul the kids out of the car, take 5 minutes staging us and another 10 minutes (at least) focusing the camera before shooting. Then miticulously logging each picture into journal. Pictures of roadsides, geysers, bears, and all the kids and even my most tolerent mom complained, not ANOTHER picture!!! well in a way, there wasn't "another picture.. In fact, not one picture. Using over 15 rolls of film, Dad forgot to remove lens cover from camera throught the entire trip!!!

Janet Wilde

Meteor Shower

Went on a 50 mile back trip in late July and got snowed in at Mt Lassen. We lost a day of hiking, so we had to make it up over the next few days because we were out in the middle of no where. After one day we were really tired so instead of pitching tents, we slept under the stars. In the middle of the night we were woken up by the. braying of a donkey. We looked up, and a huge meteor shower was in progress. Had we not camped out that night, and the donkey not woken us, we would have missed this great light show.

Joe Rich

Trip to mt sinai

We were a group of 14 year old kids on a hike to mt sinai to see where Moses was given the 10 commandments. The first problem we encounter was when the bus went off the cliff (both wheels were off the side of the road, so we had to hike all the way up. Once we got there it did not seem like a big deal so we started going back down to meet another bus. Well, our tour guide was not very good because we kept going in circles and we were finally rescued about 9:30 pm without food or water.

Andy schloss

Motor cycle trip

Cross country on a honda 400 with only 75 dollars. Started off in the rain only made 40 miles in the first two hours, fighting the big trucks which were creating a monsoon with the rain and wind. A trip to cheap motel and getting warm and dry where could. Put last dollar seventy five miles from destination. Motorcycle ran out of gas as pulled into parents driveway. This was the trip going home of an 18 marine going home on leave.

Tim parsons.

Trip to Utah

Trip to Utah (Mark Dynes):

Camping in the desert, spent the day hiking, looking at dinosaur fossils and petroglyphs. Very hot in July in Utah and we found the perfect spot to go swimming in the Green River and started down the path. Came across a skunk in the afternoon, which at first the problem didn't dawn on me, my wife informed me skunks are not out during the day unless rabid. We turned and ran back to the car and on the way had two scorpions cross our path.

Needless to say it was not the perfect swimming spot and we found another.

Great, and funny, memory and an awesome roadtrip!

Indian chief

On day while eating hamburgers at a reststop in the desert an indian approach us wanting to trade blankets and ponies for my sister.

My father refused

Donna boots

Click, Click, Click

When we were kids our family (mom, dad, danny, cindy and grandpa) would go camping in a travel trailer. My grandpa would start drinking beer sitting on the lounge chair around a fire at night. This was a six night trip. He started the story and contined it every night, but kept us hanging. The story was that he was travelling to the center of the and heard a click, click, click. Each night the story had more adventures and the click got louder and louder. Finally on the last night he finally reached the center of the earth and it was CHINA and it was a man eating with chop sticks. He got a "GRANDPAAA" from both of us. The next morning we were getting ready to leave and the Camp Ranger taught us a rain dance song. My brother and I sang it and sang it until was annoying to our parents -but the only reason we stopped was because it started to rain. To this day we both remember the words. Aye Yae AYe Icky Aye Yae Amos A woo A woo a Woonie keechy Yae

Author: Cindy Buletti-Stewart

Africa trip

Wild trip on african safari with 5 guys and a monkey, almost got lost during the wild life tour got hit by a rhino and almost spend the night grass land, experience strange noises during sunset.

By Hiren

Trip to the Redwoods

Suzanne Limon has made two trips to the Redwoods, getting sick each time and finding that she was pregnant each time! She has her two sons Jake and Josh as the ultimate travel souvenirs. ...She will not go do a third trip, just in case!

Stuck in the sand

Vacationing at the beach the truck we were in was able to go riht to the waters edge. We had a great time all day until it was time to leave. As we were getting set to leave the truck got stuck. As we worked to release it the tide began to come in. It was obvious if we did not get the truck out thank goodness that my cousin was around with a bigger truck and was able to pull us out before the tide came in. The moral of the story is watch out for high tide!

Josh Hamm

Mexico was closed!!

At age 18 I drove to San Diego for my 1st trip to Tijuana. When we got to San Diego friends were saying they heard that Mexico was closed. We argued saying that it's Mexico, not 7-11! We arrived at the border to find out that it was election weekend and that they do not serve alcohol on election weekends. For us Mexico WAS closed!!

Steven Maldonado

It was a Miracle

On one trip we saw ahead of us a terrible accident. The car was going quite fast. It appeared as if someone had fallen asleep at the wheel. The car rolled over and over again as it veered off the freeway towards the traffic coming in the oppisite direction. To our horror we say a baby in diapers fly out of the car. To our astonishment, it landed on its bottom, sitting up, not even crying. The baby was in the middle of the oppisite freeway, completely unharmed. An approaching semi-truck stoppped and scooped the baby up. The mother was also fine. It was a miracle.

Randy Davis

Cruising France

Spent 10 days cruising the scenic roads of France. Mont St Michel was our first stop after 3 days in Paris. Stayed in a B and B. Drove to Loire Valley stayed in 16th century castle. Left for Dordogne enjoying 12th century castles. Returned to the coast to enjoy the balance of our stay!

Table 55

Ireland

In 1979 an Irish friend of mine died suddenly. In 1980 I was in Galway, Ireland, looking for a pub with traditional music. I wandered in to the Cottage Bar and found several older gentlemen playing. When they took a break, I offered to buy them a round of Guinness. One of them came with me to the bar to help carry the glasses. While we waited, something compelled me to say "Something about you reminds of a friend who died last winter." "That's odd" he replied "a had a brother in California who died last winter. What was your friend's name?". I told him, and he said "Yes, that was my brother."

What's there to do in this town?

On the way home from a trip in an old, beat up car borrowed from one of the guy's Dads, the car breaks down. Have it towed to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and have to sleep in the car in 15 degrees below waiting for the gas station to open. Once it opens, it's still an all day wait for the mechanic to get to it. While waiting, we ask what there is to do in town. The response is, "Well, this is the town with the prison they're keeping Jeffery Dahlmer in."

Andy Albrecht

Bike Tour

When I was 18 I took a bike tour from SF to Santa Cruz with. Few friends. My mother (who is kind of a hippie) suggested that we spend the night @ a friend of hers in the SC mountains. What she did not mention was that these folks only eat wheat grass and clay water! And we had no food w/ us. So... They put the wheat grass in a big blender until it's like guacamole and everyone digs in! Well, all I can say is we where so hungry the next day it was not even funny. We rode down the hill shaking from hunger, found the first cafe we could find and pigged out! It was a great time!

Devin Cornwell

Piranhas in Peru

While vacationing in Peru, I went on a real jungle cruise. We were told that it was "safe" to swim in the Amazon River even though there were piranhas. Not to worry according to the guides, these piranhas don't eat people. They did however demonstrate the piranha's appetite by dropping a meat-baited hook into the water, which came back with a piranha attached.. No way was I going in there! Until my dad decided to push me in!!! I swear I never touched the water as I scrambled back onto dry land. Needless to say, I was scarred for life.

Kathy Lordier

Left behind

A trip from seattle wa to oklahoma.....

We were the robinette clan - 2 parents and 12 children...

Half way through the trip the clan stopped for dinner. When we were done eating we got back into the truck and continued our trip.

About 3 hours later when we got to the destination for that day we realized we were missing one child (rose)....

My mom went back for rose while we slept.

Pisac, Peru

When to pisac peru with my family and 96 other church members . We built 2 churches , baptised 50 people into the. Church. I cooked everyday for these people along with a crew of 12. We made alot of great friends, had wonderful food, and saw all the wonders that Peru has to offer.

Dennis schall

Desert Road

Weekend roadtrip from LA to Colorado. We had 2 cars going on lonely desert road at 1:00 am. The road was long and straight until we hit up on a bend. Our friends following us in the 2nd car did not turn in time and collided with the one and only oncoming car which were occupied by 2 marines heading for LA. Nobody was injured. While waiting for the tow truck, we developed a lasting friendship. They decided to join us at the Colorado river for a fun weekend filled with water skiing, good food and laughter.

Author: Debbie Kilburn

Annual Tahoe Trip

Every year we take a family trip to Lake Tahoe from southern california. To get through the desert, they would wake us up at night, and put us in back of the station wagon and we'd sleep until we got to Lone Pine. My dad use to sing George the Jungle. When we got to the grandparents house, my aunt, uncle, and cousins were there and we all played in the water, sun, and activities. The best piece is you always felt loved because someone hugged you or you learned new things as stories are told.

House Exploded!

Couple of years back we rented a house at Lake Tahoe for a week.

We arrived at Incline Village paid our security deposit, and rental fees.
Arrived at the house turned the heat on and stepped onto the balcony to enjoy the view.

Next thing we know - house blew up, but nobody got hurt - because balcony was still standing.

When fire and police finally left - we learned that propane tank attached to the house was replaced recently leaking gas caused the explosion.

In the end we were offered a different house and got our security deposit back.

Author: Kirill Mogilev

Working at Sutter VNA & Hospice

Vernal, Utah

Western US Roadtrip

Drove to Vernal, Utah where there is an incredible Dinosaur Museum/Site as well as Petroglyphs that are >1000 years old. Actual dinosaur fossils sticking out of the side of a mountain and great hikes to view the Petroglyphs, which are rock wall drawings done by the Indian cultures. Spent several days camping along the Green River in the middle of the desert.

Then drove through Flaming Gorge in Wyoming and up into Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife is abundant and roaming free (Elk, Moose, Bears, Coyotes etc..). A grizzly bear came down to the water where myself and about 10 other trout fisherman were working the night bite on the Yellowstone river. Fishing was cut short that evening! Spent several days camping in Yellowstone.

Continued the roadtrip all the way to Minnesota along the north I90 route and spent a week visiting family and friends.

We then drove back to California via the south I80 route from Des Moines, IA right into Sacramento.

A very long but incredibly fun roadtrip!

Mark Dynes

Italian Train

This is my most recent roadtrip story. We thought it would be a great idea to take an overnight train from Paris to Rome. WRONG!!! It was rough, dirty, and not at all refreshing. Live and learn. Next time, we'll take the TGV!

Donna Gainsley

Yellowstone natl park

Family trip to the "grands"..fishtail Montana. Yellowstone park-
Paint pots
Ole faithfull
Numerous Geisers
Huge grizleys
Elk
Dense forests
A trip to remember

Lew Gasper