What was your most memorable trip?

**Magical Realist** · (This post was last modified: Mar 21, 2015 06:51 PM by Magical Realist.)

Somewhere you went and stayed at for a while. A road trip that was filled with its own adventure and mishaps?
A vacation from your childhood that was perfect in every way?

[Image: vacation-clipart-family_driving_on_vacat...774042.jpg]

**C C** · Mar 23, 2015 04:18 AM

I feel like I'd rather just forget that one than dredge it up from memory again. Smile

**stryder** · Mar 23, 2015 06:17 AM

Not so much of a trip but a close one when I was younger. I hopped on a train with an intention of getting to Liverpool Street station in London. I sat their aimlessly looking out the window, reading Liverpool in reverse and then suddenly it dawned on me....

It wasn't the train destined for London but Liverpool itself... the completely opposite direction. Thirty more seconds and I would have found myself having to wait until the next stop to get off the train and try to find my way back the other direction.

**cluelusshusbund** · (This post was last modified: Mar 23, 2015 07:09 AM by cluelusshusbund.)

One memorable trip... when i was about 12... me an dad rode in a herse to Chicago to pick up his dead brother who got shot... we got ther an found the morgue around midnight... then went lookin for a motel to get some sleep before the long drive home in the mornin... no motels to be found... but we did find a YMCA... we parked right out front an went in... then got asked a couple of times for a cigarette on the way to the front desk... an when we ask the guy behind the desk if he had a room for us he asked... how did you get here... we drove... he said whare is you'r car... out front... dont you know theys gang wars goin on... no... you beter get in you'r car if its still thar an get out of here... an that we did an went to the morgue parkin lot an waited for it to open... the driver laid on the dead-bed in the back an got a couple houres of sleep... an about sunrise we saw that a resturant was open an we was hungry so we went for some food... the place was loaded wit old men... an same as the cooks... the place was perty grungy lookin... so we desided to just get coffee... an when i picked up a spoon to stir the cream an sugar it was so slippery it musta been washed in grease... an soon we was back to the herse waitin for the morgue to open... then got the dead brother loaded up an headed for home.!!!

I was settin on this tiny seat in the back next to the body of a man i had never seen before but finaly went to sleep... an about half way home i woke up an discovered that i had been usin the guys bear arm as a pillow... which was a bit creepy... but i was so tired i didnt realy care that much... but we all arrived alive... well... exept for you know who... an it was a couple of days before i felt like my old self agan.!!!

An that was my first trip to Chicago.!!!

(Mar 23, 2015 04:18 AM)C C Wrote: I feel like I'd rather just forget that one than dredge it up from memory again.

Not even a short version Sad

**Magical Realist** · (This post was last modified: Mar 23, 2015 09:18 PM by Magical Realist.)

(Mar 23, 2015 07:03 AM)cluelusshusbund Wrote: One memorable trip... when i was about 12... me an dad rode in a herse to Chicago to pick up his dead brother who got shot... we got ther an found the morgue around midnight... then went lookin for a motel to get some sleep before the long drive home in the mornin... no motels to be found... but we did find a YMCA... we parked right out front an went in... then got asked a couple of times for a cigarette on the way to the front desk... an when we ask the guy behind the desk if he had a room for us he asked... how did you get here... we drove... he said whare is you'r car... out front... dont you know theys gang wars goin on... no... you beter get in you'r car if its still thar an get out of here... an that we did an went to the morgue parkin lot an waited for it to open... the driver laid on the dead-bed in the back an got a couple houres of sleep... an about sunrise we saw that a resturant was open an we was hungry so we went for some food... the place was loaded wit old men... an same as the cooks... the place was perty grungy lookin... so we desided to just get coffee... an when i picked up a spoon to stir the cream an sugar it was so slippery it musta been washed in grease... an soon we was back to the herse waitin for the morgue to open... then got the dead brother loaded up an headed for home.!!!

I was settin on this tiny seat in the back next to the body of a man i had never seen before but finaly went to sleep... an about half way home i woke up an discovered that i had been usin the guys bear arm as a pillow... which was a bit creepy... but i was so tired i didnt realy care that much... but we all arrived alive... well... exept for you know who... an it was a couple of days before i felt like my old self agan.!!!

An that was my first trip to Chicago.!!!

(Mar 23, 2015 04:18 AM)C C Wrote: I feel like I'd rather just forget that one than dredge it up from memory again.

Not even a short version

Your story could've come from a Steinbeck novel. Beautifully told and remembered. Those are the moments we remember, where there are weird things that happen, and we grow up a little as a result. My most memorable trip was a wilderness survival class trip we took to Silverton CO. Beautiful country, strange occurances. Best part was goin to Pizza Hut after living in the mountains for a week. We also explored an abandoned mine, and built a lean to I spent the night in. My fellowhikers surprised me with a birthday party! Made me tear up. A memory that will last forever.

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Mar 24, 2015 05:06 AM by Yazata.)

Thinking back, there were so many of them it's hard to pick out a favorite.

When I was a child, we went to live with my dad who was in the Air Force, stationed in Louisiana. That was a bit of a culture shock for me but I got into the bayou thing pretty quick. (Part of the culture shock was because it was the first time I was around lots of black people.)

When I was an adolescent, my dad took me on a road trip along old highway 66 in a great big boat of a car with fins, checking out Vegas, Hoover dam, the Grand canyon, Flagstaff, that giant meteor crater in Arizona, the petrified forest, the Indian reservations and Albuquerque. All kinds of weird desert attractions along that road. strange little desert-rat museums full of curiosities. Loved it. The whole atmosphere on highway 66 was pure X-files. (Didn't see any ufos though.)

We also drove up to Mount Lassen (an active volcano) and out into the wilderness to find lava flows and tubes and stuff. My dad was into geology and always had topographical maps spread out on the dinner table. Some of that was strenuous hiking.

When I was in college some friends and I took a giant mother of a road trip, visiting about half of the US states and Canada. The most memorable spots were the Colorado Rockies, New York, the surprisingly beautiful Adirondacks, Montreal and the tidewater of Virginia around Williamsburg. (I also developed a lifelong fondness for Missouri, Virginia and upstate New York, mainly because of the friendship of the people I was introduced to in those places.)

When it comes to weekend and day-trips, I used to spend lots of time around Big Sur and still think it's the most beautiful place on the planet. My special place was Pinnacles National Monument (now upgraded to National Park), which I still feel like I discovered.

**Magical Realist** · Mar 29, 2015 12:02 AM

I think we should all waterboard CC until she tells us about this trip! Smile

**cluelusshusbund** · Mar 29, 2015 12:15 AM

(Mar 29, 2015 12:02 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: I think we should all waterboard CC until she tells us about this trip!

I second that.!!!

**C C** · Mar 29, 2015 06:15 AM

Nothing really unique or interesting to tell, apart from that much bad luck occurring in one trip that overshadowed the scenery.

Breakdown in the middle of nowhere that took three days to get fixed; spending the first night in a family's backyard building that had fleas; getting mauled by mosquitoes while waiting around at a half-in-the-woods, half-at-the-edge of town garage the next evening in anticipation of a breakthrough that never quite happened; disturbed skunk smell somehow permeating the walls / windows of the flea haven the final night.

A distance later, we neared one of the places we were going to visit briefly along the way -- in this case it was Mom's displaced friend from her school days. We saw vehicles gathered up around this fancy house that had been on fire. After our parents finally got their directions straightened out and realized they had traveled too far... Yep, the passed place was where BFF and her husband resided. Probably spent a previously unintended four days hanging around in that community. Was too young then to remember now what kind of pick-up-the-pieces assistance and moral support Mom and Dad the two of us thought we providing to her that insurance and a legion of neighbors and friends and in-laws couldn't do a better job of, but duty called I guess.

After losing that whole week, suffering damage from a heavy hail storm, seems like we lost some stuff at a motel, etc, etc, and driving to almost our final destination... Our parents decided we'd no sooner get there than have to turn around and head back after only a day or so. The "vacation" was aborted and along the return my brother got appendicitis. In the course of being bored to death in a hospital, and sneaking around where kids weren't supposed to go, and running around mock-screaming through the stairway routes like some monster was chasing us, this slightly older Canadian-Filipino girl and I got into some kind of trouble with an irate worker in the laundry room.

In the future, Dad claimed he and Mom never intended to go any farther, anyway. Right... that close to a national park and they were just going all that way to see a lake named after a flat head or a dam named after a starving horse or a big mountain near a fish. Not that I had much of a clue as to what was truly going on half the time. Just lots of "bad memory impressions" filled in with details from them over the years after asking "Now why / how did we wind-up at such and such place and what was that particular mess or nightmare about?"

**cluelusshusbund** · Mar 29, 2015 07:07 AM

Well now its good that you told that story... prolly have fewer night mares about fleas skunks an bein "mauled by mosquitoes" Smile

We went to Kings Island one time an like to never found a motel... an the one we did find was 20 miles away... an it turned out to perty much just be rooms in a old house... an as the lady was showin us the room she ponted over to the corner whare ther was a hole in the floor... said a possum (she used its name) comes in ever now an then but he dont hurt nuthin... we wasnt sure if she was jokin or not but i covered the hole up just in case.!!!

Anuther time we found a motel in Indianapolis IN... the lobby was realy nice an we was happy to find a good place to stay... when we got to the room it was awful... water stains on the celin... water stained wall paper peelin off... about a fourth of the curtan was not conected an just hangin down... an it stunk... we didnt check out anythang else we went back to the lobby to get our money back... the lady behind the counter said no... once you enter the room its rented... she argued that people coud steal stuff from the room an then say they wanted ther money back... an this discussion went on for about 5 minutes an then a Gorilla sized guy walked in wit a giant screw driver in his hand... he kept spackin that screw driver into his hand an starin at us... the discussion went on anuther couple of minutes an the lady ask us to leave or she woud call the cops... i said good... call the cops... an then a calm voice from a back room came thru an said... give him his money back... Gorella-man left... we got our money back an all was well :-)