Bit By The Travel Bug

     I remember our two week long summer camping trips being the highlight of the year when I was growing up.  My parents would load up my two older brothers, two younger sisters and I in the family van along with tons of bags, camping gear, and food containers.  It was a blue converted utility van, so no air conditioner, no television, no super plush seats or any other modern day gadgets and luxuries.  It was just us, our gear, and the many interesting things that flew past the window along the way to wherever suited my parent's fancy that year.  My mom was the vacation planner as well as the navigator, and she juggled all the maps, travel leaflets, and a big cup of Dr. Pepper with ease.  We spent many long, hot hours on the road driving to and from all sorts of places.  Mom loved the mountains and rivers, and often chose destinations based on the prettiest hiking trails to water falls.  I'm a girly girl and didn't really love hikes through the dark, bug infested woods at the time, but I always enjoyed the view at the end and felt accomplished after the climb!
     We camped all over the states, and in all weather conditions.  We camped in the freezing cold and had to sleep fully dressed in hats, coats and gloves, and in such miserable heat you thought you might dry up by morning from losing so much sweat during the night!  We survived a tent collapse in a thunderstorm, ant and spider invasions, the feasting of the mosquitoes, and waking up to miniature rivers running under the tent. 
     Our meals were cooked on an old propane stove or in the hot campfire coals, and once dinner was even sacrificed when the tantalizing aroma of the grill attracted a mama black bear and her two hungry cubs! Yikes! We hiked many trails, explored theme parks and touristy buffets (my parents love Golden Coral and Shoney's), swam in lakes, waded in rocky rivers, walked sandy beaches, explored water parks, and anything else that looked halfway amusing.  The days were long and hot, and laying our itchy, sunburned bodies down on the hard, rocky ground at night wasn't ideal, but we suffered through it.  We sacrificed the comforts of home, but those two weeks every summer were what we waited for all year long.
     We had a blast fighting over the window seats, blowing our allowance money on cheap souvenirs, endless road trip games, off tune rounds of 99 bottles of beer on the wall, and exploring all sorts of oddities! Those were what we lived for!  That annual escape from our mundane reality was the highlight of our childhood, and nothing taught us and inspired our imaginations more.  Nothing brought us more joy than those amazing views from the window seat.

The famous blue van!!