A small motel room. Strep throat. A broken windshield. And a speeding ticket in Kansas.What do these things have in common? Answer: Our family's vacation in 1957, when I was nine years old.
It was to be a family vacation to remember! A glorious two-week caper in Colorado Springs with visits to Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, the Royal Gorge, trout fishing and train rides.
But the day after we arrived, I started running a temperature. My mom was a great nurse, but despite her best efforts my temperature soared. I became delirious and was rushed to the doctor.
It was the beginning of a wicked 10-day bout with strep throat that seriously disrupted our sightseeing plans. I was not a popular person!
As I began to get well and my spunk returned, my older brother, Gary, and I began to fight. I chased him outside in the parking lot, picked up a rock, wrapped my baseball cap around the rock and threw it at him.
As he artfully dodged my missile, my mouth dropped open in horror as the rock came out of my hat and smashed into the front windshield of another vacationer's car. I recall three things happening at that point: Dad was mad; Dad paid for it; then I paid for it.
Somehow we rebounded, saw a few of the sights and headed home. And I remember one other incident: After passing through a small town in Kansas, a red Ford pulled out to pass us. Gary yelled out to my mother, who was driving, "Don't let that lowly Ford pass you!" Mom, who has been known to have her fair share of spunk, smashed the accelerator to the floor. The red Ford didn't have a chance.
There was only one problem: Driving that red Ford was a sheriff. I'll never forget the total silence in our car as Mom gave the officer her autograph.
Now you might think a vacation like that as a child would cure me of ever attempting one as an adult. So you'll be surprised to know that vacation, when I was nine-years-old, holds some of our fondest memories. You see, we were together as a family.