Vacation Summer 1970
Western USA - Western Canada - S Dakota - Wisconsin -
traveling with Mom & Dad during Summer break
while Gerard was an undergrad at UT Austin
This vacation taken driving a 1964 Chrysler New Yorker. We had a 8ft x 10 ft external frame canvas blue and yellow external frame tent for camping, which just fit in a specially made box transversly in the trunk of the car.
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Not the exact car, but same make and model and color - - - - the trunk shown for size, tent box went athwart inside, it just fit
One day in June 1968 we headed north on US Hwy 281 - then west perhaps through Lubbock and north on what is now US Interstate 37. There are warning about strong side winds, especially when there are grain silos. Indeed there are and on one occasion when passing a stand of several the heavy Chrysler was actually jerked sidways a little by a gust of wind focused by those silos.
We drove through Hale Center TX and saw Ganaway Gin in passing (owned by the parents of my first college roommate J. Ganaway).
spent night in Palo Duro Canyon State Park NW Texas, where we tied one corner of the tent to the campsite table, which was mounted on a concrete slab. We were warned that sometimes there were strong winds that could take an empty tent away.
We drove west through New Mexico - went on a small road which narrowed to a logging road, eventually broadened out in the Apache Indian Reservation. Drove through one town where there was a major celebration and much beer drinking by folks walking about. We drove very carefully through and went on West.
Drove through Las Vegas, Nevada got gas and kept on going.
We continued on into the southern end of Death Valley - Mom spooked by sign that this road was not
regularly patrolled by Highway Police, so if you had a problem there was no assurance
you would be found in a timely manner. (This may have been Hwy 190). It was at night and there was a Full Moon
the moonlight sparkled off the salt flats - enchanting viewing.
We arrived at the National Park central unit (Furnace Creek perhaps) nearly midnight and set up our tent at a camping place with soft sand and the occasional small Salt Cedar tree.
We were quite good at setting up the tent in the dark. It was hot but not unbearable during the night.
The following day we headed North through the middle of Death Valley National Park and
stopped at Scottys Castle where we toured the place.
Then on out of the park going NE and actually back into Nevada, then North on US Hwy 95 where we noted some little mining activity - just looked like little holes in the ground.
It was incredibly flat and desolate. There were a few dust devils stirred up and wandering in the area.
We headed West as US 95 turned that way then US 6 took us into California and we wound into Hwy 120 and the Eastern side of Yosemite National Park.
The Park was full, so we drove through having a good look from the car and proceeded on through and on West across California.
I followed a road going west so as to approach San Francisco from the South instead of crossing the Bay Bridge.
There was a road going through traditional dry grass and oak tree area, then got narrower and narrower and then up tight switchbacks which took us to the top of Mount Hamilton
and the Lick Observatory, which housed a major telescope.
This was a surprise because it was not expected, just happened onto it.
The switchbacks were very tight and steep on the West side as we descended to near sea level and San Jose, California on the way to San Francisco.
While in San Francisco we visited a long time family friend L. Martinez who was someone Dad worked with when we lived in Madrid, Spain.
Nearly had an accident in the very steep and sometimes blind corners in San Francisco.
On 22 June we drove North and visited Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and viewed the lake - awsome view - then proceeded down the NW way and camped at a very idylic looking campground in the Park near an active creek. Then the mosquitos came out. Have never seen such swarms. We got the tent up and zipped shut in record time swatting the few that got in before settling down to sleep.
On to Seattle, Washington and took the ferry out to Orcas Island from Friday Harbor.
Visited my sister and her friend.
From there into Canada and visited distant cousin who lived in a double wide with a large window looking towards the mountains. We drove on through Jasper National Park then driving on though Banff National Park, (in Alberta) which offer spectacular views of the mountains.
From there we drove on Canadian Route 1 to Regina, Saskatchewan where we stayed with cousins. This is where I locked the car keys in the trunk. Luckily the doors were open.
Our cousin knew a mobile locksmith who drove his van over (on a Sunday) and made a key matching it from the lock on the glove box. That key had 3 tumblers and the trunk had an extra one. So from the base 3 he just marched through the possibilities until he got one that fit. Dad had 3 sets of keys made so each of us (Mom, Dad and I) had a set and it was less likely we would all lose keys at the same time.
We visited the Univ. of Saskatchewan big campus. I wondered what the big round towers were. They were cooling towers for he air conditioning system on the campus - amazing for us Texans, but they do have hot summers in central Canada. Of course as I was seeing those cooling towers I was standing in a parking lot with what looked like parking meters, which places to plug in electronic auto block heaters so that in the dead of winter car blocks would be warmed enough so the oil would not half solidify. Surely they have both extremes in Regina.
The younger cousins made an effort to show me the statue of Louis Riel (who was involved with the government in early historical times and at one time had to flee to USA in fear of his life). The statue features him in all his male glory, under a heavy draped coat.)
We were in Regina for Canada Day (1 July). Which is celebrated much like 4 July in USA.
From Regina we headed south, still in Saskatchewan, to another cousins farm on low rolling plains. From his modern ranch style house every direction you looked it was his, and it was all planted in wheat. At night the yard lights of his neighbors could be seen on the horizon. He and his wife had a comfortable life. Heat was provided by a huge propane tank which when filled would provide for their needs on through the winter and more. To save space in their septic tank they do not use the modern inside toilet in the Summer. They have an outhouse, which has a polished oak floor, which truly impressed Mom.
3 July we re-entered USA into North Dakota and continued South probably on US Hwy 85, and drove south through Deadwood, S Dakota.
Approaching Deadwood from the North one of the first things one sees is a number of dead trees.
We continued on US Hwy 385 through the Black Hills National Forest with a side trip to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, then on to Hot Springs, SD.
In Hot Springs we visited the large pool, Evans Plunge, built in 1890 which was opened to the public when my grandfather was living on his homestead south of there, just west of Oelrichs, SD. There is a photo of a number of men standing in the water in the large pool. Dad identified one of the men in the photo as his Dad, my grandfather, Otto.
Then we drove to the site of the Otto Mittelstaedt homestead, just west of Oelrichs, SD. We saw what was left, the hole in the ground where the basement of the house was.
On the way back to the main road Hwy 18 / Hwy 385 we saw the one room school where Dad first went to school. It was unused, but still firmly intact, with some books still on desks.
We continued on S. to Chadron, Nebraska, camping at the State Park there, and arriving shortly before the showers closed. Those showers were very welcome.
The next day we drove East practically the length of Nebraska on US Hwy 20. We discovered that some of the local farmers would pull out of their drives onto the 65 mph leaving little braking space for people doing the speed limit on the highway. We continued on Hwy 275 to Norfolk, Nebraska then jogged N to the very small town of Hadar, which is just a couple of miles E of the major Mittelstaedt homestead, which is still held by family members. (Now over 100 years.) After a family visit we headed on East.
We drove to Eastern Wisconsin, certainly Sheboygan, and also Milwaukee.
7 July we picked up a Judith Colette (Kipp) O'Brien and her 9 month old son Cody and they camped with us
on our 2+ day return to McAllen, TX. We discovered that the Judy and baby were excellent campers.
- mid-Summer (10 July 1970) arrived back home in McAllen, Texas.