We bought our first new car, a 1969 VW, when my Favorite Guy was stationed at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho. We hoped to drive to the West Coast, to at least visit Uncle Don and Aunt Rose in Washington State, and knew the VW would be more economical on gas than the 1963 Chevy.
Then he got orders for Vietnam, so the VW moved us back to Iowa. While Guy was in Vietnam, his dad died, age 48. Guy helped his mother on the farm he grew up on, but I was still living at my folks’ farm finishing up a year of teaching second grade at Van Meter. The summer of 1970, neither of us had a job, but we did have an economical VW bug. So we decided to take the trip we’d never have time for in the future.
We were gone six weeks and put 5500 miles on the VW. And we stayed in hardly any motels! By the time we moved to Colorado, we certainly owed lots of friends a night’s stay. When we bought our first house in 1973, they began to take us up on just that!
I won’t run through the entire trip, but will highlight some of it.
Colorado and Arizona to California
We stayed with Guy’s Aunt Verda Walker Garman (his mother’s older sister) lived at Redondo Beach, California. Then with Guy’s Great Aunt Eula Kidney Byerly (his dad’s aunt), her son Floyd, and his seventh wife. Yes, seventh. We’d never slept in a round bed before.
We finally met Bud Neal, one of the ten children of Keith Neal (Grandpa Kenneth’s older brother). Bud’s real name was Merritt Winsell Neal, named for the first Dexter boy killed in WWI. Our correspondence began when I became interested in genealogy. Bud (Dad’s cousin) worked in printing and publishing and printed my very first genealogy four years later. Genealogy of Miles Marshall (1789-1868): Including Civil War and other letters.
Cousin Richard Scar was Aunt Darlene Wilson Scar’s oldest son. When Dick and Jan took us sight-seeing in San Francisco, I was sure glad Jan had another coat I could borrow.
Uncle Del (Mom’s oldest brother) and Aunt Evelyn also showed us the sights, including the winery in the clipping.
Idaho
From the San Francisco area, we drove through Nevada to visit former Idaho neighbors in Reno and meet a family named Kidney.
On up to see friends in Mountain Home, Idaho, is where Guy was stationed 1967-1969.
Washington
Next we headed to to SW Washington where Uncle Don (Mom’s brother) and Aunt Rose lived. Clam digging was off limits when we were there, so they took us to a cranberry bog.
We stayed with Guy’s Huber cousins and their four kids on Mercer Island. Supper at a Spaghetti Factory was a new adventure for us.
Canada
In Canada we stayed with Guy’s former neighbors (from Glidden, Iowa) who’d moved to Alberta, and enjoyed picking and canning Saskatoon berries.
Iowa
We’d never visited the Grotto of the Redemption at West Bend, Iowa, so we made a stop there on our way home. Six weeks and 5500 miles in a VW bug! (We drove that VW Bug until the driver’s door wouldn’t latch well and water sloshed from underneath when it rained.)
We stayed with folks nearly the entire time. A year later Guy got a job with the FAA in Denver, Colorado. You can bet that lots of friends and relatives stayed with us there traveling between Iowa and points west!
Since then, we’ve never had enough time off for an extensive trip until now, but we’re both disabled enough that we cannot travel. So we especially enjoy remembering that epic road trip the summer of 1970!