| Biographical Non-Fiction posted May 27, 2020 | Chapters: |
...36 37 -38- 39... 
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Adventures on a trip to Colorado
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
Going West
by BethShelby
| Background My family, including my mother, continue our trip out west in truck with a camper shell. It was supposed to be a camping trip, but unexpected things change our plans. |
We were beginning to have serious misgivings as to the wisdom of taking a week-long trip with so many of us in a pickup truck. All of our children were still so young. The twins were five and were easily bored and needed constant stimulation. Even on short trips their patience level was practically non-existent. To coop them up in a small space like the packed bed of a pickup with no air-conditioning and expect them to enjoy hours of traveling across the most boring scenery in the US was unreasonable, to say the least.
When we left the restaurant where we had breakfast, we took the children in the front with us to give Mother an opportunity to try to tidy up the bed area in the back and figure out what to do with the six ice cream cones that no one wanted. She realized now how bad her timing was in buying ice cream right after breakfast, but Mother was not one to waste food. She ended up dumping the ice cream from the cones into a thermos of lemonade. I think this concoction was actually a hit later in the day.
We were now traveling through the Texas panhandle. No offense to Texans, who considered their domain to be the biggest and best of all the states until Alaska demoted them in 1959, but I wasn’t impressed with this desert-like country. We weren’t traveling on an interstate, and we drove for miles and miles without seeing anything of interest. This part of Texas was flat and dusty. It was windy and tiny dust devils were spinning like miniature tonadoes in every direction. Once in a while we spotted a Jack-rabbit or roadrunner, and there were plenty of dead armadillos. Although there wasn’t much traffic, road kill dotted the highway. There was an occasional ranch where longhorn cattle were roaming around.
After we stopped for lunch at a little greasy spoon, the kids and I took our turn in the back and let Mom sit up front to rest her back. I played games with the kids for a while and read to them hoping they would take a nap, but no such luck. Towns were few and far between. We’d hoped to find a nice state park where we could camp for the night. If we stopped early enough the kids could get out and get some exercise.
After a couple of hours, I took my turn driving and you went to the back with the kids. You’d hoped to stretch out on the mattress for a nap, but the children saw to it that didn’t happen. Later in the evening, it became apparent we weren’t going to find a place for another meal, and we started looking for a place to pull over and have a late picnic. We finally got through Texas and into New Mexico. Unfortunately, the northeast corner of that state was as desolate as Texas.
Finally we saw a roadside park with a few picnic tables, and several cars had pulled over. This was as good as it was going to get. We stopped and everyone got out and stretched. Mom and I pulled a plastic tablecloth across one of the tables and began putting out our food.
After we ate, you and I got out the road maps and pored over them trying to decide what to do for the night. We realized there were no state parks for camping nor towns large enough to have motel accommodation for miles. This was not the kind of place to pitch tents, but it seemed our only choice would be to stay here through the night and sleep inside the truck. We decided that you and I and the children would sleep in the back, and Mom could stretch out across the front seat of the cab with her sleeping bag.
The sun was setting, and most of the cars were starting to pack up and drive away, when a beat-up old clunker pulled in and parked near one of the far tables. Three seedy-looking men got out and began a raunchy conversation. They were loud and obviously drunk. They kept looking in our direction. Eventually, much to our relief, they pulled away. Their muffler was busted and sounded as though it was dragging. As we began to prepare for the night, the last two cars in the roadside park pulled away, and we were left alone.
You decided we should lock the truck for the night. The only way to lock the camper part was from the outside. You got your pistol from the glove compartment. It was concealed in a paper bag so the children wouldn't see it. You had Mother lock us in, and then lock herself into the cab. We all stretched out as best we could on the mattress hoping to somehow get a little rest. The children eventually settled down and fell asleep, but you and I couldn’t seem to find a comfortable position. It was crowded and stuffy in spite of a little ventilation from some of the louvered side windows. We could see Mother in the front seat, but there was no way to get her attention. The camper shell had a thick pane of glass and the truck had a thick pane, but there was about four inches of air between the two panes. We’d not been locked in long, when we realized that this wasn’t a good idea. If any one of us needed a bathroom break in the night, it wouldn’t be possible to get out.
As the evening wore on, you kept turning the flashlight on to check your watch. It was shaping up to be a long night. We felt imprisoned. It was a little after two a.m. when we heard the unmistakable sound of the vehicle with the dragging muffler drive back into the roadside park. Why on earth were they returning? Were they planning to rob us? What would we do if they approached us? You turned on the flashlight and tried to shine it through Mom’s window. We began pounding on the glass to get her attention. She didn’t seem aware that we were trying to alert her, but we could tell she was awake and as alarmed as we were.
What happened next shocked us. You had left the truck key with mom, but she didn’t know how to drive our truck, which had a standard transmission with a stick shift. Still she had the key in the ignition and was trying her best. The motor would grind, jump forward and then die. Again and again, she kept doing this. I could only imagine what the rough characters, who we could see moving around in the moonlight, must think was happening. Whatever they thought or had been planning, we would never find out. They hurriedly got back into their car and took off at a far greater rate of speed than when they had entered the area. We didn’t even try to sleep the rest of the night. At the first light, Mom came back and unlocked the camper, and informed us that she had saved our lives.
”You know those men were up to no good. We'd all be dead if it wasn't for me. I saved our lives last night,” she told us.
We didn’t argue. You took the key and got in the driver's seat. Mom and I stayed up front with you and we left the children, who had slept through the whole thing, still sleeping. We got back on the highway and drove away. About thirty miles further, we saw signs for an extinct volcano crater. We drove up to the rim where we found more picnic tables. The sun was coming up, and the scenery was beautiful. We stopped the car and woke the children for breakfast.
We couldn’t prove a connection, but a week later when we got back home and read our newspaper, we learned that some escaped convicts had gone on a killing spree across the West and left a family murdered and robbed at a roadside park.
From that point on, our vacation improved. That morning, we spent several hours walking around the rim of the volcano crater and getting some much needed exercise. We went on to Colorado Springs and toured the Air Force academy and chapel. We also visited the Garden of God with its amazing rock formations.
We went to the top of Pike’s Peak where the snow was still deep. It was the first day the road to the top was opened. That was a little scary, because the change in the atmospheric pressure got to Mom, and she thought she was having a heart attack. Thankfully, she improved as we came down the mountain.
To make the trip worthwhile for the kids, we spent a day in a SantaLand amusement park. This was a highlight for them, and they all had to have souvenirs from there. Mother's favorite place to buy souvenirs was a pottery barn.
After that night at the roadside park, we gave up on the camping idea. For the remainder of the trip, we stayed in nice motels and had our meals in family restaurants.
On the return trip, we skipped Texas. We came home through Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. In Kansas, we visited Dodge City, with its turn of the century saloon and museum. We walked the street which was the set of Gunsmoke the TV series and watched a wild west shoot out with actors. We took pictures and read the funny epitaphs on the graves at the Boot Hill cemetery.
We went through Oklahoma City and Little Rock. I was a little disappointed that we didn't go through the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, but you said we'd save those mountains for another trip. They couldn't compare with the Rockies. Time was running out, and we'd need to rest up before going back to work.
By the time we returned to Jackson, we were exhausted and decided one week had been enough. It was a week none of us would soon forget.
When we left the restaurant where we had breakfast, we took the children in the front with us to give Mother an opportunity to try to tidy up the bed area in the back and figure out what to do with the six ice cream cones that no one wanted. She realized now how bad her timing was in buying ice cream right after breakfast, but Mother was not one to waste food. She ended up dumping the ice cream from the cones into a thermos of lemonade. I think this concoction was actually a hit later in the day.
We were now traveling through the Texas panhandle. No offense to Texans, who considered their domain to be the biggest and best of all the states until Alaska demoted them in 1959, but I wasn’t impressed with this desert-like country. We weren’t traveling on an interstate, and we drove for miles and miles without seeing anything of interest. This part of Texas was flat and dusty. It was windy and tiny dust devils were spinning like miniature tonadoes in every direction. Once in a while we spotted a Jack-rabbit or roadrunner, and there were plenty of dead armadillos. Although there wasn’t much traffic, road kill dotted the highway. There was an occasional ranch where longhorn cattle were roaming around.
After we stopped for lunch at a little greasy spoon, the kids and I took our turn in the back and let Mom sit up front to rest her back. I played games with the kids for a while and read to them hoping they would take a nap, but no such luck. Towns were few and far between. We’d hoped to find a nice state park where we could camp for the night. If we stopped early enough the kids could get out and get some exercise.
After a couple of hours, I took my turn driving and you went to the back with the kids. You’d hoped to stretch out on the mattress for a nap, but the children saw to it that didn’t happen. Later in the evening, it became apparent we weren’t going to find a place for another meal, and we started looking for a place to pull over and have a late picnic. We finally got through Texas and into New Mexico. Unfortunately, the northeast corner of that state was as desolate as Texas.
Finally we saw a roadside park with a few picnic tables, and several cars had pulled over. This was as good as it was going to get. We stopped and everyone got out and stretched. Mom and I pulled a plastic tablecloth across one of the tables and began putting out our food.
After we ate, you and I got out the road maps and pored over them trying to decide what to do for the night. We realized there were no state parks for camping nor towns large enough to have motel accommodation for miles. This was not the kind of place to pitch tents, but it seemed our only choice would be to stay here through the night and sleep inside the truck. We decided that you and I and the children would sleep in the back, and Mom could stretch out across the front seat of the cab with her sleeping bag.
The sun was setting, and most of the cars were starting to pack up and drive away, when a beat-up old clunker pulled in and parked near one of the far tables. Three seedy-looking men got out and began a raunchy conversation. They were loud and obviously drunk. They kept looking in our direction. Eventually, much to our relief, they pulled away. Their muffler was busted and sounded as though it was dragging. As we began to prepare for the night, the last two cars in the roadside park pulled away, and we were left alone.
You decided we should lock the truck for the night. The only way to lock the camper part was from the outside. You got your pistol from the glove compartment. It was concealed in a paper bag so the children wouldn't see it. You had Mother lock us in, and then lock herself into the cab. We all stretched out as best we could on the mattress hoping to somehow get a little rest. The children eventually settled down and fell asleep, but you and I couldn’t seem to find a comfortable position. It was crowded and stuffy in spite of a little ventilation from some of the louvered side windows. We could see Mother in the front seat, but there was no way to get her attention. The camper shell had a thick pane of glass and the truck had a thick pane, but there was about four inches of air between the two panes. We’d not been locked in long, when we realized that this wasn’t a good idea. If any one of us needed a bathroom break in the night, it wouldn’t be possible to get out.
As the evening wore on, you kept turning the flashlight on to check your watch. It was shaping up to be a long night. We felt imprisoned. It was a little after two a.m. when we heard the unmistakable sound of the vehicle with the dragging muffler drive back into the roadside park. Why on earth were they returning? Were they planning to rob us? What would we do if they approached us? You turned on the flashlight and tried to shine it through Mom’s window. We began pounding on the glass to get her attention. She didn’t seem aware that we were trying to alert her, but we could tell she was awake and as alarmed as we were.
What happened next shocked us. You had left the truck key with mom, but she didn’t know how to drive our truck, which had a standard transmission with a stick shift. Still she had the key in the ignition and was trying her best. The motor would grind, jump forward and then die. Again and again, she kept doing this. I could only imagine what the rough characters, who we could see moving around in the moonlight, must think was happening. Whatever they thought or had been planning, we would never find out. They hurriedly got back into their car and took off at a far greater rate of speed than when they had entered the area. We didn’t even try to sleep the rest of the night. At the first light, Mom came back and unlocked the camper, and informed us that she had saved our lives.
”You know those men were up to no good. We'd all be dead if it wasn't for me. I saved our lives last night,” she told us.
We didn’t argue. You took the key and got in the driver's seat. Mom and I stayed up front with you and we left the children, who had slept through the whole thing, still sleeping. We got back on the highway and drove away. About thirty miles further, we saw signs for an extinct volcano crater. We drove up to the rim where we found more picnic tables. The sun was coming up, and the scenery was beautiful. We stopped the car and woke the children for breakfast.
We couldn’t prove a connection, but a week later when we got back home and read our newspaper, we learned that some escaped convicts had gone on a killing spree across the West and left a family murdered and robbed at a roadside park.
From that point on, our vacation improved. That morning, we spent several hours walking around the rim of the volcano crater and getting some much needed exercise. We went on to Colorado Springs and toured the Air Force academy and chapel. We also visited the Garden of God with its amazing rock formations.
We went to the top of Pike’s Peak where the snow was still deep. It was the first day the road to the top was opened. That was a little scary, because the change in the atmospheric pressure got to Mom, and she thought she was having a heart attack. Thankfully, she improved as we came down the mountain.
To make the trip worthwhile for the kids, we spent a day in a SantaLand amusement park. This was a highlight for them, and they all had to have souvenirs from there. Mother's favorite place to buy souvenirs was a pottery barn.
After that night at the roadside park, we gave up on the camping idea. For the remainder of the trip, we stayed in nice motels and had our meals in family restaurants.
On the return trip, we skipped Texas. We came home through Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. In Kansas, we visited Dodge City, with its turn of the century saloon and museum. We walked the street which was the set of Gunsmoke the TV series and watched a wild west shoot out with actors. We took pictures and read the funny epitaphs on the graves at the Boot Hill cemetery.
We went through Oklahoma City and Little Rock. I was a little disappointed that we didn't go through the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, but you said we'd save those mountains for another trip. They couldn't compare with the Rockies. Time was running out, and we'd need to rest up before going back to work.
By the time we returned to Jackson, we were exhausted and decided one week had been enough. It was a week none of us would soon forget.
 Recognized |
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband as if I am talking aloud to him. I'm doing this because I want my children to know us as we knew each other and not just as their parents;
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