CHAPTER 9 - WESTERN STATES VACATION TRIPS When I came out of the Service in 1946 we bought an old Model A Ford for $400.00 (The going price in those days. They hadn't started making new ones yet.) It was a four-door sedan and whenever we took the family to the beach we wired the front and rear doors together to keep the kids from opening the doors and falling out of the back seat. We made several summer trips to Huntington Beach and other beaches along the coast. After working for Stone & Webster for a while and driving from Colton to Torrance every week we bought a 1941 Pontiac, Silver Streak, which we called the Grey Ghost. It continued to take us on short trips such as:- to San Diego to the Zoo and to the beach. In August of 1952 we took our first vacation trip to Oregon. By then we had a reliable car for such a trip. It was a 1949 Chevrolet and it served us very well for a number of years. For our trip to Oregon we drove up Highway 99 through Sacramento, on up to Klamath Falls, Oregon and on to Crater Lake National Park where we spent some time viewing the lake and the kids played with some friendly squirrels. They would eat right out of the kids' hands. Dicky tried to pick one up with one hand while feeding it with the other but the squirrel was too smart for that. It was probably the best anyway as the squirrel would have probably bit Dicky if he had held it. From Crater Lake we cut across to Eugene, Oregon, then north through Salem and into Portland. Finally, we drove on to Astoria where DeVonne's parents were living. We spent a couple of weeks with them and visiting the surrounding areas, including the Rose Gardens in Portland, Ecola Park on the coast where the kids were able to walk right up to deer and pet them. We all waded in the cold water at the beach at Ecola Park, including DeVonne's parents. Of course we climbed the Astor Tower where we had a 360 degree view of the surrounding area. The Astor Tower commemorates the Lewis and Clark Expedition,and also to honor John Jacob Astor the German-born American fur trader, capitalist and philanthropist, who the town of Astoria was named after. Kandy, in particular, enjoyed picking up the small, harmless snakes that were everywhere. Dicky and Reggie also played with them. Homeward bound we stopped in San Francisco and visited the Zoo. DeVonne's parents lived in Astoria for about ten years so we made a point of visiting them about every other year or so. In between our vacations were spent mostly at the beach. In August of 1954, Grammie & Grandpa May invited Dicky & Reggie to spend a couple of weeks with them so we put them on a Greyhound Bus and sent them to Portland where Ma and Pa picked them up and took them to their home in Astoria. Making our second trek to Oregon, DeVonne, Kandy and I later drove up the coast route, through Redwood National Park on 17 August, where we saw the Big Trees, including the tallest tree in the world. We followed the Oregon coastline on Highway 101, passing through Gold Beach, crossing the Rogue River and into Coos Bay. We drove on through Reedsport to the Sea Lion Caves where we stopped and visited the underground cavern that is the home for several hundred sea lions. Continuing north we reached Newport and a little further on we visited the Devil's Punch Bowl which is a large bowl-shaped rock formation and cavern. Passing through Tillamook, Cannon Beach, and Seaside we finally reached Astoria on the 19th and found Dicky and Reggie in fine spirits and enjoying their stay with their grandparents. We spent a week with DeVonne's parents before heading into Portland to visit Pauline and Wynn. When we arrived on the 25th, Marc Mitchell, their first child was just six days and 15 hours old. Leaving Portland that afternoon we drove east on Highway 84, along the Columbia River to The Dalles and then on to Pendleton where we headed southeast to Boise, Idaho. We drove all night and before we reached Boise we ran into snow flurries, even in August. Near Mountain Home we turned off 84 and took Highway 20 to "Craters of the Moon." Before we arrived I pulled off the road and slept for an hour or so and then we visited the Craters. It was a fascinating place and made you feel like you were really on the moon. Having never been on the moon we could only imagine it, but it was just what one would expect to find on the moon. After spending an hour or two at Craters of the Moon we continued on highway 20 into Idaho Falls where we were able to get out of the car and walk right up to the bank of the Snake River below the Falls and view the Temple in the background. From Idaho Falls we drove north through Rexburg and into West Yellowstone where we found our lodging for the night of the 26th. We spent most of the day in Yellowstone Park. We saw bears that would come up to the car and beg for food. We were warned, however, to keep our windows closed and not attempt to pet them. They look very friendly and cuddly but this is really not so. We had a picnic lunch near the banks of the Firehole River and then visited Old Faithful where I took a series of movie shots of the geyser ejecting its column of steam and water into the air. Leaving Old Faithful we traveled south through Grand Teton National Park where we could view the rugged mountain range that gives the park its name. We continued south through Star and Cache Valleys and somewhere along the way we spent the night. On the 28th we drove through Logan, Brigham City and Ogden and into Salt Lake City where we visited the "This is the Place" Monument east of town that commemorates Brigham Young's arrival into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Back into town we visited Temple Square, seeing all the various statues and memorials of the early history of the Church, including the statues of Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, The Seagull Monument, the Tabernacle and other points of interest. Traveling south on the 30th, we stopped at Manti and saw the Temple there. On the road again we drove through Richfield, where DeVonne was born, and visited the cemetery and saw the graves of DeVonne's Grandfather Poulson and his wives. We drove on to Bryce National Park where we spent some time climbing around the top of the Canyon for better views of the park. Next we visited Zion National Park and saw the "Great White Throne." We stayed all night at St. George and came on home via Las Vegas on the 31st of August. In August of 1955 we spent a whole day at Disneyland that was enjoyable for the entire family. In June of 1956, this time with a 1955 Chevrolet Impala, or first brand new car, we left home right after school was out for the summer and journeyed to Texas to visit Bob and his family. I borrowed an evaporative cooler that mounted in the window of the car to help us keep cool through the heat of Arizona, etc. The cooler worked only when the car was moving. We drove east through Blythe, California, on into Phoenix, Arizona. It was so hot and humid in Phoenix that whenever we had to stop for a traffic light the cooler quit working and I thought we would die before the light changed. We drove over to Mesa and rested in the shade of the trees on the Temple grounds and ate our lunch. Leaving Mesa we traveled through the Salt River Canyon to Globe, where my sister, Bette, was born, and on to Show Low. By then we had gained some altitude and it was a bit cooler. We crossed into New Mexico, going through Socorro, Carrizozo and Roswell. In Texas we saw miles and miles of desert with nothing else to see except the road. We finally arrived in Midland, Texas where Bob, Dura, Eddie and Judy lived. I had driven straight through, except stopping for short rests and to eat something. We carried our food with us. When we arrived at Bob's, it was early morning, before daylight, so we sat in the car until we thought it was a decent hour to rouse them. We spent a quiet week with them. One day Bob and I and all the kids played miniature golf at a local course. There was not a lot to be done in Midland, but we enjoyed our time spent with Bob and his family, and it gave our children and theirs the opportunity to get better acquainted. When we were ready to return to California, Bob and his family led us to Carlsbad Caverns at Carlsbad, New Mexico and we all had a tour of the caverns. Following our tour we each went our separate ways, with Bob and family heading back to Midland and we on to California. On our way home we visited the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert in Arizona. We also stopped to look at Meteor Crater that is located between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona. From Williams we turned north to view the Grand Canyon. We reached Mather Point at 7125 foot elevation and is a lookout point for viewing the canyon. Coming home for a good part of the way on Highway 40, we were further north than our route to Bob's and it was somewhat cooler. We drove into San Bernardino and visited with Mother and Dad, Betty and Michael (English Bulldog) before returning home. In August of 1957 we took another trip to Oregon, going up Highway 101. We stopped in Belvedere-Tiburon where my parents were living and visited with them for a couple of days before going on up to Astoria. It was on this trip, I believe, that I went deep sea fishing for Salmon out of the port of Warrenton, Oregon and got seasick. I didn't catch any fish but others on the boat did and exceeded their limit so they gave me some. Back in port I exchanged them for canned salmon at the local cannery that made a practice of doing so. We took the ferry ride across to the Washington side of the Columbia River and drove to the town of Long Beach where we ate our lunch on the beach near the Wreck of the Peter Iredale. Several ships have been wrecked on the Pacific Coast over many years. I went for a swim in the cold ocean off the Washington Coast and I was reminded of Jack Medica, a swimmer back in my swimming days, who used to swim five miles a day in Puget Sound as training during his swimming career. On our way home we visited with Pauline and Wynn again and found Marc and Mila growing like weeds and Pauline pregnant with Paul. We drove out to The Dalles, following the Columbia River, and then turned south going through Bend and on south passing Goose Lake, which is located in both Oregon and California next to Highway 395. We stopped at Lake Tahoe and hiked around the hills on the east side of the lake for a bit to rest up from driving and riding in the car. The summer of 1958 brought DeVonne's parents back to Colton for a visit and DeVonne and I took them to Disneyland for a day where we all had a great time. Later that same summer we spent a week at Laguna Beach, renting a very old and unique house owned by Vern Barker. Vern was an Architect with whom I worked in the Office of Architects and Engineers at UCLA. I believe Vern built the house himself and it was a fascinating structure. Shirlie, DeVonne's sister, came down with some of her children and spent a day or so with us. In June of 1959 we drove Dicky up to Salt Lake City where he entered the Missionary Training Center in preparation for his mission to Chile. Reggie was working so he stayed and took care of things at home while DeVonne, Kandy and I made the trip. We spent a couple of days in Salt Lake City and were able to be present when Dicky was set apart for his mission by Elder Sterling W. Sill, Assistant to the Twelve Apostles. Leaving Salt Lake City we drove up through Yellowstone National Park and on up into Montana. We spent the night at Great Falls, Montana and the next morning drove into Cardston, Canada and visited the Cardston Temple grounds. On returning to the USA we drove over the "Going to the Sun" highway through Glacier National Park, encountering portions of the glacier. We got out of the car on the highway and made a few snowballs and threw them at each other before getting back on the road again. We drove south to Kalispell and Flathead Lake. At Flathead Lake we asked if we could find a short cut to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, rather than driving clear to Missoula and then backtracking to Coeur d' Alene. One of the natives assured us that we could and we took his suggested route. We ended up in the Bitterroot Mountain Range on what appeared to be just logging trails rather than roads. They were all numbered, but the numbers meant nothing to us as they didn't appear on any map we had. It began to rain quite hard and every time we thought we were going the right direction it seemed the road stopped. Then we would turn around and go back and try another way. Several times we could see the main highway in the distance with cars traveling it but we couldn't seem to reach it. About the time I had given up we found a road that took us down the western side of the range and brought us out to the highway. We drove on in to Coeur d' Alene and stayed the night in a motel. The next morning we started for Spokane, Washington, passed Moses Lake, Yakima and came out on the north side of the Columbia River where we had some spectacular views of the River and the valley. We reached our destination, Astoria, late in the afternoon. On our trip home we stopped in Belvedere-Tiburon and visited with Mother and Dad and Michael. We phoned Reggie who informed us he was okay but the house was infested with fleas. DeVonne told him to spray the house for them but when we got home the fleas had taken over the house and we were up late that night with DeVonne spraying and ridding our house of the fleas. Pierre, our cat, was probably the one who brought them indoors in the first place. Our final trip to Oregon was in 1961. For this trip we had a 1960 Chevrolet Impala. We drove up Highway 101 stopping in San Jose and visited with Dan & Ruth Lott and with Jerry & Joyce Mann who came over from Sunnyvale to visit with us. Dan and Jerry, at one time, were my counselors while I was Bishop. We arrived in Astoria just as June (DeVonne's sister) and Les were about to leave for their return home. We spent another week with Ma and Pa. We all drove out to Saddle Mountain that is southeast of Astoria and drove as far up the mountain as we could. Then we got out and hiked the rest of the way. At our starting point there was a sign saying: "Summit 4 miles." Kandy and I made it to the top but DeVonne and her parents rested some distance down the mountain and waited for our return. After a week of resting up and enjoying the Astoria area we headed back to California and home again. We made so many trips to Oregon that I can't remember which routes we took going and coming each time but I think I have covered all of them. I'm not even certain which of the kids we had with us on all the trips.