Welcome to our Filly Fun Week!
SUMMER FUN = ROAD TRIP!
It was long ago summers that cemented my life-long love of the West and horses and cowboys. Every summer vacation, my father would gather up the family and take us on a road trip to see this gorgeous country (and visit strategically placed relatives.)
Some years, we would go north to the beautiful mountains of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. I remember driving through the famous tunnel tree before it fell down! (Those redwoods don’t have a very strong root system!) The river was a favorite place—and the water from the melted snow was much colder than the ocean near my house.
Other summers, we would head east. I soon became disenchanted with the long drive through the southwesetern desert. Just too hot and too big! How did our pioneers survive that trip with a horse and buggy?
But when we headed a bit northeast—to Utah and Bryce Canyon or to Colorado and the Anasis Cave dwellings, or to Aspen, or Ouray, what a difference!
All these trips were done without a radio. My father was all about “no bells and whistles” and so it was truly family time. We talked. We told jokes. We reminisced. We made up songs and sang. Usually, we camped with a tent. Sometimes we would haul a small trailer. Most of all, we had fun and learned to appreciate and respect nature (especially that time a skunk wandered into our campsite.)
It is on these family trips that my imagination would take flight and I would envision stories of the pioneers fording a river with their prairie schooner, or living in one of the soddies we passed along the road. I still get a kick from the names throughout the United States – Buzzards Bay, Hangman’s Gulch, and Salt-lick. Surely there are interesting stories in all those places.
My next adventure will be when I head to SEATTLE.My son recently relocated there. Do you remember the song on television’s Here Come the Brides? I just couldn’t resist sending him this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcMD3LWUwD8
What about you? What is a favorite memory that you have of summer?
Comment for a chance to win an autographed copy of my latest release! (See giveaway guidelines on this page)
Kathryn’s latest book ~ ~ is about two spunky sisters who take their own road trip from the east all the way to western Kansas.
Twins Mary and Maggie, agree to become mail-order brides to avoid jail, believing that once they get to Kansas they can avoid marriage. Things don’t work out quite as they hoped…
Available: 
