7 In Guest Posts/ Travel

Guest Post: Ramblin’ Man

My awesome dad was willing to write a guest post for me, and I’m really excited to share this post from one of my favorite travel partners: Randy Brown!

When Paige asked me to be a guest blogger on her blog I had two ideas for what I wanted to write on, but I think I will include both because the last one is really just a funny road trip story. So, after you read this you will wonder where Paige got her writing skills, but anyway here it goes…

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My sister, me, my dad and my brother on a family vacation

When I was young my family took family vacations. My folks must have thought we would like the ocean since most of our trips involved the ocean. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the ocean. I love the ocean. I love to hear the waves crash, for me it is a calming and relaxing experience, and we had fun riding the waves, but as I got older and my wife and I had kids, we started branching out to the National Parks. On a trip to the American Southwest we fell in love with nature, the changing landscape as we drove across the U.S. and constantly saying, “Look at that!” and “Can you imagine what the first pioneers thought as they ventured out west.” At the Canyons in Utah and Arizona I can almost imagine seeing a Native American on a cliff looking down at this absolute beautiful overlook. We always say it probably looked exactly the same except for the road. Ha! Or what pioneers thought when they got to the rim of the Grand Canyon and the husband got an earful from his wife about what they’re going to do now? “How are we going to cross this? You didn’t say anything about this when we left!” Ha! I just let my imagination go and picture these things in my mind.

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My wife, me, Cory and Paige at the Grand Canyon

I have come a long way from my old family vacations, and I wish I would have started seeing more of the U.S. earlier, but I am really enjoying my travels across the U.S., not only for my own enjoyment, but for the enjoyment I see in the faces of my family. We really have a great time on these road trips. I have so many great memories and even more to come. I always wanted to take the kids to see all of the lower 48 states before they were 18. We came close, but I did give Paige and her brother the travel bug. Paige has taken it and ran with it. I am glad that she has been able to see and do so much, not only here in the U.S., but in Europe also. Even though I do not like to fly, I love seeing Europe through the eyes of Paige and her mom through the great pictures they bring back, and their stories.

So, as I close, I want to thank Paige for letting me ramble on like this… which brings me to my story of one of our trips as a child. We were going to a family reunion in Illinois and our family car broke down. We weren’t going to be able to fix it in time, so we had to take my dad’s old rambler (that was a make of car) and I mean OLD! The paint was coming off, it smoked, and I thought my dad was crazy! My brother and sister did not want to go in that thing, but we did and what a trip! We got about 50 miles down the highway and we heard a THUMP, THUMP, THUMP! So, my dad stopped because he though we had a flat tire, but back then, you could get retreaded tires, so it was a piece of tread that had come loose! So he gets back in, gets a knife and cuts off that piece of tread! So for the next 150 miles we stopped 3 or 4 more times as he cut more and more off the tires! Believe it or not, we made it there, and also back home on the same tires, just cutting off more of the tires every time we heard the THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! We all laugh about this even now. What a great memory… A scary but great one.

I have so many great memories, as I’m sure all of you have. I would love to hear some of them. Please share them! Thanks, Paige, for letting me share.

For more posts and travel articles I find interesting β€˜like’ the For the Love of Wanderlust page on Facebook. Simply click HERE.

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7 Comments

  • Reply
    Fresh Ginger
    June 3, 2013 at 12:19 pm

    We just started working on our family vacation memories. My son is four and we have an old travel trailer that we drag out camping. I hope he remembers how much stuff we pack in there for him when he gets older. πŸ™‚

  • Reply
    donnamh92
    June 3, 2013 at 4:19 pm

    This is really sweet. Such a nice idea.

  • Reply
    Jo
    October 17, 2016 at 11:38 am

    Paige it is SO awesome to have your dad guest post on your blog. My dad has the same passions as I do (or maybe its vica versa lol) – We both enjoy wildlife, birding and traveling so I had him help me out with few posts too and hes a great writer -so is your dad. So reading about your travel tales and your dad’s adventurous road trip just makes me grateful for all the lovely family vacations and fond memories we have had (and still do). Cheers and many more to come πŸ™‚

  • Reply
    Chantell
    October 17, 2016 at 12:44 pm

    What a lovely post – your Dad is such a great story teller! Sounds like you had a fantastic childhood and it’s amazing that you are able to explore so many US states πŸ™‚

  • Reply
    Susanna Kelly
    October 17, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    Awe… this post is so cute!! It reminds me of my family trips. Some of my first vacations were down to the U.S National Parks and I have such fond memories. I kind of want to get my family in on a guest post now. My parents have crazy adventures hiking in Alaska before it even had any real roads and stuff!

  • Reply
    Candy
    October 17, 2016 at 12:56 pm

    This is such an amazing post. I love hearing stories from people that are of a different generation. I wonder if I asked my dad to guest post if he would do it?

  • Reply
    Cori Carl
    October 18, 2016 at 11:37 am

    My family vacations were usually to cities, so I do wish we’d done more exploring out west. My mom and I went to the Grand Canyon a few years ago and did a whole Arizona road trip, which was really cool. It’s probably just as well, since my parents took me so many places when I was little that I hardly remember! It would be fun to hear their versions of those trips.

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