Retro #4 - It Will Take More Than That to Lose Me

This is the time of year that most families are taking 'family vacations', and with any luck, I may eventually convince my family to go on one. This reminds me of a day when family trips were a little more death defying: vehicle breakdowns in the middle of nowhere, sleeping in a beat up old tent in the middle of a hurricane, feeding bears as if they were a member of your family, etc. We could really relate to the Brady Bunch on their outings to the Grand Canyon and Hawaii because these were real life situations experienced by us all, including the tiki idols and Navajo boys. Now,it seems like the biggest dilemma that we face is who gets the bed closest to the bathroom and trying to balance out the tv time with the pool time.

Well, I am reminded of one particular life and death type vacation when I was 9-years old. My family took a trip to San Fransisco in the 'old Travelall'. Oh, of course we had our share of broken down vehicles and botchalistic sun baked potato salad, but what I'm reminded most of, is that I got lost twice on this trip. Yes, you heard me right...not once but twice. This seems too much of a coincidence. Could there actually have been a plot to take yours truly out of the picture?

The first time occurred in Palo Alto, California. We were staying at the home of some friends and my brother decided to take me to the local park. After playing for what seemed like a very short time, my brother decided that it was time for us to leave. He sprung this information on me right in the middle of me pumping myself to max height on a swing set. Of course, he must of known that this was an inconvenient time, so by the time that I decided to coast down to idle he was long gone and I didn't quite know for sure which direction that he had taken off in. I didn't panic and like all good boy scouts that get lost in the woods, I did the thing that comes as instinct in these situations...I wandered around aimlessly for a while. About the time that I figured that I was abandoned for good and started making a makeshift shelter out of a covered slide, I heard my mom call out my name. They had come to my rescue. But had they. It seemed like it was quite sometime before they came looking for me. Was my brother in on this alone and he just withheld this information of me being missing for as long as he could, or did this go deeper? Did something go awry in a larger plot? Was it that they realized that Palo Alto is the location of Stanford University and that my siblings, by some twist of fate, like Joseph who was sold into Egypt, would some day come crawling back to me looking for a way to get a higher education after I had become the President of the University? So, maybe possibly, they thought of a better plan.

They laid low until the Travelall broke down in Virginia City, Nevada. My dad and several of my siblings, headed down into town to look for someone to tow our vehicle. Always trying to keep everyone second guessing my moves, I decided to go with them, after they had all ready gone about a block. Everything was going great until, they noticed when I wasn't watching and hid themselves in some side alley. I spent some time looking for them. When I couldn't find them, I eventually decided that I better head back to the car. Well, they had all gotten back to the car before me, and though I had wandered around aimlessly again for sometime (is there a pattern developing here?), no one seemed to have missed me that much.

Now if any of these two incidents had occurred by themselves, I would not have thought much of it, but to have it happen twice within the span of one trip, made me mighty suspicious. From then on, I have kept a close eye on my brothers and sister.

Has anyone else had any interesting 'incidents' happen on any family trips while growing up?