Cheapo Vacations
After my super duper European experience, traveling became scarce. It was a combination of time and not nearly enough money. Most of the people I knew took 1-2 vacations each year. I was lucky if I got a weekend someplace. I managed to get away for a couple of summers. Being a counselor and living in a bungalow colony were great, but can’t count as vacations.
So began the , “how to vacation on a dime and still have a good time” era. We tried. We decided to go to California and do a self driven car tour from San Francisco, to San Jose, Carmel, Monterey, San Simeon. I believe that was are itinerary. We were flying into San Francisco and renting a car. Armed with a trip tix ( way before computer generated directions) we excitedly got on a plane and off we went. In the plane, they had big screens, advertising some of the typical California things to do. I was hooked on going in a hot air balloon. There is no way my husband would do that with me, he has a fear of heights.
I loved San Franciso. We did all the touristy things but couldn’t stay too long as we had so much to cram into out schedule and little time to spare. San Jose was a delightful surprise. The Winchester house was a hoot! Our next stop, I can’t quite remember but this was where I was going to fly in that balloon. The next morning, we had to wait for the weather to be ideal, and then off I went. My husband chose to go horseback riding. We were both happy. My balloon got caught up in the absence of wind that day, and we found ourselves hovering over the Vacaville Prison. The inmates in the exercise yard, soon realized that we weren’t moving! I thought for sure we would have to land right in the middle of the prison population, but with a little perseverance and lots of fingers crossed the breeze finally blew us away from the facility. We did need to land however, and came down in a field of tomatoes that were rotting on the vines! It stank! The chase vehicles quickly took us away, but the smell lingered in my nose a long time. The experience though was fabulous, and if I ever have another chance, I would do it again.
Our drive continued. The agent who helped us get this vacation together, gave us poor information.
After seeing Carmel, and Monterey, we had to drive down route 1. I am sure it is a gorgeous scenic ride, but we were driving at night and it was scary. The road is narrow, goes along cliffs and is pitch black. There was no place to pull over, absolutely no place to get a meal, or a place to sleep. We just kept going. Finally hours later, we came upon a hotel. When we went into get a room, we were told the place was all filled up. The person at the desk took pity on us and told us we could use the bathroom and grab some food they had available at that hour but we would have to sleep in the car. The next day they would have a vacancy. We did what we can and spent the night in the parking lot in the car. We had to wait too long for a room to be cleaned for them to allow us in, so we washed up as best we could and changed clothes in the bathroom in the lobby. When I think about it now, I realize how lucky we were that we were quite young. If it were today, there is no way I could go the whole night without 3 trips to the bathroom.
Finally we got to the Hearst Castle. We took 2 of the tours back to back. I was glad I got to see it.
I honestly can’t remember where we went from there to get a plane back home! Vacations where we drive ourselves were crossed off the list.
In the years that followed we took a bus tour of the American Southwest, in August! It was cheap and the only time we had. We landed in Phoenix, Arizona to some ungodly temperature. We noticed there was no one on the streets!. We took a taxi to the hotel, immediately got into bathing suits and went down to the pool. It was empty. My husband jumped in and said it was hot enough to be a sauna. He got out, and we changed again. We wanted to look for a place to eat. We were told just two blocks away. You could feel the heat come up from the sidewalk through your shoes. We abandon the idea and went back to the hotel. I totally hated it. The next day we took a bus tour. I can’t really tell you what we saw, it was just way too hot for me. My husband and I had a romantic idea of the southwest. We saw the places that had been filmed in movies, the things that each area was known for. I even had a sasparilla soda in Tombstone. However wherever we went you couldn’t escape the heat. There is some mighty beautiful country there, but I just couldn’t enjoy it.
