Hello, John? It's Mary!_______ You know... your sister?
Listen... like I've got this really terrific idea, y'see...
THE GREAT WILD, WILD WEST Tour of 1996 really began around Thanksgiving
of 1995, when my sister Mary, realizing that both our mother and I will be
celebrating "Big Zero" years in 1996, (My fiftieth; her eightieth) got the
idea that both of our families ought to take the opportunity to go out to
California and celebrate with her. Actually, what Mary had in mind was to
surprise Mom on September 6th, her birthday, and whether that would be a
good idea or not was the subject of much discussion later on in the planning.
At first, it seemed like a formidable exercise in coordination (not to mention
too expensive), but Mary's persistence (plus the idea to extend the trip
to include "some sightseeing") was irresistible, and by Christmas we had
decided that we probably would do it.
In the spring of 1996 we began doing some serious planning as to what places
we'd always wanted to visit.
Mary and her
family, husband Lou Waters and daughter Lizzy, live in Oreland,
Pennsylvania, near
Philadelphia,
and my wife Linda
and I live in
West
Chester, Ohio near Cincinnati. Planning this little excursion, therefore,
involved coordinating our efforts long distance through writing letters (ugh!),
telephone calls, and EMail. The real kickoff was when Mary discovered that
we could save a bundle (like say, maybe enough to be able to afford the trip)
by taking a Las
Vegas travel package which included two nights
at
a luxury resort-casino and a rental car with unlimited mileage (and also
airfare for Mary, Lou, and Lizzy). We could then drive the vacation from
there, visiting such places as the
Grand
Canyon and
Yosemite
National Parks.
Mary then made full use of her ability to stretch a deal and convinced the travel agent to arrange that the two Las Vegas nights didn't have to be consecutive (and even got one of them to be Saturday), and that the rental cars (we opted for two cars instead of one van) could be dropped off in San Diego for no extra charge!
Throughout early summer we jointly planned events and attractions, routes, and times, comparing notes and making decisions. For awhile we had hoped to include my daughter Marnie, who is also celebrating a "Big Zero" this year (she turned thirty in June), but there was no way she could take the time from her job to join us. Lou and I did most of the overall route planning, with help from Rand McNally's Trip Maker and DeLorme's AAA Map'n'Go programs, lots of printed maps, and tons of stuff we sent for. Mary did nearly all of the research on lodging and she also made all the reservations.
Yosemite turned out to be an early victim of the time restraints - we substituted Sequoia National Park instead. Serious consideration was given to riding the Grand Canyon Railroad from Williams, but we opted to make better use of the available time by visiting Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon instead.
The Waters family's airline tickets were included in the Las Vegas package, but Linda and I (leaving from Cincinnati) had to purchase ours separately. In May, I got our airline tickets. I had checked out every available airline, comparing rates and schedules. The last one on the list (because their phone line was always busy) was Northwest. When I got the quote, the rate was among the lowest (not much variation - around $300 apiece from Cincinnati to Las Vegas, returning from San Diego), but the clincher was when the agent (apologetically) said that the flight would have a two hour layover in Minneapolis. What the agent didn't know was that our friend Denny King, who we haven't seen in over two years, lives in the Minneapolis area and we would have a chance to have lunch with him at the airport.
In June, while we were all together at Mary and Lou's house, we called Mom and told her of our plans (also inviting her to join us in Las Vegas or anywhere else along the route she'd like) and she certainly was surprised. She was also very happy that we didn't decide to surprise her by arriving on her doorstep in September! Linda, who'd been adamant about not doing that (and who is the only one professionally qualified to know) felt vindicated. While we were at it, we also added Tijuana, Mexico to our list of places we want to include.
By July, plans were pretty much firmed up and it was just a matter of waiting and hoping nothing would come up to cause major changes or disruptions. I had carefully planned my vacation days well in advance. Mary had pulled off an even trickier maneuver; she changed jobs during the planning months, and had to convince her prospective new employer to honor her vacation commitments before accepting her new position. Linda, who doesn't get paid vacations at her job, worked extra 16-hour days to make up for the income that would be lost during the trip. She also arranged for Linda Cross (my friend from work) and Ruth from Paws & Claws (a professional pet-sitter) to share caring for Krukker, Freddie, and Buster while we we're gone.
In August, Linda and I took a "test run" trip to Natural Bridge State Monument, about 2 ½ hours into Kentucky, to verify the Trip Planner program I'd used to calculate our itinerary. We were delighted to find that the time and mileage figures were dead on target...
...Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania, Lizzy had come home early from summer camp with what was feared to be mononucleosis. She spent nearly all day sleeping every day until the start of the trip (during the trip, she seemed to be fine, though).
... And the days just kept growing longer as the twenty-first approached…
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Story and original photography copyright ©1996-1997 by John Lipman. All
rights reserved.
Descriptions, observations, and characterizations expressed are solely
those of the author.
Background music copyright ©1996, 1997 by Michael D. Walthius. All rights reserved.