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The family vacations, part 2....
Last week, I talked about a family vacation to the gulf coast of Florida in the summer of '75. In this installment, I'll cover the second trip to Florida, in the summer of '78.
We left on the morning of July 5, 1978. My sister chose to stay at home this time. We took the same route down -- I-90 from Buffalo to Cleveland, I-271 to bypass Cleveland, I-71 through Ohio (taking I-270 around Columbus), and I-75 from Cincinnati to St. Petersburg, FL. I forgot what cities and motels we stayed in on the way down. Someone mentioned "Days Inn" to my dad, so that's what he looked for. Once again, we stayed at our aunt's place in Pinellas Park. And this time, the car -- a '76 Chevy Malibu Classic -- had air conditioning.
We didn't do as much of the touristy things as we did in '75. No Disney World, no Busch Gardens. But we went to Daytona Beach for a few days to visit some other friends of my parents. Angelo (whom we called "Don"for short) and Lucille used to live in Boston, NY. They had a standalone short-order restaurant in the early '70s before they sold it, moved to Florida, and bought a small 20-unit motel -- the Mayfair Motel, on S. Atlantic Ave. (aka the famous route A1A). We spent a couple days there with them. I remember seeing lines of pelicans flying in formation -- one behind the other. And one night, I played with an AM radio and picked up the signal for WKBW, out of Buffalo NY. (It's a "clear-channel" station -- no other station shares their frequency in the eastern US. Kind of like WLW in Cincinnati.) I did a lot of raeading on that trip. I finished up the Lord of the Rings trilogy on that trip.
We took a different route on the way back to Buffalo. I-75 to Atlanta, I-285 to bypass Atlanta, I-85 to Charlotte NC, I-485 to bypass Charlotte (I think we took that), and I-77 north to Ohio. It was treacherous going through West Virginia, since the highway hadn't been completed yet, and we were taking a two-lane highway as a detour. I remember there was a semi truck on our tail for a long time, and he was tailgating us. The grille of the truck had yellow reflectors arranged to form a dollar sign. If we had blown a tire, that truck would have plowed into us, and probably over us. Near Cleveland, we picked up I-271, and then I-90 to Buffalo, and home.
My family hasn't been on long trips since then. Mom wasn't much into travelling; she wanted to stay at home. Dad retired near the end of 1986. After he retired, the furthest trip my dad would take in the car would be to an Indian reservation somewhere in Niagara County to get gas. They flew out to Denver in August of '89 for my sister's wedding. But they didn't attend my wedding 10 years later.
I've thought about going back to Florida on my own. I have some friends there. But I don't care for air travel, nor can I afford it. The last time I flew was in 1994. I'd drive down, but since I'm currently unemployed, I don't have the money for long car trips or vacations.
We left on the morning of July 5, 1978. My sister chose to stay at home this time. We took the same route down -- I-90 from Buffalo to Cleveland, I-271 to bypass Cleveland, I-71 through Ohio (taking I-270 around Columbus), and I-75 from Cincinnati to St. Petersburg, FL. I forgot what cities and motels we stayed in on the way down. Someone mentioned "Days Inn" to my dad, so that's what he looked for. Once again, we stayed at our aunt's place in Pinellas Park. And this time, the car -- a '76 Chevy Malibu Classic -- had air conditioning.
We didn't do as much of the touristy things as we did in '75. No Disney World, no Busch Gardens. But we went to Daytona Beach for a few days to visit some other friends of my parents. Angelo (whom we called "Don"for short) and Lucille used to live in Boston, NY. They had a standalone short-order restaurant in the early '70s before they sold it, moved to Florida, and bought a small 20-unit motel -- the Mayfair Motel, on S. Atlantic Ave. (aka the famous route A1A). We spent a couple days there with them. I remember seeing lines of pelicans flying in formation -- one behind the other. And one night, I played with an AM radio and picked up the signal for WKBW, out of Buffalo NY. (It's a "clear-channel" station -- no other station shares their frequency in the eastern US. Kind of like WLW in Cincinnati.) I did a lot of raeading on that trip. I finished up the Lord of the Rings trilogy on that trip.
We took a different route on the way back to Buffalo. I-75 to Atlanta, I-285 to bypass Atlanta, I-85 to Charlotte NC, I-485 to bypass Charlotte (I think we took that), and I-77 north to Ohio. It was treacherous going through West Virginia, since the highway hadn't been completed yet, and we were taking a two-lane highway as a detour. I remember there was a semi truck on our tail for a long time, and he was tailgating us. The grille of the truck had yellow reflectors arranged to form a dollar sign. If we had blown a tire, that truck would have plowed into us, and probably over us. Near Cleveland, we picked up I-271, and then I-90 to Buffalo, and home.
My family hasn't been on long trips since then. Mom wasn't much into travelling; she wanted to stay at home. Dad retired near the end of 1986. After he retired, the furthest trip my dad would take in the car would be to an Indian reservation somewhere in Niagara County to get gas. They flew out to Denver in August of '89 for my sister's wedding. But they didn't attend my wedding 10 years later.
I've thought about going back to Florida on my own. I have some friends there. But I don't care for air travel, nor can I afford it. The last time I flew was in 1994. I'd drive down, but since I'm currently unemployed, I don't have the money for long car trips or vacations.