Trips with Dad

 

This will be a series of photos from trips with dad. I do not recall all of the trips nor do I have Photos

from all of the trips. I do recall that early on dad would take the family and later just the boys on

forays to the various parts of the country where we lived. As a young boy of 7 or 8 I have memories of trips

down into Mexico to fish in the Ocean. I do recall one trip when we stopped in what must have been

Tijuana, Mexico and we stopped at a stand on the street for something to eat and drink. I asked for milk to drink

until I saw the guy reach up for a gallon jar sitting on top of the stand, in the heat, with flys in it.

That decided for me  that I did not want milk.

 

Now if we flash forward a lot of years, I decided that it was payback time. Now it was my turn to take Dad on

trips around the west. As I said I do not have photos from all of the trips, however here are a few.

Early on took mom and dad to Washington for Uncle Jack's and Aunt Betty's 50th wedding Anniversary.

That would have been June 1991.                                  Photo's to follow.

Dad and I went out on the desert around the Big Butte. He was looking to see if he could find that

green colored rock that he had found, he thinks on the Big Butte. It looked almost like glass.

 

Dad always had an eye out for things that stood out from the regular.

This corner marker is a prime example.

 

Most of the time he had a walking stick with him, at least in the later years. He also had an eye

for even the small things. He didn't keep everything but he did pick it up.

 

If I had been a purist I would be able to read back in my journal and find when this was. Perhaps I will 

be able to find it when I get to mothers journals.

On another trip we spent the night in the back of my Suburban at the East Fork of the Salmon River.

 

He also saw the humor in things. He noticed the stick propped against the boulder and said that would make

a good picture. Then he got in the picture himself.

 

It was about this time that as we talked about where to go to next that dad said,"do you remember

that Gold mine we found? Well I would like to see if we can find it again." That is one of the photos that I 

don't have but we did look for and find the placer gold mine in the hills behind Stanley,ID.

We found the old mine area. When we first found it it was not being worked and dad in his 

typical fashion was nosing around in the paperwork on the tumbled down cabin. He found an

assay report on the claim and it was quite good. He also found out the name of the miner and decided

to look him up and see where he was. That winter he researched and found him in a rest home

in Salmon. He had been there for about 10 years and had not been able to work his claim.

I remember dad coming home and saying "boys I think we have a gold mine." Well that next

summer we went up to look it over, only to find a D-9 Cat parked in the middle of the claim.

Well some 20 years later, we found it after a lot of driving only to discover that the Cat was there

to build a road through it. We have visited it since and found it being worked. I found an abandoned

wooden sluice box with the carpet still in it. I pulled out the carpet and was beating gold out of it

for quite a while.

One day dad mentioned that he would like to go see Southern Utah, Arches National Park,

and the area around there. This next photo is from Arches, the Balanced Rock.

 

Then we went on south and ended up at Four Corners. There dad was able to be in four states at the same time.

 

Another time dad wanted to go for a ride and Don was not able to make but Matthew and Mark wanted to go.

Dad was interested in this old house south of Montpelier, ID. It was a stone house built out of sandstone.

We stopped in Soda Springs and saw Doug and then went over to the geyser, and then on our way.

 

 

From here we went over to look at the house.

 

 

One day when dad was in the Veterans Home he wanted to show me some of his land. We drove around Pokey looking

over his property and then on the way back I lost the water pump belt on my car. I pushed it anyway to get dad back

and then called Don for help. He knew a guy that came over and replaced the belt. Here dad is still in the car.

 

More to come.