n 1948 we decided it was time to
have a vacation. We had then been in the active ministry fourteen years without
a single Sunday off, except in an emergency. Neither of us had ever been
very far west. We knew we would have to travel as cheaply as possible. So
Troy built a small, light weight sleeping trailer, large enough for a bed
for ourselves and a narrow one for Howard who was past twelve years old.
We had $400.00 which we had saved for this trip. We decided that we would
travel as far west as half our money would take us, then head back home.
The trailer was equipped for simple cooking, so we would stop and buy provisions
almost every day.
On this, our first real vacation, I began the note keeping, which I continued
on later trips. After I reached home I made a scrapbook of our trip In 1988,
just forty years after our trip I made a new scrapbook. the old one was falling
apart and I wanted to discard a lot of things that held no real memories
far us. I did not know how to type at the time of the trip, but in the new
book I typed my old notes almost word for word. Since Howard was with us
on this trip he might like to have this book. To Troy and me it is very interesting.
When we take time, about every ten years, to read my trip books it is almost
like taking the trips over again.
The little map, which I have drawn and placed in the front of the scrapbook,
shows the course of our travels. It is really hard to believe that we had
such an extensive trip on that amount of money. The trip lasted from May
10 to June 4th, We drove almost 9,000 miles and spent $390.00. We did not
pay a penny for lodging. When we got tired of driving we would just find
a side road or a country church to park behind for the night. We had no fear
of being molested in any way, on this journey.
We had a wonderful visit with Troy's uncle and aunt, Bill and Katie Knaggs.
They took us sight seeing in Los Angeles and Hollywood. From their place
in Barstow, California, we drove down to Vista to visit overnight with Jessie
Griffith. We also visited overnight with my sister, Ruth, in San Francisco.
Jessie's husband was a classmate of ours in the seminary. Lloyd Ringland
was a brother to Jessie and Ruby was his wife. We had kept in touch with
both families, over the intervening years since our seminary days together.
Lloyd and Ruby lived in Salem, Oregon. After reaching that city we called
them from a filling station for directions to their place. Lloyd told us
just to stay there and he would come and we could follow him home. Troy came
back to the car and after about fifteen minutes a car drove up and the driver
honked and threw up his hand. It was raining, so we did not question Lloyd's
lack of courtesy in not getting out to greet us. We started out after him.
The farther we went the greater became the speed of the driver ahead of us.
We dodged in and out of traffic and zoomed around corners until we ended
up on a dead end street, still right on the tail of our leader! Troy got
out and went to greet Lloyd and found we had been following the young man
from the service station, to whom he had talked when he used the phone.
When we took out after him he decided that we intended to relieve him of
his day's receipts. He tried to lose us and only succeeded in losing himself.
But he knew the city and very graciously led us back at a more leisurely
pace to the service station. Lloyd had been there two or three times and
drove around thinking he had misunderstood our location. He was just about
to give up in despair and return home, hoping that we would call again. We
all had a hearty laugh together. We stayed until afternoon the next day then
headed north to Vancouver, Washington.
I think that of all the churches we have served the church in Elkins means
more to us than any other. I think the reason is that we put so much of ourselves
into that project of building. The church relocation and building in Bradenton
was not nearly as much the product of our thinking. According to the building
code there, we had to have a licensed architect to do the planning and supervise
the building. It is so modernistic that it scarcely seems like a church to
us, but it is very functional. Each phase of the work was contracted and
in Elkins so much of the work was done by the congregation with volunteer
labor. We did physical labor there, just as the members of the church did.
