Our first RV trip started about the middle of August, 1969. My wife’s sister and husband was stationed at Miramar Naval Base in California and they lived in Escondido.
Fran was about to give birth to her first child and we were elected to be there for the occasion. I had an almost new 1968 Chevy 1/2 ton, six cylinder, stick shift plain Jane pickup. A used car lot down the road in Arnold, Mo where we lived, had an 8 1/2 foot overhead bed Open Road slide-in camper on his lot that he rented for $50.00 a week which we decided to rent. He told us that when we returned if we wanted to buy it the purchase price would be $750.00 less what we had paid in rent. We loaded up and got ready to go.
Along with my wife and I were our 4 1/2 year old son, our 18 month old daughter and my younger sister who wanted to visit her high school friend in San Francisco. We left a week before the baby was to arrive and spent the first night in Oklahoma City with my wife’s aunt and uncle, then on to Albequerque N M. We stayed that night for the first time in an RV park; I think it was a KOA, on the South side of route 66 about half way down the big hill into Albuquerque where thyey had a nice shower house.
We then drove up to the Grand Canyon to the South rim, stood for only about 15 min. before the sun set and spend another night in a RV park while there. Each night we called to see if there was progress in the baby department.
We then went down to Prescott, to Blythe and across the great Mojave Desert. The pickup had no A/C and we had to roll the windows up to keep the wind from burning us. I think we would have all fried if it weren’t for the shade of the camper over us. We drove 50 miles an hour and watched as all the Cadillac’s, Limo’s, and Mercedes went flying by until we arrived at Desert Center and pulled into a Texaco station. There they all sat with the hoods up, radiator caps off, geyers shooting up and fighting over a graden hose that was running full blast. I asked the man at the station if I needed to do the same and he said if it’s not running hot don’t bother as the water all those people were using was alkali water and he was keeping all the radiator shops in Los Angeles in business.
We took a short cut out of Palm Desert to Escondido but that is another story as is all the trips we made to the beaches to run Fran up and down to try to get her labor started. After two weeks of that our daughter and I left everyone else there, picked my sister up at the San Deigo airport and 26 hours later we were back in Arnold, MO with my sister and I taking turns driving and baby sitting.
I bought the camper, beefed up the pickup and we made many trips in it.
Submitted by Robert Moffitt of Hornersville, MO as a part of the RV Centennial Celebration “Share Your Favorite RV Memory” contest.
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