Why Flying Freckle?

We always seemed to have the newest Dodge van when I was a kid...I remember a green and white one, then brown, and then I think the last one was blue. My Dad got the whole month of July off since the boys ranch closed down for that month. That's when we would load up the tents, canoe, and later on the travel trailer and head out towards some of our cousin's homes. We would always stop off in Ft. Worth at my Daddo and Mommo's house to have a send off of turkey sandwiches for the road. My dad loved to drive and would even drive all night long some nights while crunching ice chips to stay awake. Mom loved to read books with both feel planted firmly on the dash of the car. I am the oldest of four and we would rotate seats. There were two bench seats and then a bed type platform in the back of the van that my dad made. On some trips before the bed we even had a porta-potty back there complete with curtains that my dad sewed himself! (Watch the bumps DAD!) We were fancy and ready for traveling thousands of miles! Growing up none of us had cell phones, much less t.v.'s in our cars when we traveled, but the one thing we HAD to have was a CB radio. My dad even got high tech later on when he rigged up a speaker just for himself that was closer to his ear so it would be more quite when we were sleeping,or when the language got colorful he could hear while protecting us from it. The cb radio was a truckers pre-cell phone way of communicating to each other for weather updates, traffic reports, and police sightings. It even helped us find cheaper gas-who doesn't need that now days! We loved listening to all the different truckers to hear what was going on in the world of highways and byways! We liked to use it for entertainment often asking the truckers questions, and we would sing to them songs like Jesus loves me! I'm sure that kept them awake! We would even sometimes be talking to them and end up passing them so that we could wave and pump our arms trying to get them to blow their horn. Man what a rush! Well after talking on the cb for a while you begin to start talkin' real countree like and askin' 'em questions like...."Whatz yur handle good buddy?" and "10-4 good buddy...come back?..." We had to get our own cb names, also know as handles so that we wouldn't give out TOO much info just in case..... Well mine was....can you guess it? FLYING FRECKLE!!!! I was covered in them, skinny, and big ears flying down the road in our get up towards the nearest, or farthest destination!

Those were the good old days! (I know I'm getting old when I can use that phrase!)

Now when we take our thousand mile trips we have cell phones, game boys,and dvd players for each kid WITH headphones and remotes! Our best friends from Virginia even got real high tech on their last trip to Texas this summer and had a computerized gps type system on their lap top computer that told them what exit to take for gas and food. It also kept up with how many miles left, etc.. to their destination! Now THAT is fancy!!! We didn't get to drive to New York this summer due to scheduling conflicts. Most would think well yeah isn't flying faster, easier, and better? Well not when you don't get to SEE what's in between here and there, and not when your kids miss out on the open road experience. I'm not gonna lie and say that's it's always pleasant to travel miles and miles, but it's sure worth it! Next summer we hope to head West. You can be sure that we will at least turn off the movies and game boys just long enough to teach our kiddos how to do the arm pump and get those truckers to honk their horns! "10-4 good buddy....this is the flying freckle...what's your handle....come back?!"