Phillips Campmobile

Janene and I have been watching the Ken Burns series "National Parks - America's Best Idea" . It has brought to my memory the way my family used to go camping. My grandfather said that we didn't need a lot of money to see the beauty of our country. My family consisted of five kids and Mom and Dad. The first time we all went to Yellowstone, we went in our blue and white ford (seen below). My dad rigged up a couple of sheets of plywood that he laid from the rear deck across to the front seats forming a second level in the back. My brother and I slept on the top with the windows (lucky us) and from this viewpoint, we could watch the bears destroy our camp.

Vikki slept on the back seat, with Tammy and Julia curled up in the recesses on each side of the "hump" in the middle. Sometimes Vikki traded with Morton to get a turn on the top level. Mom and Dad each slept in the front seats sitting up. I don't know how they ever got any sleep. It seems unbearable now, but all I remember was how fun it was to see bears, and elk and geysers with my family. We had a great time. One night, we got to sleep in a park service cabin because a couple of park service employees saw our sleeping arrangements and felt sorry for us! I now own a motor home that I never use and at least four tents, but nothing can compare with that first trip to Yellowstone. In the years to come, we would go on to visit all of the National Parks in the western United States ranging as far away as Olympic National Park in Washington and the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde. It truly was a great idea, this national park thing.