We went for a trip in our car?

One day we decided on going for a car ride in our old Ford station-wagon so we got in the car and argued on where we were going to go. And there was of a sudden a decision that everyone liked. We would go for a ride down the Oregon coast and into northern California then come back home through the central part of Oregon.

When we got to Portland Oregon we had an argument about how we would get to the coast. One idea was to go to the northern coast of Oregon or Astoria and then travel all the way down the coast and the other was to go to Tillamook Oregon which would save us at least 2 hours more on the trip. We all argued so much that we finally took a vote and the outcome was 5 to 5 and we all started arguing once again. It wasn’t long before my father said that his vote coiunted as two and mom, trying to stop the fighting, agreed with him. We went to Tillamook Oregon from Portland.

As we were driving from Portland we had some mountains that were hills compared to the Rockies or the Cascade Mountan Range but they were enough to make the old Ford we had brought a very hard time even though we had come over the Rockies from Montana, it barely got over these hills and died between Tillamook and Spring Lake, so we kneeled and prayed to our Heavenly Father, dad prayed using the priesthood he possesses and said “with the Holy Melchezidek Priesthood which I hold I say that we will be helped”. It wasn’t five minutes before a car drove up and this strangely weird man gave us a tow to Spring Lake Oregon where my parents could do something about our situation. When we got there my father called his old boss the cattle rancher, banker and state representative even though it was Saturday he came back with the authority to buy a new used car. The parents then left Sandra with us and the car while they looked for a used car in this small town. While they were gone Sandra was convinced that she should be in charge of the three other girls Connie, Torrie and the baby Kimberly. And I would be in charge of the three other boys Anthony, Roger and Allen. Well Roger says that I was the only one to knock him out but even Sandra appreciated the quiet after I had knocked him out. Roger was asking questions, all the way till he got married and probably still asks his wife. Anyway, when my parents got back with the new car we were all disappointed. They had brought back a two tone Rambler station-wagon and we groaned one big collective groan. What was this ugly car doing in our parking lot and where was our sportster well neither parent even smiled.

They were concerned about how we were going to get the Ford home as we could not leave it were it sat right now as we would most likely get a large fine that would keep getting larger until we decided how to move the car. Dad said that I could drive it while he pulled it with the Rambler. To which Sandra was perfectly upset but I was ok with the idea as I would get to drive that car over 400 miles. I just had to be taught a few things I had to learn. I knew that I would not be speeding so what did I need to learn? Boy it was the silliest thing, when the brake lights came on I needed to put on the Ford brakes. No not the tail lights but the brake lights. And when the brake lights of the Rambler went off then I had to let off the brakes on the Ford. Oh now we will try it for a few minutes before we get on our way. Boy I never felt like a fish in a fish bowl more with every one looking in on me. I was going to volunteer to take Sandra’s place in this whole thing, but then I would hear it all the way home about I was chicken and not Sandra. So I finished the training and found myself on the hardest trip I think I have ever taken even if it were the most exciting. I was responsible for keeping the chain taught between both cars and I was supposed to give suggestions when someone was trying to pass by braking three short brakes to let dad know that a car was coming even though the rambler had mirrors they needed to be fixed by a mechanic on Monday. So finally I was out of the fish bowl and “on the road again”.

We got to Umitilla Oregon where we stopped for something to eat and I was so tired and sore that I said I could not drive anymore so Sandra got her chance to drive and I slept for about ½ hour to Kennewick Washington there I was wakened and told that she could rest.

Once we got the car home we let it set in the same place until the neighbors came to complain and then the police told us they were going to bring a warrant for the remval of that car if we did not do something with it before then. So we called some brothers who were our local mechanics and ask them if they could use the car in theirk stoc car show. Well it lasted another few weeks before it had beeen totaled. And we were left with that silly old Rambler.