1979

 This is how I spent my childhood.

Crammed in the back seat of a CJ2 bright orange Jeep prowling on any dirt road that my Dad could find. My sister and I would bounce along buckled in tight holding onto the roll bar.  Sometimes we even banged heads which was not fun at all. I don't know how I did it but sometimes I could even fall asleep and take a short nap on one of those roads. We got filthy dirty but saw places that other people only read about.  Now I don't even think you can get on any of those back roads through the Mojave desert or through Panamint Valley let alone the back roads of Death Valley.  I know.....wierd.....who would ever spend Easter vacation in Death Valley....yep, I have.

My fondest memory of that is having an egg hunt on Easter morning. All the kids grabbed paper sacks (we didn't have plastic) or shirt pockets, wash basins, whatever you could find. I found an egg in a tail pipe once and one nestled in a spare tire. It was fun, dirty and quite the challenge making 5 gallons of water last between 4 people for a week. I remember being about 8 and returning home from a jeep trip that lasted a week. I looked in the mirror and saw the grime on my face and hair. I was fascinated by flush toilets and running water.  I tried to wash my face which quickly made a mud mask.  I didn't dare us the towels. I just left the bathroom with a wet face until it was my turn for the shower. A bath was out of the question unless you wanted to be sitting in a mud puddle.

Quite the experience.

I miss it....I think.

I always thought that my Dad looked like Abe Lincoln.