The next generation of wonderful Jones boys are rumored to be visiting Yellowstone in the upcoming days. They are hoping to see no bears, or your mom screaming, whilst jumping up and down on top of a picnic table.
I assumed the wonderful Jones boys Anonymous was referring to were Spencer Jack and his dad, he being my Favorite Nephew Jason.
Today multiple incoming pictures confirmed that Spencer Jack has taken his dad to Yellowstone National Park. Spencer Jack and his dad usually fly to their various destinations. I do not know if that was the case for this trip. Yellowstone is an easy drive from Western Washington.
When I was a kid, when school got out for the year, we took off on our annual vacation roadtrip. As me and my siblings got older than annual vacation roadtrips got more adventurous. I recollect when I was in 6th grade it was to Idaho and Eastern Oregon.
If that went well the next year we would go to Yellowstone, a place us kids had been begging to go to for a long time. Well, Idaho and Oregon went well, so the next year we did Yellowstone.
The incident Anonymous refers to where my mom jumped up and down on a picnic table occurred in the Old Faithful Campground where a big bear was having fun running around looking for something good to eat.
The roadtrip to Yellowstone went well, so the next year it was the roadtrip we'd wanted to do even more than going to Yellowstone.
California and Disneyland.
That roadtrip to California and Disneyland went so well and we had so much fun we did it again the next year, staying even longer.
I did not know it at the time, but that second trip to Disneyland was to be the last family roadtrip vacation I ever went on.
Five years later I took myself to California, to Disneyland, and Tijuana. I remember standing on the bluffs at San Clemente State Park, in the dark, looking out at the twinkling lights on the Pacific, and feeling wistful, thinking back to the first time I was at this location, me and Spencer Jack's grandpa so excited to hurry up and get our campsite set up so we could run down to the ocean. Mom and dad could tell we were revved up and let us go. Quickly we learned how to body surf.
I don't remember the circumstance, but years later I remember my dad saying that that first trip to California was the best we ever did. That's how I remember it too. It was so fun and we did so much, that's why we returned the next year.
My little brother, Spencer Jack's grandpa, has been writing down his memories from all those years ago. The stories are real good. I get sent the stories and there may be discrepancies in our memory. Like the trip to Yellowstone. My brother had the mom and the bear incident all wrong. Other stuff my brother remembers in detail that totally surprises me. I read one of the stories and then text back my version of the memory. I had a terrible time trying to differentiate the two trips to California.
Last week my brother texted me asking about the time we went to see the Seattle Pilots play on Bat Day in Sicks Stadium. That opened a whole flood of memories, including the fact I did not go to that game.
Anyway, I hope Spencer Jack and his dad are having themselves as mighty a fine time in Yellowstone as me and my brother did all those years ago....
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