I am back to random subjects. This one happens to be on finance and I have discussed it before. Apparently not everyone was listening.
My favorite daughter Debs had auto insurance with American Family back in 2002 when she owned that prestigious Dodge Ram that was always in the garage with transmission problems. She fought the Dodge dealership armed with the "lemon law" argument. She won her case! The Dodge was returned and Debs cancelled her auto (truck) insurance. Insurance payments had been on a month to month basis.
It is now 2005 and Debs went to insure a new vehicle, again with American Family Insurance. Again, she agreed to a monthly insurance premium with authorization to deduct the payment electronically from her checking account. You can almost see this one coming!
Debs got her monthly statement for her checking account and she was $300 short. It was not an error in addition or subtraction. What could it be?
It turns out that American Family never cancelled Debs insurance back in 2002 and kept it on their books as bad debt. When Debs authorized direct electronic access to her account, American Family not only deducted the one month payment for the new car but 4-5 months of payments that should have been cancelled in 2002. Scary!
I have discussed the electronic world in the past. Everyone wants direct access to your money with claims of benefits. Save stamps! Get to use your money right up to the date of payment! Never any late fee! It is the electric company, the gas company, the telephone company, insurance agents and mortgage companies all reassuring you that your life will be better if you authorized automatic payment. My position on direct access to your checking account or savings account is an unabashed, "don't do it". I know there are exceptions but why would you open you wallet and say "take whatever you need". It is your money and you should decide when they get paid and how much.
So the Debs saga continued after she consulted her financial consultant (me). She contacted her friendly bank and retold the story. The bank said she had 60 days to file a form indicating that the money deducted was not authorized. They immediately redeposited the $300 into her account electronically reversing the American Family charge. In addition, she was asked to file "fraud" charges back against American Family.
Apparently there are laws protecting consumers against unauthorized charges made electronically against your account.
So far the story ends happily and Debs is busy spending her returned $300. I think American Family has up to 60 days to pull off some legal manipulation to challenge the "fraud" charge but my guess is that the whole matter will be forgotten.
In case you haven't got the message - "Don't give automatic electronic access to your money".
Love,
Dad
It is summer 1976 and we are 17 days into our West Coast trip. Because I don't remember the exact dates, I know we are getting close to Paul's birthday on June 29th. He turns four. I'm sure the celebration was large and many gifts were bestowed on the the little fellow. If I know your mom, she had bought birthday gifts before we left and had them in one of the suitcases.
The launch point to head home was Bastow, California located on Highway 40 and on the western edge of the desert. I know Death Valley National Park was not too far away. The plan was to travel from Bastow to Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 4 days with an allowance for a 5th day if we got side-tracked. I admit that I don't like desert but most of all, excessive heat. I'd had been told to traverse the desert in the early morning when it was cool. So we left early on a Tuesday morning. 6:00 AM. The trip across the arid desert land was about 150 miles and I think the early morning temperatures reached 90 degrees. The desert releases all kinds of pretty colors as the sun rises so it turned out to be a nice ride.
Interstate Highway 40 would take us all the way to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where we turn turn Northeast on Highway 44. As we came out of the desert, I remember signs telling us that the elevation was as we slowly rising as we approached the mountain ranges. Somewhere around Flagstaff, Arizona there was a sign "Grand Canyon, 60 miles North, Exit 1 mile". A poll was taken excluding Paul and everybody decided they wanted to continue the journey home. The hell with the Grand Canyon, it was just a big hole in the ground. In hindsight, I wish we had taken the Grand Canyon diversion. The truth was that everybody was tired and wanted their own bed.
The next motel was Albuqueque, New Mexico. Uneventful. Good food, nice swimming pool.
The following day we ended up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It ended two long days of travel but we were within striking distance of home.
It was Thursday and we had targeted St. Louis. Time to have a little fun. Once we arrived in St. Louis, we visited the Arch and took a ride up to the top. If you are claustraphobic, you don't belong in the tram that takes you to the top of the Arch or even the limited space for sightseeing at the top. It was an encounter Im sure everyone will remember. The rest of the day was spent at Busch Gardens in St. Louis. I honestly don't remember a lot about Busch Gardens but we've got the pictures to prove we were there. The pictures show amusement type rides and entertainment.
Friday morning was important because the intent was to make it home by nightfall. Going home was almost as exciting as leaving originally. Going through Chicago at 3:00 PM was slow as usual but our Sheboygan arrival would be close to 7:00 PM. I think that the 4th of July was on Monday so that if we made it home on Friday night, we had 3 days to recover.
We arrived home close to 7:00 PM. We had survived 3 weeks together in a Chevrolet Station Wagon. It would take time to realize all that we had seen and done. The credit card bills would not start arriving for several weeks and I think I had a job to return to on Tuesday morning. I don't know how my employer could function at work without me but my guess was "very well".
That trip in 1976 was the only extented 3 week vacation we would ever take. It was the event of a lifetime and created many memories that will linger forever. We covered 16 states in 21 days. Imagine you kids returning to school in the fall and when they asked you what you did last summer, for once in your life you couldn't say "nothing".
Love,
Dad
We are in Los Angeles on our 3 week trip in 1976. Our next visit was to be Grandma Alice's younger brother, Big Jerry. He said come on over to his northern L.A. suburb of Oxnard.
First things first. We had heard that we should visit Knotts Berry Farm. All indications was they had the greatest preserves in the business and we shouldn't miss going there. It was a surprise. Yes, it had great preserves formulated by the founding family but it was really a mini-Disney. It was a huge amusement park with lots of interesting rides and a central store where you could buy jams, jellies and lots of other things. One of the rides I remember was a parachute jump. The customer would be hooked into a harness and they would lift the parachute by the top and take it hundreds of feet into the air with you hanging below. Then they would release the parachute and you would float to the ground. We did not have any brave souls that would go on the ride. Knotts Berry Farm turned out to be a fun experience.
Then it was on to Big Jerry's. It was one of the few nights that we would not sleep in a motel. Big Jerry was a rough and tumble camper and out-doorsman. We would use sleeping bags and occupy whatever beds were available. We obviously survived. Big Jerry lived in a ranch style home not far from the ocean. None of the kids had met Big Jerry. He was a retired naval petty officer and had a pension for life. He had supplemented the pension by working as a maintenance supervisor at the local school system. He married Jean, a lady 15-20 years his elder. They were very cordial. Big Jerry got his name because he was 6ft-5in. tall and in 1976 weighed about 250 pounds.
Highlights of visiting Big Jerry were a white and black jeep with open top for scooting around, a medal detector for finding hidden coins in the back yard, a black lab dog, and Paul getting knocked down continuously by the "playful" big dog. Paul didn't think it was funny. Big Jerry figured it was a way to toughen up Paul. It really wasn't funny to a scared 4 year old. Poor little guy!
All in all, "Big Jerrys" was memorable. Now it was on to visit Grandpa George's niece, Mary Carpenter. Mary lived somewhere in the middle of Los Angeles. Mary was in the National Guard with her husband Jim and her 3 boys were either applying for military service or would some day. The house oozed of testosterone. What I remember most is that in the months preceding our visit, there had been a significant earthquake. The Carpenters had massive cracks in their living room walls and their swimming pool was emptied because it has shifted. Nothing was covered by insurance. We had a nice visit and were invited down to San Diego the next morning to the Naval Base. We would get a tour of an aircraft carrier. I think it was the Enterprise. Chris thinks it was the Nemitz. It was to be an unexpected treat.
We traveled to San Diego the next morning and had to wait outside the gate at the Naval Base because we didn't have clearance to enter. We were told to wait and when Mary Carpenter and family arrived, we would all go in together and get our tour. They never came! I thought at one point I saw their car and they rolled right past us but I wasn't sure. It was a "buzz-kill". Lots of anticipation followed by disappointment. It is tough to be sad in San Diego. Weather is great with lots of sights.
We were at the point in the trip where we would have to start heading home. Still sights to see. The next hurdle was a hot desert in early summer. Are we having fun yet? I wondered if I still had my job.
Love,
Dad
I've been begging for feedback on our 1976 trip to the West Coast. The response on been as expected. Nothing! Hello! Did I take this trip alone?
Well in rummaging through some old pictures, your mom came across some old pictures of our trip and she stumbled upon some notes written by Kelly on the first few days of our trip. The following quote came from her on the second day of our trip as we approached Rapid City, South Dakota. "We went through the Badlands. We stopped at a tourist center. We've been staying at Ramadas. We went swimming in the pool including the slide. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. I had egg fu young, chicken chau mein and sweet and sour pork. Would you believe Chris had a hamburger! I got my sun glasses here. Paul had a blast at the playground with a rocket".
We've looked for more notes by Kelly, but there don't seem to be any.
Continuing my recount of events on our trip, we are in Los Angeles and have completed Disney. We moved to a motel in Torrence, California where Shelby's Uncle Clarence lived. It also happened to be where Marineland was located along the Pacific Ocean. Marineland would build a bigger complex in Florida several years later called Sea World. We stayed in Torrence several days. We scheduled the first day at Marineland. They had huge aquariums and put on a 60-90 minute show with seals, dolphins and a killer whale. It was a warm and sunny day and in the background was the blue Pacific Ocean. It was fun. They had high "needle" type structure that served as the center of a "donut" type carriage. You would sit in the circular donut and it would rise very high into the air while you viewed the spectacular area. It was also a big thrill because it revolved around the needle as it rose and it seemed like you were on top of the world.
Later in the day, we contacted Clarence Steger (George's borther) and his wife Rosetta. They lived in a trailer park in Torrence in a retirement community. They had a recreation center at the complex that provided events from bingo to swimming. The trailer they lived in was large and they were very cordial. Arrangements were made to return the next day for a home cooked meal.
We spent some time in Torrence just "bumming". We stayed close to the ocean and discovered how "the other half lives". Lots of sea-side castles.
At the end of the second day in Torrence, we called my Uncle Jerry located in northern Los Angeles in the Oxnard suburb. He said come on over. Tomorrow! Uncle Jerry!
Love,
Dad
It is 1976 and our family has just arrived in San Francisco. It is close to your mom's birthday and I don't remember exactly when she turned 36 on this trip but I'm sure we made it memorable for her. The idea was to stay at a motel in San Francisoco located central to everything downtown. You can rest assured that we requested a room on the first or second floor to so we could get out during an earthquake. Remember, the big quake had been forecast for California since before I was born.
We rode the Trolley car system up and down some famous hill, visited Chinese shops in Chinatown and ate supper on Fisherman's Wharf. Mom says she remembers eating on the Wharf because we were all very hungry and we consumed two baskets of rolls before the main course came. We also drove to a park area right under the Golden State Bridge. We never actually crossed the Golden State. It is impressive.
After San Francisco, we headed for Los Angeles. Next stop, Disneyland!. I allowed a whole day for travel from San Fancisco to Los Angeles and we decided to take much of the Coast Highway, I think it is still Highway 1. It meandored along the California coast and had spectacular secenery. It was slow and it consumed most of the one day. I underestimated the distance between San Francisco and L.A.
We arrived at Disneyland on Sunday night. The plan was two days at Disney and then we would move on to other things. I had made reservations at a motel like Residence Inn and it was a treat. The room was like a small condo with cooking available, a loft with extra sleeping accomodations and lots of extra room. Imagine Disney and a great motel besides! Things were good. The motel was not on the Disney grounds so we had to drive to Disney the next day. As we drove in, the mono-rail system that transported people from the "on grounds motel" rumbled over our heads and looked really cool.
Look out Mickey Mouse, here we come. Lots of rides, lots of shows and lots of food. The weather was sunny and warm. I think "all day passes" were about $25 per person and that entitled you to everything except food.
While at Disney we began to arrange for other things to do while we were in Los Angeles. That included trying to make contact with Grandpa George's brother Clarence (a retired carpenter) and his new bride Rosetta. Clarence had a daughter, Mary Steger Carpenter who lived in the area with her husband Jim and their 3 boys. We would try to visit Mary and family. To finish the frolic with relatives, my Uncle Jerry lived in a Northern Los Angeles suburb called Oxnard and we intended impose on him.
Disney was fun. It was an exhausting two days but after all the travel, it was welcome. The next target was Sea World with some visiting mixed in. We were half-way through our trip. Huh, already? I began to realize that I hadn't thought about work in over a week. Managing and enjoying the sights occupied most of my time. I think that is what a vacation is supposed to be!
Love,
Dad
It is late spring 1976 and we are traveling west. We just arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming as we exited Yellowstone Park. I had never heard of Jackson Hole and it was a surprise. The whole community was fashioned after an "old west" motif. It had quaint western shops that specialized in boots, cowboy hats and general western memorabilia. It had wooden sidewalks. Your mom remembers Debs purchasing a horseshoe and probably some of the other kids too. I think we ate at a western restaurant with long tables and a buffet menu. It catered to "all you could eat" for the hearty appetites after a long day of travel.
Since becoming visiting Jackson Hole in 1976, I have become aware that it is a very desirable destination of the rich and famous. It is nestled at the base of many good ski hills and in the winter, it is the choice many accomplished skiers. The surrounding beauty is stunning and there are many, many muti-million dollar homes and ranches. A famous financier that started Brandywine Mutual Funds moved his personal office to Jackson Hole and does all his business from computers and phones. Then he goes skiing. As Paul Harvey would say, it is not one world.
Having absorbed the charm of Jackson Hole, it was time to move on. Next stop Salt Lake City, Utah. On the way to Salt Lake, we noticed that we were getting a leak of oil from the differencial in the back of the car. It turns out we had too much weight in the back with luggage, kids, and miscellaneous. So in Salt Lake we ended up spending a morning as they installed new heavy duty springs to keep the car from bottoming onto the differential and straining it.
We spent an afternoon tourning the Morman complex which houses the Morman Tabernacle. In order to tour the facility, you must agree to have all your kids turn Morman. No, just kidding. You did have to listen to a 30-45 minute presentation of Morman history followed by a question and answer period. Then you got the tour. It is an interesting tour and the Tabernacle is spectacular. I don't remember if there was a store to purchase souvenirs or not. Salt Lake is pretty location at a high elevation with lots of hills and trees.
When we left Salt Lake City, I knew if would be a day of travel to get to San Fancisco. We had to endure the Bonneville Salt Flats which was hot, dry and white. It was on this long day of travel that a semi-truck driver was chatting to us on our CB radio and asking what our location was based upon mileage markers along the road. It turns out that the trucker was right behind our car and I remember Paul sitting in the back of the station wagon and waving to the trucker are we talked. It can get pretty exiting when you can realize that the radio connects you to real people and real events and they wave to you.
So we rolled through Reno, Nevada without stopping, Sacramento to eat and blew into San Francisco, California at around 3:30 PM on a Friday afternoon. The good thing was that heavy traffic was coming out of the city and we were going it. Our motel was in downtown San Francisco, just blocks from Fisherman's Wharf and the Trolley Car system.
It took one week of "pushing" and having to limit time at some pretty nice locations, but we were in California. Yee-Haa. The next week would be spent in California.
Next time? The San Francisco treat!
Love,
Dad
It is 1976 and we are traveling west. Mount Rushmore was yesterday. Today it will be Yellowstone Park. The newspapers have been covering a story about a person that was malled to death by a bear in recentweeks in Yellowstone. That is like telling someone that a house is haunted. There is always this slightest possibility that you might see a ghost. But bears should be different, you can out run a bear! At least I think you can!
It was mid-June. Yellowstone was just opening for the season. I remember as we approached the entrace to the park, the sun was shining and there was snow everywhere. We were on the north end of Yellowstone with a plan to drive southward in Yellowstone to Old Faithful and then south through Yellowstone to enjoy the scenery.
I underestimated the vast size of Yellowstone. I equated it to a Large State Park in Wisconsin. Boy, was I wrong. It is equivalent to many State Parks. It runs from the top northwest corner of the State of Wyoming to the mid-part of the State. My second underestimation was how fast you can travel through Yellowstone. The roads were equivalent to winding through Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine. A lot of traveling was at speeds of 25-50 miles per hour at best on two lane highways. If you got behind someone, you needed to relax because you weren't going any faster.
My recollection is we got to Old Faithful geyser at around 11:00 AM. A combination of geophysical rock formations coupled with water being forced into natures pockets causes an eruption every 53 minutes. In theory you can set you watch by the predictability of the geyser. The reality of it all is you stand as a weary tourist having traveled 4 days to get here and the geyser erupts. It lasts a minute or so and then you wander off to wait 52 minutes for it to happen again. You can't get within 100 yards of the geyser. There was a "reception building" designed to give information on Old Faithful. We came. We saw. We left. Ho-Hum!
More exciting was finding a place to eat. We had packed a lunch and the intent was to eat in a picnic area of Yellowstone. Because it was early in the season, wayside areas were mostly devoid of people and to wander deep into the woods with food after warnings about bears was not real appealing. We did find a place to pull of and eat but I have to admit it was less than the full Yellowstone Park experience. I have recently seen some pictures taken by your mom near where we ate. We can prove we were there.
Then it was a leisurely ride south through the park. Leisure turned into panic late in the day as I found we couldn't travel as fast as I had estimated. My plan was not working. What should we do? What should we do? We might not make our night time destination which was Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The farther south we traveled, the road began to straighten out and we were able to pick up the speeds. The sights were incredible with mountains for a back-drop and the sun reflecting off the snow capped peaks. I think we rolled into Jackson Hole, Wyoming around 6 PM which is near the south end of Yellowstone.
There is a lot I didn't know about Yellowstone but I did underestimte it's size. One of my goals in life was to return and spend 3-4 days enjoying the park. They have a lodge that rents rooms and condos in the park. They sponsor sightseeing excursions. I think you might even ride horseback through some obscure trails. One day is not enough for Yellowstone.
With my next entry, I'll talk about Jackson Hole. It was a very pleasant surprise. We pulled our cowboy boots out of the back of "the Rusty Zipper", put on our "ten gallon hats" and headed for the wooden side-walks. Yo-Ha!
Love,
Dad
As we rolled into Rapid City, South Dakota I knew the good stuff was coming. Sightseeing! Variety! Anticipation.
Your mother doesn't remember all the detail I have been conveying. She remembers washing clothes, packing suit cases and making sure each of the kids had what they needed to survive. I know that cassette tape recorders were popular but I don't remember any portable computer games. I don't remember if there were frayed special blankets, stuffed animals or a pair of shoes that had holes in them. All I do remember is all the suit cases we locked in the top car-carrier each day practically tipped the car over.
George Carlin does a comedy "shtick" on the "stuff" we must have with us when we travel. When we travel we just pack up all the stuff we must have (just like home) and carry it with us. Imagine 6 kids with all their "stuff".
We left the Best Western in Rapid City in the early morning of the third day to head out to the state park that holds the Mount Rushmore Monument. Quick, name the 4 Presidents that are on carved on Mount Rusmore. I think Mt. Rushmore is in the Custer National Park. I remember having to drive up a winding hill, park in a large parking lot among the pines and walk up a long stairway to the reception center of Mt. Rushmore. It was a clear and sunny day. The center had an ongoing film presentation of the building of the monument. We didn't partake of the film. We got to go out on a large open patio with a great view of Mt. Rushmore. I've got pictures of myself with several kids and Rushmore in the background. The only thing that could have been better is be able to get closer to the actual Presidential carvings.
We treked through some Mining towns that same day and considered going down inside a gold mine. We didn't do it. The next target was Billings, Montana while slipping through the northeast corner of Wyoming. Billings was a launch point to go down into Yellowstone Park. When I mapped out the original trip, Yellowstone was one of 4-5 "must see" attractions. We stayed over night in Billings and I remember eating at a restaurant filled with "good ole boys" and we were their fodder. It is lonely in Billings if you are from out of town. No, there weren't any fights. No arguements. Food was good.
Day four we headed to Yellowstone and Old Faithful and bears. The anticipation was high.
I suspect we kept mailing postcards back home saying "wish you were here". Gad, I hate people who do that!
You Grasshoppers haven't e-mailed me any memories. Come on!
Love,
Dad
It was around the 10th-12th of June, 1976. The family trek west was about to begin. The West would never be the same! Our family of 6 left early on a Saturday morning in the "Rusty Zipper". It was partly cloudy. I knew that the first two days were going to be boring because our first major destination was Rapid City, South Dakota. Rapid City was the beginning of the Rocky Mountains and the site of Mount Rushmore.
The plan (my plan) was to take a northern route going west and a southern route coming back. The AAA auto association had a "trip kit" and they mapped out what they would recommend each day. They also showed places where there was major road construction. I then added the "Andrews Factor" to come up with our plan.
We headed west on Highway 23 headed for LaCrosse where we could pick up Interstate Highway 90 through Minnesota and South Dakota to Rapid City. I remember the weather kept changing. It rained. The sun shined. It was cloudy. It rained. And so it went. By the end of the first day we had made it through Minnesota and just entered South Dakota. There is nothing in western Minnestoa or South Dakota. Just as we entered South Dakota we hit the thriving metropolis of Sioux Falls. That is where we stopped for the first night. The motel had the mandatory swimming pool and we probably ate some greasy Kentucky Fried Chicken. It would take a few days to get sick of greasy fast food. Not real exciting.
The second day set the tone for the rest of the trip. We got on the road early between 6:00-7:00 AM and waited to eat breakfast around 10:00 AM. We weren't trying to save money! Nobody was hungry early in the morning. Then we planned arrival around 4:00 PM at our next destination. We would have a large restaurant meal late in the afternoon with a swimming regimen mixed in. On day two, it again was a lot of driving before we reached Rapid City. We were starting to get used to the CB radio unit and found it more entertaining than the normal AM/FM radio.
Amist all the boredom we decided to pull into an Interstate tourist trap to vist the Corn Palace in South Dakota. The Corn Palace? It was something to do. It was awful. Corn displayed in ten thousand arrays and patterns. It was like looking at the largest ball of string in the world or collection of belly button fuzz. So much for diversion.
And then the trip started to get interesting. We began to enter the Black Hills. It was colorful and the landscape began to exhibit some hills. Hills are good after two days of flat, flat, flat. This is where all the cowboys had their hideouts and held famous gun fights. Based on the landscape, I think most cowboys died of boredom, heat, lack of water or killed by Indians.
At the end of day two we rolled into Rapid City. They held a parade on our behalf because we were some of the first famous tourists of the season. We anxiously anticipated touring Mount Rushmore the next day.
From Rapid City on, we mixed together sight-seeing, fun and modest travel to the next destination. Most of the daily driving marathons were over.
I remember thinking that the next time I go to Rapid City I was going to fly.
I haven't received any trip memories from you Grasshoppers so you are going to keep reading my version of the trip.
Day three would begin with Mount Rushmore. Seems to me that the National Lampoon Vacation began the same way.
Love,
Dad