My Dads vacation.

The only vacation I remember my Dad taking was in 1961. We lived in alberta ,Virginia. In a one story house with a attic bedroom. I was eleven at the time. Me and my six brothers and sisters had a lot of fun while living there. My Mom and Dad would have friends overon the weekend and they would play and Sing country music . Us kids really had fun.We would even sing along sometimes. My dad was from West Virginia . My mom was from North Carolinia. Well one summer My Dad decided to pack up his old 52 chevy pickup.  With food  and blankets He had built a wooden camper box for it. So then he added a bunch of kids.We went through the blue ridge mountians . I remember we stopped at a service station . Oh .for those of you that don't know what that is. It is a place where someone pumps your gas and cleans your windsheild. Sometimes they even put free air in your tires. Anyway ,The owner had a brown bear in a large cage. The guys name was esau. to us it sounded like esaw.lol. any way . We really got excited about his bear. My Mom and Dad were in the front of the truck with the baby and  the rest of us kids were in the back. All six of us. We visited my Mom aunt and Uncle first. They owned half a mountian in North Carolina . They had no electricity and a water well where you had to pump it your self. They listened to a radio with a model T battery. They had a saw mill that ran off of an old truck. The belt that ran the saw was powered by the rear wheel of the truck. This is the place where I road my first Hog. They were big ones too. We could always find some way to have fun. We spent a couple of nights with them. We slept on feather beds. After ridding in the back of that truck . We slept like babies. Then it was off to tennessee to visit a friend my Dad grew up with. They used to make whats called white lighting . My dad was fourteen at the time. Well we drove up to the mans house . My Dad said to stay in the truck. He walked up to the front porch and knocked on the door. Out comes a lady with a shot gun. Points it at my Dad and ask who he was. My Dad explained who he was and that he wanted to visit his old friend. Once he explained she said come on in.She didn't seem to surprised about our big family. She even cooked us something to eat. Real friendly people . After a while her husband . My Dads friend came home. I remember him well because I saw a pistol in his back pocket. We were not used to having guns around. Him and My Dad visited for quite a while. That night we slept in the mans barn. I didn't sleep too well  because the barn was beside the dynamite shed. I was afraid we would all be blown up. Hey. I was eleven remember. We drove by a big river. My Dad said he used to go there and cut pieces of lead out of there with a hacthet. I don't remember much about the names of the places .But we sure had a lot of fun on Dad's only vacation. One day I would love to travel the same places we traveled .I bet the bears gone by now. This is one vacation I'll always remember.