Nicky's Notes: Day 16 of Ride West

Many of my readers (I'm being generous to myself using plural) are not old enough to have used a View Master. If you fall into that category, you can get more info on wikipedia. Developed by a fellow pharmacist, this device would allow you to view 3d images on a small reel, that you would click through on the device.

Growing up when I did, we were limited as to where we could see pictures of far away places; usually either the encyclopedia ( who still has those) or other books, or in my case a View Master. I recall sitting in my room and looking at 3d images of all of the national parks of the West. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rocky Mountains, Zion, Arches, and others. Of all those, the only one I was able to see growing up was Yellowstone. The others remained simply visions in my head, until this week.

I will digress here and share a memory of Yellowstone. For many summers growing up, we would take a two week vacation to Colorado. Usually with an aunt and uncle or a couple that were my parent's close friends, the Fox's. On this trip to Colorado, we also went up to Wyoming to visit Yellowstone. We were traveling in two cars, with my uncle Hobert and aunt Clare and their daughter in one car, and our family in another. My uncle Hobert was known as the prankster and he was definitely my favorite uncle. He owned horses, drank beer, and had a color TV. They lived in Ft Worth, on a large piece of land in River Oaks. He had a barn and horses, and for several summers I would get to spend a week with them. In my mind he was the greatest.

For this trip, he was driving a 1957 Chevy four door. Somewhere in Wyoming, he decided to see how fast that car would go (I was riding with him). At about the same time, he saw a train in the distance that would cross the highway in front of us, and he said that we would have plenty of time to beat it. As he continued to speed up, it appeared we would have plenty of room to spare. However, in Wyoming, they had something that he was not familiar with in Texas, the cross arms that lowered when a train was approaching. Just as we were approaching the crossing with plenty of room, the cross arms began to lower, much to his surprise. I recall a few cuss words, a squeal of brakes, and a sharp right turn that sent us into an empty field. My parents were in the car behind us, panicked I'm sure. All was OK, except something was broken with the suspension, and he traded that car away as soon as we got back to Texas. And, my parents would not let me ride with him again.

Having the opportunity to visit the other parks I recall from the View Master this week, drink beer, and ride an Iron Horse would make my uncle Hobert proud, I'm sure.