The Trip: 1962
The Seattle World's Fair
June 8, 1962 - June 29, 1962

June 8, 1962 Friday
Bill informed us that he would be home at 4:05 today and he would appreciate our being ready. At 4:15 we were loaded and checking windows and saying good-bye.

We suppered in the car as we drove along and got to the Big Spring about ten. We slept hard!

June 9, 1962 Saturday
Off from Big Spring about 7:00 (not an early start). It had rained some during the night and the rows and ditches were full of water.

We stopped outside B.?. and had breakfast from the trunk of the car -- milk, canned fruit, bananas, cookies, vienna sausage, and bread. It was good!

This day was spent merely driving and reading to the children, who, incidentally, have been quite good so far on the trip. We read all of Mary Poppins and about half of Call it Courage.

We ate lunch from the back of the car near Vaughn, New Mexico. We had sandwiches made from SPAM with tomatoes, pickles, cheese, and potato chips. We had cookies for dessert. Billy and Bob spent their time catching lizards. They were real light colored lizards -- almost albinos. At one time Billy had three in hand.

We got to Gallup about six and checked in our motel. We couldn't swim; so we ate a fine supper and went to bed. It was cold this evening!

June 10, 1962 Sunday
Up and away from Gallup about 6:30. We all slept well last night and felt rested (and chilly) this morning. It's a beautiful day.

The driving today was quite warm from about 11 to 5, but then it started cooling off. The part of Utah we went through yesterday was interesting -- great red sandstone cliffs polished and formed into peculiar shapes by the wind.

This evening we stayed in a wonderful motel in Ogden -- with a warmed pool. We took advantage of it. Then we ate at the Old Mill Stream, a fine and inexpensive restaurant. 'Twas delicious!

We all slept well. TV'd a bit and read before zonking out.

June 11, 1962 Monday
Up and away at seven. Beautiful scenery and a delicious coolness are over all. Utah was beautiful and good to us -- southern Utah was a bit hot yesterday, but all's well now.

We were in Idaho mid-morning and had lunch in a pretty, wind swept park about one. We paralleled the Snake River then until about four in the afternoon when we came to Farewell Bend of the snake and left it about the same place the Oregon Trailers did in the eighteen hundreds. It was a beautiful, winding river. I would have hated having to ford it in a covered wagon, but I imagine the days spent traveling along it for those hardy pioneers were some of the more pleasant on their journey, too.

We are reading Carr's, Children of the Covered Wagon now, and it is quite a story. The two older ones, Billy and Barb, like it very much, but Bob hasn't listened much. Right now we are traveling on the same Oregon Trail that they took -- but where they made fifteen miles a day, we are making fifty an hour -- over just a little over a hundred years later. What will they be doing a hundred years from now ?

We got to our La Grade Motel about six, went swimming in the nice, big La Grande municipal heated pool, and went to bed early. We were weary!

June 12, 1962 Tuesday
Up late for a change, Nice! We ate a snack breakfast and then Bill went to get the trailer hitched. We (the children and I) took a hike, then returned to the motel to await Bill's return. I caught up on my writing and the kids played -- more or less quietly.

We got our trailer hitched, bought some groceries and were away. We stopped in a beautiful state park for lunch and adjusted our load, and then we were off for the Columbia River.

We stayed at Eagle Creek Camp for the night -- a high campground overlooking the Columbia River. It was fine. We hiked down to a fish hatchery after supper and looked around and then went to bed.

June 13, 1962 Wednesday
This morning when we got up it was raining! However, it is a strange rain -- we don't even get very wet when we stay under the trees. In fact, some of the ground doesn't even get damp.

Today has been our best day. We had a fine time -- rain or no. First we went to Bonneville Dam and saw the fish go up the ladder. We saw several salmon and suckers. Some were huge salmon. The kids got quite a thrill out of that (so did I).

When we left the dam, we took the famous Columbia River Scenic Highway and saw all sorts of water falls and beautiful gorges -- Horsetail Falls (everyone, it seems, sees horsetails in the falls; there are so many falls with that name), Oneonta Gorge, and Latourelle Falls, to name a few. Then we drove into Portland and shopped at the world's largest shopping center. It had escalators going down to the underground parking area. unique!

After we shopped (for groceries for a few hours) we went to Portland's beautiful municipal auditorium where floats for Sunday's Rose Festival Parade were being constructed. We could tell what they were going to be, but none of the flowers were on them yet.

Then we went to the world's largest log cabin. It was breath taking -- made from huge logs. The top towered a hundred feet over our heads, and the place was loaded with information about the lumber industry.

[Ed. note]
Bill and I read several years ago that this magnificent building burned to the ground! Do you remember all of the, 'No Smoking' signs around it ?
Nona Brooks

And last we went to the International testing gardens and saw twenty-four hundred varieties of rose -- some were gorgeous, other huge, others unusual in size or color -- it was quite a place!

And finally we left Portland who had been so good to us, and drove to Fort Stevens State Park for the night. A beautiful, fresh, clean park it was, too -- with hot showers, a welcome thing. Barbara and I washed our hair. After supper and hot showers, we all had strawberry short cake with immense strawberries that we bought in Portland.

June 14, 1962 Thursday
We got up about eight (at least, Barb and I did. Billy was up at five, Dad by seven or so). We had breakfast and then hiked down to the beach to see the wreck of the Peter Iredale, a ship. We played on the beach a while and then moved on. Our first stop was Ft. Clatsop on the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Then we took off again for Astoria and the Astor Column. It was set upon a hill, and there was a spiral staircase in it with over 165 steps to the top. Needless to say, we climbed it. We could see quite a view from the top. We saw the mouth of the Columbia River emptying into the Pacific. It was several miles wide. This is where the ferry boat is.

We then went back to Fort Stevens and the wreck on the Peter Iredale on the beach. The kids explored a bit longer and then we ate.

This afternoon we drove along the coast some more and visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory. That was a good tour! We saw cheddar cheese being made. We bought some ice cream and some cheese. Then we went on to our camp at Cape Lookout State Park.

We went down to the beach and were fascinated by the pieces of sand dollars we found. We vowed to return and try to find some whole ones. Billy, Barb, and I did each find one before we left the beach.

Then we had supper -- pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy, English peas, tossed salad, and fruit juice. Mmmmmgood. We were so hungry. Then at bed time Billy was the only one who wanted his strawberry shortcake. He had his; the rest of us voted to have it for breakfast. Slept like logs!

June 15, 1962 Friday
This morning we breakfasted and took off for the beach to hunt for sand dollars. The kids and I didn't find any, but Bill found 18! He walked further up the beach than we did -- due to his trying to find us. We were looking for him, too, but at a different place. Because of this, we didn't leave Cape Lookout until noon -- and we have to wash clothes today! Oh well, on vacation we don't necessarily stay on schedule.

We went into Tillamoak and washed several (8) loads of clothes and dried them. Then we went on to our Beverly Beach Camp. We unhitched the trailer and went into town, hoping to get to the post office in time to check General Delivery. We didn't make it, though. Daylight savings time fouled us up.

we came back to an agate beach and hunted a while, but the rain chased us off. When we got back to camp, Bill and the kids explored the beach while I got supper. We went to bed early -- after good hot showers. We were tired.

June 16, 1962 Saturday
Up and away from camp with all haste. Bill bought a paper, and it was full of what the Oregon boys did in the track meet, but nothing about the pole vault (much to Bill's utter disgust). We headed for Armitage State Park Campground.

We mearly parked the trailer, unhitched, and took off for Eugene. We had a rare good time in Eugene! bill saw Fred Hansen and three other tie for first in the pole vault at 15'3". the children and I saw a movie -- Big Red and Living Desert, and saw the town of Eugene. It was a good day.

After checking and rechecking all the places we had hoped to meet Tom, we had to call him because we had no word -- of course, he had written us in Newport yesterday, but we were too late Friday evening and too early this morning to get the mail.

Bill saw the NCAA Track Meet this afternoon and -- well, I repeated what I had just written, so I won't type it again.

We ate supper out of foil tonight at Armitage because there's no running water or electricity here. No matter, we managed quite well.

June 17, 1962 Sunday
The early start we had hoped for was blown all to pot. We got up early enough -- we just didn't move very fast! No matter -- we were off and rolling toward Portland by nine.

We got to Portland and down to the harbor just as the U.S. fleet closed all the ships they had opened for visitors for the lunch hour -- and a half. Sooo we lunched, too. Then we looked over the ships that were docked there. We saw a helicopter land on an ice breaker. Then we went aboard the ice breaker and had a conducted tour.

Then we started on for Seattle. We got into Washington, across that wide old Columbia again, about three thirty.

The highway all the way into Seattle is a fine Interstate four lane boulevard type. However, traffic on it backed up once in a while. We didn't do badly, though, and we were in our Crystal Springs Camp for supper. This camp is just a cow pasture mowed over lightly, but the people, Mr. and Mrs. Keech, were quite nice. Their dog, Sam, became a favorite of the children, too. We went to bed early.

June 18-19, 1961 Monday-Tuesday
These were our two days at the Seattle World's Fair, and it was quite an experience. First of all, the color, music, noise, people, food, unusualness are all terrific and the exhibits were quite wonderful. Some were breath taking, some unusual, some awesome, and some enchanting.

The first thing we did was to go up the famed Space Needle -- symbol of this Century 21 World's Fair. From the top of the Needle, you had a view of Seattle, Puget Sound, and Mt. Ranier that was worth going up for. The Needle is 600 ft. tall, and it has two stories -- one is the cafe where you can eat and sit and be revolved around, in an hour, all the way around the 360 degree circle. It is so beautifully built that a one-horse engine motor controls the mechanism! The other story was an observation area only -- it didn't revolve. It was fun, though. We went up and took some pictures.

Then we went over to the Century 21 building and went up in the "Bubbleator" to the 21st century. this was a huge plastic dome that went up into some aluminum cubes arranged in a peculiar pattern in the ceiling. When we got up there, we saw various pictures and heard a narration of things to come. We saw cities, homes, people of the future and how they would work and spend their time. It was beautifully done!

After that came a jumble of displays: Natural Gas, G.E., Bell Telephone, Ford, NASA, to name but a few. All were interesting and fun to go through. I won a call home at the Bell Telephone display and called mother. In the Ford building we took a trip to the moon that was very realistic and beautiful.

At meal times we visited one of the two places -- the Food Circus -- oh, it was amazing. There were foods from everywhere! So the first meal Bob had a hot dog and Billy and Barb had fried chicken. however, before we left, we had tried Mongolian food, Italian, Danish, and -- oh, we tried about all they had to offer.

of course, because of the children, we had to visit the Gayway. They rode such lovely things as the Hot Rods, A Trip to Mars, the Tipsy Barnyard, and the Rotor -- a cylindrical thing that whirled so fast, centrifical force held you up against the side and the floor dropped away from you! Bill and I tried this one, too -- once. The kids did it twice.

Of all the exhibits, the most outstanding was the United States Science Pavilion. This was an immense building set up in several sections so that from 500 to 700 people could go through at one time. We saw a beautiful movie that sometimes had one screen, sometimes six. Occasionally the screen would expend into one large one -- or an object would move from one screen to another. After that we saw all sorts of displays -- it's hard to describe many, but I'll stick some brochures in here that I picked up along the way.

There were times in the science exhibit when the walls and floor moved and when pictures would appear out of the walls and when illusions were used.

There was one part of the exhibit that was just for children 8-18 -- no adults were allowed. The kids could do some experiments themselves.

NASA had a fine science demonstration, too, and we saw "friendship ?", a colored film of Glenn's flight into space.

I'm sure I haven't told all we did and saw -- Berlin Circus and the water skiing are two things, but all in all, it was quite exciting and interesting -- but my poor aching feet!

June 20, 1962 Wednesday
This morning we slept until ten. It was delicious sleep -- we were up until midnight last night. We decided last night to finish the fair; so we stayed until after ten doing the last things we wanted to get done. This morning (what was left of it) we ate, shopped, serviced the car, and took off. We rode a ferry across Puget Sound and took a toll bridge across something else and ended up at the beautiful Olympic Peninsula. What scenery!

Our first night we stayed at Sequim Bay State Park, and had a great campsite -- with hookups for electricity and running water. This will be our last modern camp for a while, Bill says. We also got a hot shower -- four minutes for $.10. Barbara and I had ours for $.10. but it took the boys $.30. Do you suppose they were dirtier -- or are we ?

We had a good supper of wieners, spaghetti, corn, peas, and vanilla pudding with a dollup of concord grape jelly in the middle. It tasted good -- and the ten wieners were eaten with no trouble at all. We certainly do enjoy food. Everything tastes so good. We've enjoyed the peaches, too. However, we're really too early for most of the fruit -- the cherries, apricots, and plums are still too high.

We have seen people from all over the united States on this trip -- and many folks from foreign countries, too. It has been quite an experience.

June 21, 1962 Thursday
Today we left our Sequim Bay camp about ten and drove to the Olympic National Park Headquarters. We talked to the ranger about where we should spend our three or four nights in the park. He suggested Crescent Bay, a rain forest, and along the beach. We'll probably do those three. Then we unhitched the trailer in the parking lot, left it, and drove up to Hurricane Ridge. We were in snow before long -- much to the delight of the kids. At the dead end road there was a trail going to Hurricane Hill 1.5 miles; so Bill and the youngsters took it. That is what they are doing now while I catch up on the journal here. This is a delightful spot. huge snow capped mountains seem to surround me, and the silence is so enticing I have to stop and listen to it occasionally. Only once in a while does a car drive up and break the solitude. I resent their intrusion -- while recognizing their complete right to be here, too. When no one's around, you feel as if this is complete virgin territory for yourself alone.

We ate a picnic lunch up high with that spectacular view of the whole Olympic Range; then we came down, hooked up the trailer, and moved to our night's camp at the Crescent Lake -- billed as "one of America's most beautiful lakes", and it certainly was. We roamed around the lake and had a fine supper of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and strawberry short cake with (slightly melted) ice cream! And so to bed...

June 22, 1962 Friday
We didn't rush this morning -- just had a leisurely breakfast and then hooked up and took off for a rain forest visit. The rain forest we chose was up the Hoh River -- a beautiful drive nineteen miles back in the interior of the Olympic Park. We found us a fine spot in the trailer area, visited the Hoh River, and threw a few stones, and then we took a nature trail into the rain forest. This one was a marked trail with notes to follow and read as you walked along. Bill read to us as we hiked the trail. It was great. For one thing, we had a lovely bright day to see a rain forest, and the sun filtered through the giant umbrella of trees only in spots -- but those spots were lovely patches of yellow. The trees towered 100 to 300 feet over us! in places the light coming through gave everything a yellow-green haze. There was one place on the trail called the hall of moss -- and it certainly fit its name.

When we got back from our hike, hot and tired, we ate lunch and then decided to go to the beach to spend the night. This met with the approval of the children, so off we went. We found a spot to camp at the beach in among the tall trees (yes, and still close to the beach) and went for a hike on Kalaloch Beach. We found all sorts of interesting stones, shells, and objects -- lots of dead crabs and even a dead seal. We had pointed out to us a whale about 100 yards off shore, too. All we actually saw of him was his plume when he breathed and a bit of his back when he rolled.

We hiked until we were too cold to feel and came home. We cooked in foil tonight -- had bacon, wieners, potatoes, onions, carrots, and beans all wrapped together. Delicious.

Billy and Barby braved the beach at 8:30 (the sun was still up) and heard the ranger talk on inter tidal animals. They enjoyed it. Bill, Bob, and I bathed, read, and enjoyed the warmth of the trailer.

June 23, 1962 Saturday
Billy and Barby were up and on the beach early -- we other three slept a little longer.

Then we battened down the hatches and took off on a long 190 mile hop to Mt. Rainier.

We read a lot to the kids today -- Wind in the Willows and All on a Mountain Day. The mountain in the book is Mt. Rainier.

Our first view of Rainier was beautiful -- it looked quite unreal and beautiful. It's covered with snow and is so beautiful. From a distance it blends in with the clouds and is hard to distinguish.

We got to the Longmire Camp ground and were setup by 5:30. We walked to the Inn and looked over the museum. We saw a very friendly raccoon.

This evening after supper Billy, Barb, and Bill went to the naturalist talk while Bob and I cleaned up the supper dishes.

June 24, 1962 Sunday
We got up this morning and went to the 8:00 church service. The fellow conducting the service is a seminary student -- Methodist -- from Mobile, Alabama. He was very good.

Then we fixed a picnic lunch and started for "the mountain". The higher camp grounds are still closed due to high snows, but we hope to hike up to the -- and maybe slide a bit.

We went up to Paradise, and, sure enough, there were very deep snows -- drifts four and five feet deep, snow a couple of feet deep. We found a fine place to slide behind Paradise Inn -- at least, we thought it was fine, but it wasn't steep enough.

Then we started looking for snow to take back with us and we found a delightful place to slide. we used the dishpan -- and wore a hole in it! So, now it is good only for sliding.

We didn't find a good place to eat; so we came back to the trailer and ate at our own little outdoor table.

in the afternoon we hitched up the trailer and moved to the Channapecosh Campground -- a much prettier camp.

We hiked along a river and looked over the camp, later we ate supper, again, outside -- and then the kids and Bill went to a campfire, and I had a wonderful bath and read until I got so sleepy I couldn't take it and went to bed (9:30, I believe). Bill and the children came in about ten and went to bed -- OK, you night owls!

Bob Brooks

We returned to camp about two and lolled around the rest of the day. About five it started raining and rained until bed time; so there was no campfire talk. I read to the kids -- Wind in the Willows and All on a Mountain Day. We thought that the latter was about Rainier, but it is about the Rockies. No matter, it fits this locale perfectly, too -- snowshoe rabbits, deer, marmots, ouzels, etc.

June 26, 1962 Tuesday
We wanted to get an early start because, last night, we voted to head for home! however, it was 9:15 before we got away. We're just lazy.

However, we made it to Emigrant Springs Campground in plenty of time to explore a bit and have fun before supper -- our last supper in our trailer.

We went to bed fairly early; so I read to the kids for a while. I finished Mountain, which they all enjoyed, and then I read about three more chapters of Wind. We got Mr. Toad out of jail and part of the way back home. They are enjoying the book -- having someone else read it to them is good. I don't believe they would enjoy trying to read it themselves -- or would bother to.

Slept cold tonight.

June 27, 1962 Wednesday
Bill got up at 4:15, and after much urging, he got us out of bed and on our feet. I fixed us a big breakfast; then we finished packing the car and cleaning the trailer and were away. It took time, though, and it was 8:30 before we were back in the La Grande and unhitching our little white "tail".

This has been our best trailer yet, and we really enjoyed it! It was fancier and nicer in every respect. Pulled well, too.

Today was merely an old grueling drive-day. We drove to Ogden, Utah, for the night. we got there so late, though, that we had a bit of motel trouble. we did, however, get one with a pool and two separate (and separated) rooms. We ended up putting Bill and Billy in one and Bob, Barb, and me in another. We swam, ate a good fried chicken supper, and went to bed.

June 28, 1962 Thursday
This morning we got up and bid ourselves away to Timpanagos Cave National Monument out from Salt Lake and, suckers that we were, we hiked the mile and a half up (sometimes straight up) to the cave. It was a rough hike. I'm going to be sore.

The cave was beautiful and quite cold (42 degrees). We enjoyed going through it, but the hike back and forth was rough. I don't believe it was worth it.

We didn't eat lunch until about 2:30; but that was fine as we didn't get to Moab, find a place, and settle for a swim until 7:30. That made our 8:30 supper pretty late.

Our motel was nice, but they turned off the air conditioner about midnight and the room became very hot. We didn't sleep well.

June 29, 1963 Friday
This morning after breakfast we drove to Arches National Monument and hiked around and took a few pictures. It was beautiful, and we enjoyed it. The sandstone cliffs here were beautiful, unusual, and fascinating. The Entrada Sandstone is bright red, and the Navajo Sandstone is light colored. The arches were in the Entrada-type.

Then we started for Albuquerque where we planned to spend the night. Coming up, this was the portion of the trip that was the hottest. Today, at least up to 10:30, the weather was cool -- a few showers preceded us.

And here the journal ends.

Books Read:

• Call it Courage, Sperry, Armstrong
  
• Mary Poppins, Travers, P.L.
• Children of the Covered Wagon, Carr, Mary Jane
• The Wind in the Willows, Grahame, Kenneth
• All on a Mountain Day, Fisher, Aileen

1962	Seattle World's Fair
	Our Trailer
	Seatle World's Fair
	Seatle World's Fair
	Arches Nationa Park
	Postcard from the trip.