Almost 40 years ago...

[Mytdawg]

My father bought 10 acres and put an old travel trailer on it.  It's seen better days now but here's a picture (if this posts right) of his 1960 Yellowstone travel trailer from the mid 1970's.  We also have a 1970 FAN Style Liner travel trailer and a 1972 Marlette mobile home on the property now and the property encompasses about 27 acres.  Dad passed away rather abruptly last year.  About 6 weeks from diagnosis to death.  Now the old trailer empire is mine.  We're just starting to get back up there to open it all up right now.  It's about 200 miles to the north.  This trailer is mostly just a storage shed now.  Time has not been kind to the old girl.  It's almost Father's day, may as well tell the story.




I tried to get the shot from roughly the same angle.  This is the original trailer as of a couple years ago.



A summer shot of the Yellowstone.  Note the woods that didn't used to be there on that hill.  My father planted over 10,000 trees.



I'll dig up some pictures of the other ones and post them in this thread over time, if it's alright with Mark.  Thanks for everything dad.  We had almost 4 decades of camping and off-roading and really irresponsible partying by myself and other family members.  We will always be grateful.



Thanks for indulging me the memories.  It's just not the same without him patrolling with his dogs and giving us crap for the piles of beer cans piled up in front of the Beer Bear.  He was a very cool old curmudgeon.  Last couple weeks of driving up there and trying to figure things out has been kinda rough.

[M & J]

Well said sir. Well done.

[Mytdawg]

Well said sir. Well done.

Thank you, I tried to do right by him.  And I didn't want to close everything up before he died so I cut it a little close on getting the mobile home winterized.  On top of that he gave me some generic Morphine fueled instructions for getting water out of the system and I didn't quite get it right.  Had to winterize it mid November in northern Michigan, that's cutting it close.  Took me 2 weeks to figure out the well pump was leaking out the washer hoses this spring...  sigh.   D:oH!   Never start up the well, think everything is okay and drive away for a pay period.  Lesson learned.

[Espiritus]

I hope my children write as touching a mini-memorial to me. . .my mother passed in September of last year, and rare is the day that I don't think of her fishing and camping. . .and taking MY children fishing and camping.

Those memories stay longer than the presents that she bought.

God speed to those who've gone before us.

[Mytdawg]

I'm quite pleased you enjoyed it and thank you for the sentiments.  I haven't posted a lot here but I'm getting closer to my first "real" motorhome experience.  The Winnie awaits and I'm going to try to get her sorted out soon so we can use that to drive to the property with the kids and dogs.  I have 3 grandchildren and there's a couple kids from her previous marriages.  Plus a Great Dane and a Newfoundland.  I'm sure it will be nice and peaceful...   :)rotflmao

Here's one of me and HuckleBear on dad's porch.  Technically he's a Newfrador.  Or a NewfoundLab.

[JDxeper]

A good read, thank you!

[Oz]

This is what it's all about - the memories and the legacies.

[maxximuss]

Its sure is Mark. First reason I got us a RV late last year. Make memories with the family, Mytdawg thank you for sharing that with us.

[Stripe]

Time with my children, the driving force behind my going back to NY...


Fredric

[Mytdawg]

I'm really glad people enjoyed it.  I enjoyed writing it.  Getting ready to go back up there Saturday morning.  Just me, The Ol' Lady and the dogs.  And no hot water because we still have to fix the washer hoses.  But I'm partying this weekend, not crawling around under a damn mobile home.  That will be next week when I go back up there with my brother (not biological, he was government issued  ).  Back to the basics.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

My Dad passed in 92, and by then was my best friend.  There isn't a day that passes that I don't think about him and smile.  He was an awesome man, a super intellectual genius (several degrees, lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, and even taught at MIT), and the most down to earth fellow with a sharp and sometimes vulgar sense of humor that you could have ever met...and kind and warm, when he wasn't acting grumpy...lol!  He also passed unexpectedly...about 6 weeks from diagnosis to the great beyond, and he was only 55. 


Thanks for writing about your Dad so fondly.  You'll always miss him, the pain will always be there, but the smiles will come more and more as the years pass.


Kev

[maxximuss]

My wife has lost both her parents in their 50's little over 10 years ago I was able to enjoy a short time getting to know them and loved them just like my own parents. Yes you do miss them and there are sad days, more so for my wife. But there are happy memories like when we use to go up to their property they had to go camping on. They did get to realize their dream building a house on the land they use to spend all their vacation time camping on. We lost her mom to cancer and few years later lost her dad to loneliness missing his wife, drinking helped with this. Too young to go as far as I'm concerned, in their 50's. I'm 44 now and I feel like life is just starting to go to the next level of enjoyment in my life. It is those memories and the ones yet to make that are important in ones life. Reflecting on them and sharing them with others (especially with those who appreciate them) is a way of showing they are still close in our hearts and wont be forgotten. There is not a day for me, and I am sure, for my wife, that goes by that we don't think they are watching over us. So when I read about ones loss and his story and shared memories, it brings back those I hold dear to me as well and have lost, yet not forgotten. They live again in our stories.