Idaho 1971

I was eleven years old and we were all going to Idaho.  Momma, Daddy, us, and Grandma and Granpa Garcia.  Daddy had a white ford pickup with a huge, I mean huge camper shell.  It hung over the top and the back end.  Kind of scary when you think of it now, but their wasn't so many road restrictions regarding weight, seatbelts, or even carrying people in the back.  Well the day comes and according to Aunt Alex we should'nt hit any snow, it was the first week of October and they didn't expect snow for a couple of weeks.  So we leave, Daddy driving, momma in the center and Grandma passenger.  Granpa got in the back with the rest of us and of course me and badoll get carsick, so a couple of hours out were throwing up, grandpa just shaking his head.  But daddy pulls over, we throw-up, then keep going.  We would eventually fall asleep and stop the throwing up.  We finally get to Walla Walla, Washington but we were lost, suppose to have gone to Walla, Washington.  Who names their towns this?  Anyway, the snow that wasn't suppose to happen, "it was snowing."  We stayed the night in Washington, we get to the hotel and it was for daddy and momma ONLY.  The rest of us ran in, while he waved us in one at a time from the top stairs.  We'd better run up fast too, or we'd get the look.  Except grandma, grandpa - I don't remember if they got their own room or snuck in too, but we were tired and knocked out quick.  Early next morning we leave again,  I think me and badoll were still yellow or greeen from all the car sickness but we were still excited.  It was now snowing nonstop.  Ten hours later we finally make it to Bonners Ferry, Idaho.  Man ....it took us almost 20+ hours to get there.  They lived 20 miles from the Canadian/British Columbia Victoria Islands.  When we drove up to their house, it was a two story white wood house, with a full-size basement and the backdoor faced the highway.  They owned land around the house and across the highway.  You couldn't even see the closest house around them.  No near next door neighbor.  They have to take the bus to school.  We coudn't even conceptulize this.  Who takes the bus? Don't we all walk to school? and then the cousins run outside BAREFOOT in the snow.  We come from Tulare where the summers are 115+ and the winters maybe 35 and we're sitting here in 20 below temps freezing.  Crazy.