The Trip

Very similar to our 1962 GMC pickup

I have to back up here to tell a short story about how we got to Odessa in the first place.  I sure wish I had a picture of the actual pickup that we arrived in.  It was early 1980 and we were living in Riverside, California. We had one vehicle --- a 1962 GMC pickup.  It was so ugly!  It was a very similar color of green to the above picture---although it was a primer finish.  Us kids hated that truck!  When, after a few months in Riverside, my parents decided to leave California, we loaded up the six of us into this truck and headed east.  Whatever could not fit for the trip, either got left behind or got put into storage.  As you can see, this is a single cab truck.  The cab was reserved for my parents and the dog.  That left a limited amount of space in the bed of the truck for my parents to pack us four kids in.  We also had to share that space with a Lincoln welder and assorted pots, pans, blankets, clothing and other necessities.  Thinking back, I am reminded of the tent situation I wrote about earlier and how crazy it all seems now, but back then, we just did what we had to do.  And we had to get on the road.  So that's how we made that trip.  We were actually on our way to Louisiana and about halfway there my dad called a friend and learned that Odessa was booming.  So Odessa is where we ended up.  We drove from Riverside, California to Odessa, Texas (1037 miles according to Google) with us four kids packed into the back of that truck.  I guess the fact that it was early spring and we traveled mainly at night helped it to be bearable, but I still shake my head when I think of that journey.  What's even more amazing is that I remember arriving in Odessa and looking around and no one even gave us a second glance.  People were arriving there in droves and they were getting there in every way and shape possible, so we probably had it good compared to many others......