The Great Missouri Road Trip

I think it was 1976. My brother Bob and I had started a pop can collection in the basement, the summer Olympics were being hosted in Montreal, Canada and I had discovered Mark Twain. I quote him all the time, so I have to take a moment and throw a few down then we can get on with the story.

• The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
• Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
• Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love Truly. Laugh uncontrollably. Never regret anything that makes you smile. – Mark Twain

So I was surprised to learn my parents wanted to take a road trip to Missouri, Hannibal, Missouri. Tom Sawyer territory! I dove into my books to learn everything I could about where we were going.

McDonald’s was running an Olympic promotion that summer. If you held a ticket that matched a gold, silver or bronze winner at the games you could get fries, a drink or a sandwich. My good friend across the street, Buddy, worked at McDonald’s and had a stack of winning tickets. He simply handed them off to me for the road trip. Don’t judge my morals, just know I ate a lot of Big Macs that summer.

With the trunk stuffed and four children in the back seat, my parents climbed in to start our summer road trip. My mother looked back to see that everything was okay. I could feel that Cold-God-fearing left shoe at her easy access should we not behave ourselves. We all promised that we would try.

So, we drove through Indiana, Illinois and on to Missouri, stopping at almost every highway rest stop along the way. Like I said, Bob and I were collecting pop cans and highway rest stops were a goldmine for rare pop cans that have traveled halfway across the United States. So, one of the Hemphill children would have half of their body inside a garbage can in search. We were a classy bunch!

I think I had a Big Mac for lunch and dinner more times than I like to admit, but that pile of tickets was tall and it helped finance this adventure.

Arriving in Hannibal was exciting. I had not traveled much in my short 14 years on earth and I was overwhelmed with emotion. Besides, Bob and I had amassed a sizeable collection of rare cans in the last couple of days of driving.

Take a look at the above image. If you collected 7-Up soda cans in 1976 and had one can for each of the 50 United States, you could stack them like this and turn them around to see Uncle Sam. Yeah, we did that too.

After seven days on the road, in rest stop garbage cans and eating a mountain of Big Macs, we headed for home. I was a young lad learning a bit about America. My family had a great time and we decided to do a few more trips. These memories are old and priceless. Travel is important for the soul.

---

To get email notifications when I publish new stories, just enter your email address below, click “Subscribe” and follow the instructions. Then click Subscribe to make sure you have completed the process.