Fathers Day

Another Fathers Day is upon us and my brother brought back a memory of Dad through a status comment he left on Facebook yesterday.  He has retired from years of driving truck and has a brand new Ford pickup and a trailer that he bought a few years back and he is off Monday to enjoy some downtime at Alta Lake located in central Washington just north of Chelan.

I don't rightly remember how old I was but it was after I had gotten my drivers permit and Dad who was a truck driver was trying to teach me how to drive.  We had a 1955 Chevy three speed on the column with a 235 cu in motor.  It was baby blue with very little trim.  In fact, Chevrolet made the 150 as a fleet vehicle.  Here is a picture of one of these vehicles.  Unfortunately I could not find one with the stock wheels as ours had but the color is right.

Anyway it was the only trip that I recall that Dad and I took alone when I was a kid.  I don't recall why mom or my brother didn't go.  We drove around Lake Chelan and Lake Alta on the way to the northern tip of the lake to a beautiful state park.  We had a sweet camping spot within easy walking distance to the lake.  After setting up we were visited by the ranger who informed us that the lake had an issue with  something called swimmers itch and we should stay out of the lake.  I don't remember the details but I don't believe we stayed very long.  We had a good time, but we had come to fish and there wasn't going to be much of that in an infected lake.

I miss my Dad.  I wish that we had been closer.  He was a tough person to live with in a sometimes difficult situation but he was raised to do the right thing and he toiled for years to provide for our family.  I suspect we might have been closer had it not been for his occupation.  RIP