FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA January 24, 2004 We continued driving west, until we finally stopped for the night at Price, Utah, at the nice Mission Bell Motel. It was a unique experience for all of us when we ate supper at a Chinese-American restaurant. None of us had ever tasted Chinese food before. But what I recall most of all about that experience wasn't the food, it was the ice-cold glass of the most delicious water I had ever tasted before! We had been traveling over the dry desert and were drinking out of our thermos jug for days it seemed and it was heavenly to drink water that was ice-cold and delicious! July 5, 1951. I believe that we crossed the Colorado River on the 5th and traveled on to Salt Lake City, Utah, and spent a moment at lunchtime to allow Ric and my brother Johnny to have a swim in the glorious Moroni(?) pool of mineral water. Back on the road again we crossed the border into Idaho. We stopped at a motel in Twin Falls, Idaho, for the night and we enjoyed shopping for groceries so that we could fix dinner in our kitchenette in the motel. It was a treat. July 6, 1951. After fixing our breakfast in our kitchenette the next morning we went out once again. We stopped for lunch in Boise, Idaho, and then crossed the Snake River into Oregon. The scenery along the Snake River Valley was so beautiful. The scenery changed dramatically as we approached the state of Washington. We wondered at the mountains from our viewpoint in the Umadilla Indian Reservation, Oregon. The mountains were so beautiful, covered with pine trees and the sight of the La Grande River north of La Grande, Oregon, was equally as beautiful. We passed through the Immigrant Springs State Park and continued to cross the rolling mountains of Oregon. When we crossed the Columbia River into the state of Washington we were totally surprised with the sight of the vast wheat fields and more wheat fields in all directions! We never thought of wheat growing in Washington! We stopped at Conell, Washington, and ate our supper at the "Coffee Cup." We were all excited because we knew that our next day's trip would take us into Spokane, Washington, our destination. We were SO CLOSE! July 7, 1951. The next day's trip continued to contain all sorts of sights. It was at that time that we realized why Washington was known as the "Evergreen State." The pine trees were everywhere. As I stated in my trip journal after I had mentioned that we were shortly approaching our "new home," I added, "Beautiful scenery all the way across!! I wouldn't have missed it for the world!" We rolled into Spokane at 12:10 P.M. on the 7th and Daddy was there to greet us! We hadn't seen him for months and we had so much to tell him about our trip! So there you have my story "From Sea to Shining Sea!" Over the period of just nine days we experienced the glory of "America the Beautiful" However, we didn't realize at the time that we were about to experience the other half of America the Beautiful when a year later we moved to Memphis, TN, by way of down through California, across Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and then into Tennessee. That was another experience totally different from our first one. Hopefully I can write down that experience also. vee