Rolling Luggage On A Leash

Before our children were born, my husband and I traveled from the province of Alberta in Canada through the Western States all the way down to the border region of the USA and Mexico. This was a delayed honeymoon – delayed, because we had to wait until we could afford to buy a car, a Volkswagen Beetle, to be precise. And yes, you guessed it, we packed some sleeping bags, a camp stove, a cooler and stuffed the tent under the hood, since the engine was in the back, remember? We could not have afforded to spend every night in a motel. We still had no rolling carry on luggage, but in anticipation of an eventual visit back to Germany, we did own our first lightweight airline suitcase.

We enjoyed that trip immensely, and to this day I love road trips. It was May 1960. Chestnut trees were blooming in Salt Lake City. We knew chestnut trees from Germany, but had not really missed them in Alberta until seeing them again in Utah. Then we missed them!

Rolling carry on luggage would have been very handy the odd evening when we chose to stay in a hotel and only needed a change of underwear and our toiletries to take to our room. Instead we used the bag our oranges had come in – the ones we had to eat or else leave behind before being able to cross into Nevada.

Wedding chapels in Las Vegas were quaint, little structures, but quite prominent with the help of neon lights. I must admit, they did not impress us much. We observed people move into the big hotel/casinos, some of them pulling their rolling airline luggage on a leash. Of course, we did not dare enter. We had little extra money, and the thought of just walking through the casinos never even occurred to us.
Hoover Dam! – Now, that was something!

In San Diego we spent days in Balboa Park. We pitched our tent right on the beach and, rather than obtaining a healthy tan, got badly sunburned while relaxing in the shade. A wonderful couple – locals from La Jolla – had their camper on the same beach and acted as our medics. Thank you Blanca and Matt! May you always be blessed with rolling luggage.