Roadtripping to Disneyland Over and Over Again

In front of the Matterhorn, in Disneyland, stands Maxine & Miss McP, with Big Ed in the middle. This visit to Disneyland occurred sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Disneyland has been the destination of more of my Roadtrips than any other place.

I was 13 on the best family vacation ever, when I went to Disneyland for the first time. At that point in time the pay one price and go on any ride you want, as often as you want, method had not been invented.

Instead, upon entry, you got a booklet type thing with tickets. An "A" ticket got you a ride on the less popular attractions, with the tickets ascending from "A" to "E" with the "E" tickets getting you on the best attractions like the Matterhorn and Pirates of the Caribbean.

When we were kids we'd pace ourselves with the tickets. I remember mom and dad buying us a booklet of just "E" tickets when we ran out.

There were 2 family trips to Disneyland when I was a kid. The week I graduated from high school I took off for California and Disneyland and Tijuana. The years that followed, for maybe 2 decades, saw a trip to California about once a year.

The last time I went to Disneyland was Christmas of 1995. That is a long time ago. Since then new rides have opened, like the Indiana Jones Adventure. And Disney California has opened in what was the parking lot the last time I visited Disneyland.

I came close to a visit to Disneyland over Christmas week of 2000. I'd been up in Washington, heading to Texas, with a visit to my mom and dad in Yuma, Arizona, on the way. The route to Yuma went through the eastern edge of the Los Angeles metro zone, hence within easy distance of Disneyland. But, I resisted the temptation and had a fun Christmas with mom and dad in Yuma.

Roadtripping History

Blogging about Roadtripping has me looking at old photos and thinking about Roadtrips over the span of decades. Like the Roadtrip in the picture. That is at Yellowstone National Park. In my now antique 65 Mustang Fastback.

That Mustang went on a lot of Roadtrips. It always managed to add to the adventure by having a mechanical problem at interesting times. Like once the clutch started slipping while I was driving up the hill to go down Lombard Street in San Fransisco. On another Roadtrip, in the same town, the Mustang overheated on the Oakland Bay Bridge. I had to stop on the bridge to cool it down and add water.

The best Mustang breakdown took place in Hollywood after watching a Laverne & Shirley taping at Paramount Studios. About 2 miles from the studio, that same clutch, that vexed me on Lombard Street, went in to total malfunction mode, right by a full service gas station. I coasted to a stop and waited til morning for the gas station to open. They were able to get it fixed by afternoon. That made for a day of wandering around Hollywood.

I'd learned that wandering around Hollywood was a fun thing to do, due to a car malfunction, years before, when I was 13, while on a family Roadtrip to Disneyland, the car had a problem while driving in Hollywood. So, my dad had it worked on at a gas station. Maybe it was the same one where I had my car worked on years later.

It was on the family Roadtrips, as a kid, that I learned the joy of Roadtripping. My mom and dad always made it totally anxiety free. We'd have a mechanical problem and it'd just become part of the trip. I remember our family trip to Yellowstone, a 64 Chevy Impala pulling an Arrowhead trailer. That Impala overheated going up super steep Deadman's Pass in northeast Oregon. It was a two-lane road then. Now it's Interstate 84 and it's still a steep climb and downhill ride.

On our first family Roadtrip to Disneyland we were only about 25 miles from home when the trailer axle broke. Did this end the trip? No. My dad took off the axle, found a guy to fix it in a town down the road a bit. It took a couple hours. My dad got the axle back on the trailer and we were back on our way. I can still remember this so clearly, back on the road and mom handing us homemade potato rolls with ham.

I think I'll quit blogging about Roadtripping right now and give my mom a call.