Have you ever heard an advertisement that really hits home with you and you can imagine how great it will be if you answer the ad? Then to only be disappointed when the ad does not meet your expectations.
I remember trips across country with my parents. My sister Norma and I were somewhere around 9 or 10 years old during our first trip. My parents had good friends in Grand Rapids, Michigan and we would often spend our vacations visiting with them. We were living in Arcadia, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.
This would have been in the mid 1950s and we travelled in our 1951 Nash. It was a 4 door and the car reminded me of an upside down bathtub.
As we travelled Route 66 we would see billboard advertisements for “Trading Posts”. My dad would be enticed by these ads for unusual sights. I remember one billboard advertising baby rattlers. We were excited to see rattlesnakes up close so we stopped and found a enclosure containing baby rattles not rattlesnakes. But my dad was not dissuaded. I believe we stopped at every trading post on Route 66, of which there were many.
How many of you in your cross country drives or while driving through South Dakota remember Wall Drugs. The first billboards started showing up over 100 miles away. Each billboard attempted to entice you to stop. Who could not give in to “Free Ice Water” or the enticement of Wall Drug having everything one would ever need. Each billboard gave more information including the distance one had to travel to arrive.
Fast forward to today. My wife Diann and I are living in Blue Springs, Missouri. That’s about a 20 minute drive east of Kansas City. We see an ad that is about the Amtrak River Runner. It tells us that it is a route from Kansas City to St. Louis, Missouri. The Amtrak train route runs along the Missouri River all the way to St. Louis and back. Based upon the advertisement and our imagining the trip along the river, we booked passage on the Amtrak River Runner.
We boarded the train on the appointed day ready to see the beauty of the Missouri River. The train began its journey and we were awaiting the beauty we expected. Well there was no dome car and the windows on the train were about mid-level on each of the train cars. There were bushes that lined almost the entire route and nothing beyond these bushes could be seen. We eventually reached the Missouri River. The train crossed the river and that was the last we saw of any river.
Upon reaching the St. Louis Union Station it began to rain. Not just a drizzle but a full-out cloud burst. We had no umbrella and as we departed the train had to go some distance to be under any kind of cover. Needless to say, by the time we reached any cover we were totally drenched. We managed to arrange transportation to our hotel but arrived there looking like two drowned rats. But it was fun and that’s what life is all about.
Inspite of the trip not measuring up to the advertisement, Diann and I had a wonderful time together both on the train and for the remainder of our stay and trip back home.
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