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A Lee Enterprises, Incorporated newspaper. Majority shareholder: David Hoffmann, Hoffmann Media Group.

Father's Day stories: Taking trips with Dad

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For Father's Day, we asked readers to share their stories about taking trips with their dads. Here are those stories:

So glad children have their dad

In 1969, my father died of cancer at age 36. I was 5 years old. My three older brothers and I were fortunate enough (and still are) to have an amazing mother who picked up the parenting slack like the champion she is. Our childhoods were full and rich, despite not having our extraordinary father in our lives.

Having that tragedy in my past, though, makes watching my husband, John, be a wonderful father to our two daughters, Greta and Ingrid, even more satisfying! Our girls are ages 14 and 12 now. For at least 11 years, we have been taking an annual vacation to Steamboat Springs, Colo., where my husband runs the half marathon on the first Sunday of every June. Our girls always jump in and run the last 50 yards or so with him.

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'We can't leave until we grease the plow'

When you are a dairy farmer, family vacations are a rarity. But my dad, Reuben Stock, made sure that there was one week each year that we could get away. Usually he traded chores with his brother, Willard, also a dairyman, for a week.

We didn’t do anything extravagant. We drove to Estes Park, Colo., and stayed at a little resort called “Ram’s Horn Cottages.” We drove across Nebraska on Highway 30 (before the interstate) with five people in an un-air-conditioned sedan, three of the occupants being over 6 feet tall. There were always last-minute things that Dad had to take care of on the farm before we could leave.

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Sitting next to king of the hill

When you invited me to share my trips with my father, you were treading on hallowed ground.

I came along as my father’s eighth child. An afterthought, a surprise, or a blessing -- take your pick. He was 42; my mother’s age was 40. Talk about spoiled, I was fermented the day I was born -- Jan. 24, 1922. These memories have kept me happy, loved and blessed!

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Trip of a lifetime to France

Sept. 11, 2001. We all know what happened that day.

Sept. 18, 2001, my father, Robert Ponte, brother Mike Ponte, my daughter, Collette Hamersky (then 4½), and I traveled to France to visit family whom I'd never met before. You see, after the (9/11)  tragedy unfolded, I called my dad to tell him that Collette and I would be canceling our trip of a lifetime. I was too scared to take my daughter on a plane.

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Senior Sneak Day in Lincoln

Way, way, way back in 1947, I was a senior at Douglas High School. Our class of nine members wanted to go on a Sneak Day, but there were no teachers free to sponsor us. My dad volunteered to take us to the faraway land of Lincoln. Nebraska, that is.

My dad was very popular with the kids, after all, he ran the roller skating rink in our small town. On the appointed day, we five girls piled into my dad's car, and the four boys drove one of their cars. After our 26-mile trip, we arrived at Robber's Cave in the area of Ninth and Calvert streets. It was cool in the underground cave and rather interesting. Our next stop was a tour of the Nebraska State Penitentiary. After seeing the cells and inmates, we arrived at the execution room. I was the only one brave enough to sit in the electric chair. At the gift shop was this beautiful 18-inch-by-10-inch small cedar chest made by inmates with inlaid patterns of different colored woods, a checkerboard design on top, chain link around the sides.

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Around the world with her father

I am so very blessed to be able to travel the world with my father. My faja, (nickname around our house), Terry Stutzman, is one of the most selfless and giving men that I know. It was a privilege to accompany him to India in 1999 as well as this past March to help those with less. From working with individuals in the slums of Mumbai to helping patients in the tuberculosis hospital, it was an amazing way to spend time with the most important man in my life. I am so very grateful for the lessons he has passed on to me, especially about the importance of giving. He always told me growing up “To whom much is given, much is required.” I never understood what that truly meant until March, and I am grateful for the lessons the trip taught me. So today I say thank you Faja for your discipline, wisdom and continued support over the years. I love you.

-- Heather Stutzman, San Diego, Calif.

Dad gets into slam poetry

My father, Jerry McGinn, is a sport’s nut to the max. The first time I mentioned the slam poetry team I brought to Lincoln High his simple words were, "Good luck with that!"

When I invited him to a fundraiser in the theater our first year, he did so out of respect and love for his daughter. My father was not a performance poetry fan until he experienced something extraordinary on the stage that night. He couldn’t believe high school students wrote and memorized original poetry to the mesmerizing degree that caused him to jump out of his seat and applaud excitedly.

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Memories of trip to WWII camp

As Father’s Day 2014 approaches, it gives me many reasons to reflect on my dad Paul D. Peterseb. The “D" isn’t an initial, because he had no middle name. Rather, he was the fourth enlistee in the Marine Corps with his name and no middle name, so he was assigned “D” for identity purposes, and he was on his way to becoming 1st Lt. Petersen 5th Amphibius Corp, 2nd Marine Division.

He would fight at Tarawa, Saipan, Guam and Tinian. His officers' class suffered 98 percent casualites through the war, and he himself had an ugly scar over his spine, that he’d told me he got “from a bayonet tip to run us off from the nurses’ quarters.” As the youngster I was, I accepted his explanation not thinking till I was much older that his story fell a good bit short of the truth.

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Campfire songs with Dad

I grew up in Pierre, S.D., with the Black Hills in my backyard only about 175 miles away. I’m the oldest of six kids and my parents both worked. My parents worked hard and played hard.

We always took a summer vacation, and usually it was to the Black Hills. Dad would pack the station wagon for the trip …  and I mean packed with six kids, clothes, tent, camp stove and sleeping bags. Mom would have a picnic lunch packed. When we got about 100 miles down the road we would stop for bologna sandwiches, chips and a Hostess Twinkie.

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Spontaneous Sunday trips

My dad loved to plan trips, but he also loved the spontaneous ones. Every January, he’d get the map of the U.S. out and pour over it looking for routes to places he wanted to go. But the most memorable trips were those spontaneous Sunday-after-church trips we took either north along the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota, south toward Bixby (no longer in existence) where he would point out the interesting geological formations that cropped up in the prairie, or, my favorite, the trips to the Slim Buttes about 50 miles west of Bison where we lived.

The most memorable was the summer of 1968. My husband Lynn was a chaplain serving in Vietnam, and our four children and I were spending the summer in Bison. Dad loaded us up along with lunch, and we spent a lovely afternoon climbing the bluffs and hills, taking pictures to send to the children’s dad and just enjoying Ship Rock and the other unusual formations of this northern branch of the Badlands of South Dakota. I have pictures of Dad standing like a sentinel over the kids, the children Doug, Leigh, Mark and Robin wandering up and down those rocky formations looking like little ants in the distance.

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Train trips with bribery

Jake Irion was a decent man. I’ve known him to bend over and pick up a nail in the street so “some guy” wouldn’t get a flat tire. He was gentle and he was honest. Well, except for the bribery, that is.

A trip from Chicago back home to his western Kansas roots was our annual summer vacation. Until WWII gas rationing, we drove in our 1939 DeSoto. During the war we had to take the train -- Chicago Union State to Kansas City Union Station, and from there to Ellis, Kan. The stations were crowded with travelers, many of them servicemen being transferred across the country. Would there even be seating on the train for my mother and me? That is when Dad's criminal activity began.

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Trips to put flags on veterans' graves

There was a knock on his bedroom door. It was still dark outside. His father’s voice: “It’s time to put those flags out before the sun comes up."

Frank, nearly 10 years old, knew the ritual quite well. He and his father (a Great War veteran) had been inserting American flags on the graves of veterans each Decoration Day for many years.

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The Rock & Roll Special camping trips

In 1960, when I was 9 years old, my dad sat down at the supper table and told his three daughters who were 9, 6, and 3 that we were going to see the Gulf of Mexico. Dad had been working for a long time on a tent trailer camper of his own design, and it was ready to roll. In fact, he later named it the “Rock & Roll Special.”

Originally, the top of the camper unfolded to make a “table top” followed by another layer that unfolded the opposite way for the other side. There were custom-made mattresses that were moved from the floor of the trailer to each table top for our beds. Custom-made pipes and a canvas top with a window on each side made our roof. Inside the trailer were also sheets, blankets and pillows. Mom also had packed much of our food in the trailer. Our suitcases (a cardboard box for each person) were in the trunk of the car. Coolers were mounted in a specially made spot on the front of the frame of the trailer.

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Treasuring delivery trips

My dad was a Continental oil dealer (Conoco) in the North Central Nebraska village of Ewing. He started this business by putting a fuel tank, with compartments, in the back of a pickup. The pickup was replaced often over the years until he had a truck that hauled close to 1,000 gallons. These compartments held different grades of fuel that he hauled to farmers and ranchers in a radius around Ewing. Somewhere in the evolution of the delivery truck there was a tank that had 10-inch screw lids with wing handles on each of the compartments. Along each side of the tank was a parallel 12-inch sign that spelled CONOCO.

I spent the early 1940 summers with my father as he made these deliveries to his customers. As he drove between stops he would allow me to ride straddling the tank, protected from falling off by the CONOCO sign and my firm grip on the lid wings.

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16th birthday trip to UNL

It was Feb. 10, 1965, and it was my 16th birthday. My dad, having attended the University of Nebraska and been a proud Nebraska letterman in basketball in 1930-31, thought that it would be an excellent birthday present to take his son on a road trip from our hometown in Leavenworth, Kan., to Lincoln, home of the Huskers.

So early Wednesday morning, my dad and I headed out on our 177-mile journey to Lincoln in his pride and joy, a 1965 yellow Buick Skylark convertible. As a new licensed driver, I was the designated driver.

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Dad never wavered

I was very fortunate growing up to go on lots of vacations with my family. Colorado, New York, Nantucket, Delaware, San Francisco, Boston to name a few.

However, one trip I took with my dad Gerry Dimon in 2007 particularly stands out. This was not a vacation. My daughter had been diagnosed with a serious illness, and her doctor was in St. Paul, Minn., at the time. There was some testing that needed to be done. My daughter was 5 and I was still reeling in the fear, confusion and uncertainty that one has to navigate as a parent of a child with a serious medical condition. I planned to make the long drive to St. Paul myself, but my dad offered to go with us -- “to help entertain my daughter,” he insisted -- but I know he was going to support me as well.

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On a mission to see 48 states

My dad believed we three girls should see as much of our country as possible, and he set the goal of getting us to all 48 state before we graduated from high school. We did this by taking summer road trips, following the carefully laid-out plans, allowing us stays with relatives when possible.

In 1959, when I was almost 7, we made a huge trek to Florida to visit our great aunt and uncle in Tampa. Our car did not have air conditioning. To accommodate our need for the three of us to nap, he built a bench between the front and back seat. It had a trap door with a potty chair for my younger sister. There were no seat belts in those days. One of us slept in the back window shelf, one on the seat and one on the bench.

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Dad: Jones

Note: Nine-year-old Kasey Jones wrote this for his third-grade teacher.

My dad and me were driving to a motorcycle place. My dad and me unloaded my motorcycle. He turnec it on and shifted the gears. I shot like a firework on the Fourth of July. I went around the trees. I was thirsty so I went to get a drink. I hit the truck on accident with my motorcycle. Not too hard.

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Ireland with Dad

You haven't had fun until you go to Ireland with your dad. Last October (2013) my 88-year-old father and I took a one week self-drive Irish tour/adventure. Staying at bed and breakfasts for the week, we drove west from Dublin, visiting Sligo (near where dad's fourth great grandfather lived), Westport, Galway, Doolin, Cliff's of Mohr, Bunratty (including the Medieval banquet), Limerick, Rock of Cashel, Sally's Gap, and finished with a taxi tour of Dublin. We had laugh's, enjoyed the scenery, watched the sun set, had pub food, shared the gift of gab, had great Irish breakfasts, and dad even had a pint just so he could say he did. It was his first and likely only trip to Ireland, which we'll always remember.

-- Patrick T. Barrett, Lincoln

Family time at deer camp

I am truly blessed to be the father of four wonderful children and the grandfather of eight great kids. My wife and I married at a young age and have shared 41 years together raising our family to be adults who are wonderful people and outstanding parents as well. Of course, the grandkids are all perfect in every way. The little ones have their unique personalities and special traits.

Our family started the tradition of an annual trip to deer camp in 1994. I have always loved hunting, fishing, camping and any outdoor activity, and this passion naturally passed along to my two sons at an early age. My third son passed away as an infant, and I am positive that he would have been right out there with the rest of us if he could. My daughter never developed an interest to join us, but we would love to have her experience deer camp if she ever chooses to do so. My wife tried deer hunting once, but a cold, blustery November day sealed her fate and she decided we were crazy to freeze to death trying to sit and wait for a deer to show itself.

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Beginning of a deeper relationship

I was always a mommy’s girl. So there were few times that I really connected with Dad. One of those times was in 1989 when I was 19 and a sophomore in college. I was home for Easter break in Atkinson. Grandma died (Dad’s mom), and it was decided that Dad and I were going to Omaha to pick up his sisters from the airport, a four-hour trip each way. All I could think was, "What are Dad & I going to talk about for four hours alone?"

We left Atkinson probably at 6 a.m. After trying to sleep a little, I finally woke up and we started visiting. I mean really visiting.

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A poem for Dad

Sandra Jacobs wrote this tribute to her father when she was 13, recalling the walks she had with her father in West Germany when she was 8 years old and he was a soldier.

I remember how it used to be:

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Two trips to top of Alcatraz Island

In June of 2012, my dad and I took a trip to San Jose, Calif., to cheer on the gymnasts at the U.S. Olympic trials. Without much coaxing, he had agreed, so I could experience one of the biggest gymnastics meets that only comes around every four years. Not knowing the area, we got very familiar with the help of the GPS in our rental car, which Dad handled well -- even if he had to pull a U-turn on a very busy road in the middle of downtown San Jose!

In between meets, we had the opportunity to visit the 12-story-high Alcatraz Island. Dad was a trouper and walked up the incline to the top of the island not once, but twice, after finding out we missed one of the attractions. Needless to say, the morgue on the island was looking pretty inviting for a nap after those tough walks in the heat.

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Dad: Kaufman

I didn't quite appreciate it at the time, but my dad had a pretty amazing plan for my siblings and me starting at a young age. We were going to travel every summer, in the car, and we were going to visit every single state in the U.S. I am 29 now, and can proudly say that I have visited every state in the USA, except Hawaii, to which dad says, when he is older, we will be taking him to.” But one of those most memorable vacations was when Kaufman was 15 or 16, and her dad took just her to San Antonio, Texas, to see Nebraska play at the Alamo Bowl.

As the trip was nearing its end, we got in the car, and Dad said to me, "Wanna drive along the Texas border, but in Mexico? You've never been to Mexico."

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Dad: Freeman

Some people get a car for their 16th birthday, but I am incredibly blessed, and have a father who kept his promise of a birthday trip to Italy.

When I was 5 my dad promised that for my 16th birthday he would take me to Italy, and he stuck to his promise. I turned 16 in Rome, and we had a wonderful dinner on a rooftop overlooking the entire city. We then went to Venice and Florence, making that trip one of my favorites.

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Dad: Boles

"Dad," I said, "Let’s take a little trail ride, just you and me." Being a man of few words, he replied, "Okay." It was August 3, 1978, and he was well on his way to racking up 200 rodeos as an announcer. Maybe he wasn’t a man of few words, after all. I was visiting him in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where we had both lived in or nearby since our births, until I headed north in 1957. Guthrie was the first town in Oklahoma, founded on April 22, 1889, and the original State Capital. The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places.

We had already ridden twice during that visit, in his 40 acres pasture, among the plum bushes. This time, we saddled up Lightfoot and Little B.

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