It was late July 1962 when my father announced that we were going to the World’s Fair in Seattle.

I was 15 and did not want to leave my friends. Well, what he did not say at the time was that he had quite a trip planned. This was all in a Volkswagen camper — as my dad was a VW dealer — one of the first in this country.

We left Old Saybrook, Conn., the first week of August and visited Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone and viewed the “big sky” of Montana on the way to Seattle.

We then proceeded to travel down the entire California coastline, hitting Seal Park in Oregon, Disneyland, Hollywood, Malibu and the San Diego Zoo, before taking a short hop to Tijuana, Mexico. After crossing back into the United States, we stopped at the Painted Desert, the site of the Indian Cave Dwellers and, of course, the Grand Canyon.

I still remember going through the desert in August with no air conditioning, drinking soda after soda and then trying not to wet my pants, as there were few gas stations on the route. My sister, age 11, and I quarreled the entire time from the back seat.

We checked into a motel once every two days to clean up. As we were heading back through West Virginia, I distinctly remember a young motel employee who could not read our Connecticut plates and just wrote down on his slip that we were from Kentucky.

I had not wanted to go. I wanted to stay at a friend’s house while everybody else went. I am so glad that my dad insisted.

I remember all of these places as distinctly as if they happened last week. It was truly the trip of a lifetime.

My dad has been gone since 1990, but I will never forget this amazing gift.

Carolyn Davis lives in Lisbon Falls.

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