Road Trips, Roller Rinks, & Bombshell Birthday

Join me, Shannon, as we journey back to the late ’70s and ’80s for a nostalgic look at road trips—when paper maps, roller-skating rinks, and family adventures ruled the day. I’ll share memories of fried chicken picnics, arcade games, Meramec Caverns, and my girl’s trip with my mom.

But this episode also takes a more personal turn. I open up about my early teen years in Adamsville—the friends who made me feel at home, the roller rink that became my happy place, and the 13th birthday that changed everything when I learned I was adopted.

From high school adventures in Nashville and Atlanta to the start of lifelong friendships, this chapter of my life shaped the woman—and storyteller—I am today.

📌 In This Episode:

• What road trips were like before GPS & smartphones
• The magic of roller-skating and the movie Xanadu
• A deeply personal story about family, identity, and resilience
• Travel tips to make your next road trip smooth & memorable

💌 Want to be a guest? Email me at lamkintravel@gmail.com with your travel story or personal journey.

🎧 Listen & Watch: Available on all major podcast platforms & YouTube.
📺 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/@LamkinTravel

✨ If my story resonates with you, please like, subscribe, and share. Your support helps me inspire others to travel, heal, and create memories for life.

#TravelPodcast #RoadTripStories #AdoptionStory #TravelTimeStoriesWithShannon #StorytellingPodcast #TravelTips #RollerSkatingMemories #LifeJourney #PodcastLife #InspiringStories

Email: lamkintravel@gmail.com

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Transcript

0:04

Hi everyone and welcome to Travel Time Stories with Shannon, where I share my adventures, my travel tips, and my personal story. Today we're taking a trip down memory lane. Literally I'm talking about road trips, how they used to be in the late seventies and eighties, and how they've changed today. Later in the episode, I'll share a deeply personal part of my journey, learning life-changing truths, and how those years shaped who I am today. So grab your favorite beverage and let's get into it. Long before my adventures on the high seas began, the only travel I was familiar with were road trips. When I was growing up, road trips were the way families vacationed flying, rare and expensive. Even road trips could be a big splurge, but they were an adventure full of unknowns, surprises, and moments you couldn't plan for. The younger generation, sadly, will never have these types of experiences. Back then we had paper maps, no GPS, no cell phones, and a willingness to get a little lost. I miss that today. Road trips tend to fall into two categories, your driving to get to your vacation, so it's all about speed and efficiency, quick stops, fast food, and GPS directions. Or the road trip is the vacation with everything planned out, hotel reservations, set attractions, and your entire itinerary plugged into your navigation system. These both prioritize efficiency and planned experiences, which is the opposite of how they used to be. Nostalgia really kicks in the older you get. What was a typical road trip like? Back in my day? Well picture this big station wagons or a pickup truck with a camper over the truck bed crank windows, no AC and no car seats. Someone better know how to read a map or stop to ask the locals for directions. There were also rest stops and some had welcome centers, which provided maps and brochures of things to see in the local area. You really had to pay attention to your gas gauge and you better refuel when you were close to a quarter tank because the highways were less developed and fuel stations were few and far between. Running out of gas back then could strand you in the middle of nowhere for hours or days. There was no AAA and the next fuel station could be hundreds of miles. Lodging was not something you planned out and couldn't always be found. So sometimes you slept in the car at a rest area or the side of the road or found a side street to pull off on. There was no abundance of fast food or chain restaurants along the highways. Plus eating out was a luxury or a treat, not commonplace like it is now. I bet some people are probably thinking that sounds like a nightmare, but it wasn't. All of that added to the adventure and the sense of family togetherness. It created so many memories and funny stories that happened organically. Not something you have to create to make a funny TikTok. Our road trips always started with the car being packed up the night before. The suitcases were loaded in the trunk or the camper, depending on what we were taking. Blankets and pillows, large bag of snacks, maps, color books, or other such items for entertainment, because we didn't have tablets, phones, or TVs in the car, mom would cook fried chicken and store that in a Tupperware container for the trip. The next morning we would get up early and mama would make sausage biscuits for us to eat on the road for our breakfast. She would pack up the cooler with drinks and any food that needed to stay cool, such as the fried chicken or lunch meat for sandwiches. This would get loaded into the car. Before we headed out, she always had a bag, which was a homemade first aid kit with medications, bandages and such. We would pile in the car and the adventure would be begin. The only time mama ever drove was if we were taking a trip without daddy. Otherwise, daddy always drove and mama tended to us kids. My spot was the front center console. Mama's arm was my seatbelt. Now I was a talker, and mama said she never had to worry about falling asleep on a road trip because I never stopped talking even though she prayed that I would, and she would even try to get me to play the quiet game, but I always lost if we were taking the truck with the camper, then us kids would ride in the camper with the dogs and have plenty of room to jump around. If it was the camper with the over the cab bed, then we would lay up on the bed and look out the window as we drove down the road. If you had to go to the bathroom and there wasn't a rest stop, well, let's just say a coffee can and some roadside creativity come in handy. I remember one time there were no trees or bushes around, so mama opened the back door and the front door and I stood in between them. So I had some coverage while I peed on the side of the road. In dad's truck, he had a CB radio so we could communicate with the truckers and get alerted if there were cops or anything else going on. Dad would sometimes let me be the one to get on there and say, breaker. Breaker, is anyone out there and what's your 20? Are there any smokies in the area? And I even had my own handle or radio name. We didn't plan our trips, only our destination. We played, I spy sang along to the radio and stopped at roadside attractions for entertainment. Our dogs always traveled with us, and if we stopped for the night at a motel, we would get a room that was farthest from the main lobby so we could sneak the dogs in since pets weren't allowed back then. We didn't stop at restaurants to eat. We would stop at a roadside park or a nice open area for a picnic with the food mama brought, such as the fried chicken or making sandwiches with the lunch meat. This gave everyone a break from the car. We got to run around and play for a bit and walk the dogs. We would drive until it got close to dusk, and then we would start looking for a place to stop for the night. No reservations in advance. You would look for the nearest town and then we would see which place had a vacancy sign, or if the nearest town was too far away, we would find a rest stop or place to pull off and sleep in the car for the night. I, it wasn't glamorous, but it was real. Those little inconveniences, as some would call them, are the reason I remember these trips so fondly. My mom had two best friends in her life, something I now share with her. Her two friends, grace and Stella, were family, and I loved them both dearly. Grace lived in Texas, and Stella was in Missouri. One of my favorite road trips was the last one I took with my mom as a teenager. It was a girl's trip, just me, my mom, and her best friend, grace, heading to Missouri to see her other best friend, Stella. It. We took our time stopping along the way at antique shops. Little roadside farmer stands to get fruits and vegetables, taking photos of wild flowers, and even had a stop at Meramec Caverns. We would laugh and sing along to the radio, and I learned stories about my mom. I'd never heard before. Mama had brought some tomatoes from her garden. One was bigger than a large grapefruit. So that first night at the motel, her and Grace were eating the tomatoes, and I have a picture of Mama with that large tomato taking a big bite out of it, just like an apple and spraying juice everywhere. We spent a few days with Stella and her family in Fulton before heading down to Branson. Branson was mama's favorite place to visit, and we have been many times over the years and it still holds a special place in my heart. I always feel like I'm coming home when I visit there. There is so much to see and do that, it never gets redundant for me. I have heard some people describe it as the family friendly version of Vegas, but I don't feel that's an accurate description. It does have a lot of shows with several big names, stars who perform here on a regular basis, but there is so much more than the shows to explore here. Mama loved going to the shows, and her favorite one was seeing Shoji Tabuchi. He was a Japanese American country music fiddler and singer. He had his own theater in Branson and was known as the King of Branson. He won numerous awards and was inducted into the Fiddler Hall of Fame. His show was really amazing. My favorite was always the Yakov Smirnoff Show. He is a Soviet American comedian, actor and writer, and he was big in the eighties and has his own theater in Branson, although I think his performances now are very limited. We would also go see a show at Shepherd of the Hills. Finally, a trip to Branson is never complete without spending one to two days at Silver Dollar City. Hands down, this is the best amusement park I have ever been to. It is not just an amusement park, but a whole experience. I know many people are thinking, no way Disney, universal or Six Flags are the best. I guess that's true because it depends on what you like. For me, I enjoy history, particularly the 1800's, and this park has an 1880s theme, and it's located in the Ozark Mountains. So you're surrounded by beautiful scenery throughout the park. They have craftsman demonstrations where you can watch and learn how things are made. These include milling the grain to bake bread. Blacksmith. Glass blowing candy and candle making hand forged knives, leather, pottery, furniture, wood carving, road foundry, lathe making, and soap. The park also has some amazing shows along with some great rides. It's the only park that is built around a cave, which you can take a tour of while you're there. Marvel Cave is a wet limestone cave with formations that are still growing today. It was opened for tours in 1894, and then in 1960 the theme park, which has been built around the cave entrance, opened up. You can still tour the cave and the price is included in the park entrance. You start the tour by descending 300 feet below the surface and you enter the cathedral room, which is breathtaking, and it's also the largest cave entrance in the United States. It is a strenuous tour consisting of a lot of stairs and ramps, so it's not recommended for those with mobility issues, and the tour lasts about 60 minutes. I have done the tour several times over the years, and if you're able, I recommend it. All these memories we made in Branson still feel warm in my heart all these years later. Of course, there were funny moments too, like the time my mom wore white pants on a water ride, and let's just say when they got soaked, everyone knew what color her underwear was. She learned a great lesson at the park that day, and I got the biggest laugh of my life, and I wasn't the only one. Mama's face was as red as the tomato she had eaten the night before. Thankfully, mama's best friend Grace came to the rescue with her jacket to wrap around mama's waist so we could head to the souvenir shop and mama could get some shorts to put on. Mama never wore white pants again, or if she did, she made sure she didn't have on colored underwear. A couple of other funny moments from past road trips, my mom fell asleep for the first time on a trip and woke up to discover my dad had been distracted and taken a wrong turn, and we had been driving for hours in the wrong direction. Dad's response. Well, you never would've seen this if i hadn't come this way. This became a family tagline every time someone went the wrong way. Another time, mom and I were traveling alone to Tennessee when I was very little, and I awoke in the middle of the night at the hotel screaming with an ear infection. Mom was trying to pack up quickly to take me to the ER and accidentally discharged her gun in the room. Needless to say, we never stopped at that hotel in Arkansas again. Road trips aren't just about getting somewhere. They're about the memories made along the way, and I am so blessed to have so many great memories and countless photos from the road trips done over the years. I made sure my own kids experienced road trips the old school way. No electronics just maps, coffee cans. Picnic lunches and plenty of unscripted adventures. Both my boys loved every minute of them and learned some great lessons and skills unlike me, both my boys sleep on road trips. Once they're in the car, it doesn't take long, and they are both asleep. They get this from their dad who does the same thing. So I'm left to entertain myself when we do a road trip as a family. Thankfully, my Sissy Ann is great for road trips. We talk a lot singing and dance to the radio and fly by the seat of our pants with no plans, and if we see something interesting, we stop and check it out. So here's my question for you. Do you have a favorite road trip? Memory funny. Sweet. Or maybe even a little chaotic. Share it with me. Who knows? You might just end up as a guest on travel time stories. My travel tip of the day. Map it out the old fashioned way. Even if you use GPS, bring a paper atlas. Tech can fail, but a map never loses signal. I once lent a friend my atlas for a road trip she was taking, and sure enough she hit a dead zone and had to use it. She thanked me later, so trust me, it's worth the extra space in your bag. Now, I know many of you are waiting for the story of my life with David, who I call the devil, and I promise that's coming soon. By the end of my first year in Adamsville, I had learned a hard truth. Sometimes the life you think you want to escape becomes the life you long to return to. I'd also learned that even in unfamiliar places, there are pockets of belonging if you're willing to find them. My life in Adamsville was just beginning and so was the next chapter of my story. During my two years of junior high, I had two close friends, Kecia and Sarah, and we became the three amigos. When we weren't busy in band, you could catch us at the local hangout spots, which were the movie theater, bowling alley, or my personal favorite, the skating rink. My brother-in-law, Kenny, had taught me all of the roller skating tricks, skating backwards. T stop crossovers, spins, jumps, bunny hop, shoot the duck. One foot glide, you name it. I could do them all. I had custom white skates with purple pom poms.'cause purple is my signature color and I love showing people that big girls can skate too. The roller rink was lights, music, arcade games, and pinball. It was my happy place. It still makes me sad that most rinks closed before my kids were old enough to skate. One of my favorite movies is Xanadu from 1980 with Olivia Newton John. It's an American musical fantasy film and includes rollerskating. My favorite song from the film is Magic. Do you have a favorite movie or song that takes you back to a great memory? Leave a comment. I'd love to hear it. I was just starting to settle into life in Adamsville when on my 13th birthday, my mom dropped a bombshell. I was adopted. Everyone in the family knew except me. That knowledge cut so deep. I never saw this coming. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of me stunned. All I could do was stare at her. She said she had wanted to tell me before now, but could never bring herself to do it, but she was telling me now because she was worried one of my nephews or cousins was going to spill the beans. Once the shock wore off, I was overcome by such intense anger that I didn't know what to do with it. So I lashed out at her with my words and said very terrible things to her that I would come to regret later. I did ask her about my birth parents. She wouldn't gimme any information about them. Said I had to wait till I turned 18. Can you imagine the cracks this caused in my psyche? I was 13. The age where everything is already confusing because your body's going through so many changes from child to teen and the hormones are out of control. I was still overcoming dramatic childhood issues and a move that had created fractures and now I'm hit with this. And on top of that, you tell me you can't gimme any information that might help me process the anger, confusion, and endless questions stayed with me. For years, I was told that I was lucky because this meant I was wanted and the life I had was better than what it would've been. It was the beginning of a rebellion that would eventually lead me into the arms of a man who would destroy my spirit, strip me of the little self-confidence I had, and put me through many forms of abuse. Ultimately killed our child and almost succeeded in killing me. After getting this information, things in my life would change dramatically. And this started with stepping away from the church. I started having bad mood swings, which convinced my mom I was bipolar. However, I was not diagnosed with that. She sent me to this group that was supposed to help kids with issues and it didn't help anything. It led me further astray, but at least my friends were there with me. Kecia, Sarah, and Alicia were all part of the group during high school. I joined every group I could. Four H Home Economics. FFA Spanish Club. These groups took me to Nashville and Atlanta for competitions. My first big trips without Mama, there were glass elevators. Riding the Atlanta subway, which goes both above and underground. Sneaking out past curfew and visiting my first Hard rock cafe. We even qualified for a trip to California and Disneyland, but my mama wouldn't let me go. She said it was too far from home. Freshman year, brought some new students to our school. One was named Tonya. She lived in a town called Michie. She was a tall brunette who was bold, stylish, and confident I wanted to be just like her. I was so lucky that she had some of the same classes, so this gave me a chance to get to know her, and we quickly became friends. She brought this shy girl out of her shell. She went from my best friend to my sister. But that's a story for next time full of Yugo Cars, wild Adventures and a twist that changed both of our lives. My hope is for everyone to make memories for life through travel, whether it's a cross country road trip, a roller skating rink in your hometown, or your first time riding a subway. Reach out and let me help you make your next travel memory. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like or give a thumbs up, subscribe. It is free and share on social media so this channel can grow. Tune in again to learn more about me, hear more about each of my trips, and meet other people in my life as they share their travel experiences. If you'd like to be a guest on the show to discuss travel or another topic, email me. lamkintravel@gmail.com With your travel story or your personal story, or whatever you'd like to talk about, do you have a crazy high school story? Share it in the comments below. I might just read it on the podcast or invite you on as a guest. Until next time, keep making memories for life.