GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. -- Heavy interstate traffic en route to a state park here confirms what many in the travel industry have been saying for months: The family car vacation is back.

Relatively cheap gasoline this vacation season is bringing mini-vans back on the blacktop. Flying's a hassle. Trains don't usually go where you want to go. Navigation systems, DVD players and mobile telephones make cars more like theaters on wheels.

It's the time to go, before the stimulus package turns our interstate system into more of a construction zone. July's the prime time. Organized baseball and softball are over, no one but the teachers and cash-strapped retailers is thinking about back to school and it's too hot to stay at home.

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Today's travel is a far cry from the trips of my youth. We packed our '59 Rambler station wagon with six kids, broken cookies, bread, bologna, a change of clothes in a sack and a case of Cragmont pop in an old silver ice chest to head up Pikes Peak one summer.

The car broke down near Pueblo and dad figured if he filled it with 50-weight Champlin motor oil it would limp back to Oklahoma. We bought a case of oil and pointed east.

Kids entertained themselves in the car. We read cheap novels, Archie comic books and old Mad Magazines. We caught trout behind a roadside cabin and cooked them on an open fire. Graham crackers, loaded with melted Hershey bars and marshmallows, followed.

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Another year, when we upgraded to an Oldsmobile F-85 with air conditioning and an 8-track tape player, we headed east to Tennessee to visit cousins and the world-famous (according to the signs) Rock City.

The prize for best behavior in the car was usually a milkshake at a Nickerson Farms where travelers could watch the bees at work making honey.

Closer to home, summer trips to Six Flags, Frontier City and Springlake amusement parks were favorites. A family cabin at Lake Texoma was a long weekend treat. The ride there along U.S. 77 was the highlight.

Turner Falls was a mid-way swim stop, then a sack of tamales from Pick's and bags of broken cookies from the Little Brownie bakery in Marietta. The journey was as much fun as the destination.

Andy Rieger 366-3543 editor@normantranscript.com