Adventures on the Pace Arrow!

Ah, yes, the Pace Arrow.  Inside this motorhome many, many childhood memories were formed.  This motorhome belonged to my Grandma and Grandpa Iverson who lived in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I think of them when I see this photograph, but I also think of family vacations that my parents took with us four children inside this motorhome.  Like most people, my memories of childhood are foggy and sometimes specific trips get all jumbled up with other trips.  But, I remember the motorhome.  It had the coolest fabric accordian blinds and the awesomest top bunk that folded down from the ceiling above the driver's seat.  Everyone wanted to sleep in that bunk!  I remember the sink was tiny (but not too tiny for cousin Adam to get a bath in it once in a while).  I remember that there was a shower in the back that no one ever used, and there was a table in the "living room" next to a huge window where we would sit and eat our meals (like the cold shrimp and noodle salad Mom fed us after a long, wonderful day in Disney World).  There was a toilet in the back that was used for a chair more than a toilet!  There is a famous, famous stoery on the Iverson side that took place back there!  On time Grandma and Grandpa brought us grandkids to Washington state and brought back cherries that were stored on the bathroom counter.  Patty would sit back there on the toilet chair, holding the book she was reading in one hand and eating cherries with the other.  I can't even count the times I heard that story!  Grandma and Grandpa used to take my three siblings and I along with our cousins Kia and Adam and we would travel to visit relatives and have family reunions.  Billings, Montana saw this motorhome quite a few summers as we celebrated the Bale side of the family (my Grandma Iverson had LOTS of siblings).  It was fun getting to know these old people who looked and sounded like Grandma.  Grandpa and Grandma also thought it would be beneficial for their grandkids to know Montana and North Dakota - so we traveled all over and visited museums and looked at countryside.  Grandpa was fascinated with the oil wells when they started putting them in and we would stop on the side of the road and just watch them.  We would stop in Montana and visit the gravesite of our aunt Patty who died of Leukemia when she was three.  This was always a somber event, but Grandpa and Grandma would always want a picture of us with the gravestone.  We never knew whether to smile or look sad.  When Patty died, Grandpa and Grandma gave a beautiful wooden altar to the church where they had been attending.  On one of our trips we visited the church so us grandkids could see the altar and Grandpa and Grandma were very pleased to find that it was being used as the main altar of the church.  It was originally used as an altar in the basement for the Sunday School kids.  Here it is:

  When my family took the Pace Arrow on vacations, we often went further than Montana and North Dakota.  I remember going to Washington D.C., Florida, and California.  We would stop at as many national parks as we could.  I remember seeing mountains and valleys and streams and oceans from the windows of that motorhome.  I'm thankful for all those memories.  I'm also thankful that my Dad was able to get the brakes to work when we were descending a mountain in the western United States.  He was having trouble with those brakes and we all had to get under furniture for a while in case we crashed!  But, we didn't crash.  The Iversons and the Pace Arrow survived!

  Now my husband and I enjoy camping together... not in a Pace Arrow, but in a truck camper on top of our Ford truck.  We've enjoyed some beautiful sights too.  What a beautiful world our God has created!

Norman and Winnifred Iverson