For Those Who Like to Travel--or Want to Daydream

Riding the rapids of the Colorado River is on my list of things to do soon. So is traveling the great trout streams of Idaho and Wyoming. Alaska is in my future too.

Until I get there, I’ll settle for daydreaming as I stroll the aisles of the annual Great Western Sports RV & Travel show. It’s back at the Anaheim Convention Center starting today and running through Jan. 5.

I’m not the only daydreamer in Orange County. Each year that I go, the crowds, expected to reach 70,000 during the nine-day show, seem to get larger. Maybe most of these visitors really are going to all those places represented at the show.

It’s really two separate events. In two huge gallery halls, you can peek at the latest and biggest in recreational vehicles. It’s just one blockbuster beauty after another. Though I’m not into RVs, I see others swoon as they move through them.

The other half of the show consists mostly of aisle after aisle of travel booths. People from vacation spots all around the western U.S. ply you with colorful literature about why you should choose their locale for your next fun trip.

By the end of the day, I’m loaded with brochures and a handful of freebies (matches, pencils, key chains). After dinner I pore over all the material, and savor each vacation spot as if it were my next destination. Not that I ever expect my wife to suggest we go trout fishing in the cool mountain streams of Idaho.

If you want to hear from an expert fisher-person, Carol Martens of West Hills in Los Angeles County will give daily seminars at the travel and RV show. She’s got 11 first-place trophies from bass fishing tournaments to back up her reputation as one of the best in the country.

The show will also offer experts giving seminars on hunting, wilderness survival, camping and ecology for outdoors types. The big special this year is on hunting trips, including African safaris. That’s not for me, but show organizers expect that feature to be popular.

The show price is $7.50 for adults, $5 for seniors and $3 for children 8 to 14. Younger kids get in free. It runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. today, Sundays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday noon to 8 p.m. and Friday noon to 9 p.m.

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Book Bonus: When Ann and Jack Tate of Newport Beach were dating back in their University of Iowa days, they often wound up at the college library. “We didn’t have any money, and it was a cheap date,” Jack Tate jokes now.

Books have always been a major part of their lives, and when they discussed what to give each other for Christmas this year, Ann Tate had a suggestion: How about arranging to have each other’s names on the honor roll of donors at the Newport Beach Public Library?

Jack Tate is a vice president at Merrill Lynch’s Fashion Island office. Because the Tates have had a very good year with their personal investments, they decided to donate their profits (in the four figures) to the Friends of the Library, a support group of the county library system.

Now Tate has another offer that could benefit the library: If any of you would like to make a similar donation, Tate will offer free advice on how to come up with the best possible tax break on the transaction. Just call his office at (714) 719-4706.

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King of the Road: Blues giant B.B. King has been a success on the road for what he calls “a lifetime of one-nighters.” By his own count: 330 one-nighters each year for 40 years, averaging 250 miles between gigs. He extends that streak Monday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Radio talk show personality Don Imus raved so much about King’s autobiography, “Blues All Around Me,” that I picked up a copy. Much of it is about King growing up poor in Mississippi, and his love life. (He fathered 15 children.) But the most poignant vignettes are about his music. Here’s what he says in his book about those one-nighters like his Orange County stop:

“I look at every show like a test. I want the audience to feel like they’re at a homecoming. Can I make the people out there feel like a family? Can I make ‘em feel how much I love the blues? Can I make ‘em feel that the blues loves them? If the answer is yes, I’ve done my job. But if not, I’m out there the next night, trying a little harder.”

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Don’t Forget Bing: When I wrote the other day about my five all-time favorite recordings, I meant to jog your memory about what your own favorites might be. Ron Pangle of Huntington Beach sent a delightful note gently chiding me for leaving out Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” But he admits he had the thought after spending Christmas at Lake Tahoe. He writes:

“Eight feet of new snow made for some great skiing and put Bing’s ‘White Christmas’ on the top of my list.” If it’s any consolation, my columnist colleague Dana Parsons had Bing’s classic on his Top Five list too.

Not to be disagreeable, but if you haven’t heard Merle Haggard’s “White Christmas,” you haven’t heard the song the way Irving Berlin meant it to be sung.

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Wrap-Up: It was about this time last year that two of my editors suggested this column and asked me if I’d like to be its writer. During 1996, I’ve had a chance to meet some terrific people all around Orange County, and I’ve heard some great anecdotes about what’s going on now and what’s been in our past. Here’s one that will help keep me down to earth:

My son Patrick went to high school recently wearing a T-shirt with the L.A. Times logo. When another student asked him about it, Patrick explained that his parents both work at The Times. He also said his father writes a column in the Metro section.

The student’s response: “Your dad is Dana Parsons?”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823, by fax at (714) 966-7711 or by e-mail at jerry.hicks@latimes.com