Fund Raising Trip (3)

The Hardest Part Was Getting There

When I left the house, I took everything with me that we would need for the trip, so we stayed where Ann had spent the night.   The next morning we started out for Texas.  I’ll never forget passing through Mayville, New York.  Mayville is located on a high hill just off of Lake Erie, and there is probably not a community anywhere in upstate New York that gets more lake effect snow than Mayville. As we passed through Mayville, we could see where the giant snowblowers had blown the snow off the roadway.  The snow piles reached about 2/3 of the way to the top of utility poles.  I’ve never seen anything like it since.

As we nearing Cleveland, we heard reports that large amounts of snow where expected in southern Ohio.  We had planned to go through Columbus, and across to Indianapolis, and then to St. Louis.  The same forecast said there would only be light amounts of snow to the north, so I chose to drive on Interstate 90 to Chicago, and on to St. Louis from there. 

We were somewhere west of Cleveland when I noticed that we had lost our brakes.  We called a wrecker, and they pulled us into Fremont, Ohio.  We were told that we had broken an axle, and that it could not be fixed until sometime the next day.  The guy in the wrecker took us to a motel.  We had a problem.  We didn’t have enough money to get the car fixed, and continue the trip to Texas.  I called Jim and Charles.  They wired enough money to get the car fixed.

By the time we left it was late on Tuesday evening.  I was supposed to make a presentation in Houston on Saturday morning.   I told Ann we would have to drive straight through to Waco if I made to Houston by Friday.  I should have postponed the dinner, but I already had speaking engagements lined up, and I thought I had to keep the appointments.  On our way to Waco, Jim began an episode of colic, and Ann had to care for sick baby in the car all the rest of the way to Waco. It was en enormously miserable time for her, but I was determined to push on.  Sometimes stubbornness and determination are not the best qualities.  We did eventually arrive in Waco, and I made it to Houston in time for the Saturday morning breakfast.