Highway from Hell...again

In Sept. '93, Scott and I were traveling on I-65 from Bloomington, IN to Chicago for a friend's wedding. Two hours north of Indy, we pulled off for an ice cream pitstop. I don't remember if we actually got anything to eat, but I will never forget the sinking feeling I got at the car engine not turning over as we tried to leave. The place was next to a small truck stop/restaurant and from there we tried call around to some auto service places in the near-by town of Wolcott to see if we could have the car towed in and worked on. We were low on options because we had almost no cash and it was late in the day. We had no where to stay and no cash to pay for a motel even if one had been near. The final decision was to sleep in the car that night. We would use the bathrooms in the restaurant just before the place closed at 11:00 p.m. and then again the next morning when they opened up at 6:00 a.m. We would make more calls the next day and try to get the car running.
At closing time, when we were "settling in" for the night, a rather elderly woman who waitressed at the restaurant came out to the car and asked what our plans were. When we told her, she was adamant that we go home with her and stay in her guest room. Her son would make arrangements for our car to be towed to a dependable garage in the morning and we could hang around her place until it was fixed. Our 'angel of mercy' fed us bedtime snacks and showed us to a comfy room. She made breakfast in the morning and her son took care of the car arrangements. The garage expedited the work because of our circumstances. It wasn't, praise God, a very expensive repair but our trip to Chicago was cancelled and back we went to Bloomington. I sent a very nice thank-you to our 'angel'.

Last Monday evening I left Green Bay, WI enroute to Indy with three kids, two dogs and one very full mini van. The idea was to travel at night and avoid the nasty construction traffic we encountered on the way to WI. Everything seemed to be going well. We were through Chicago and had turned south onto I-65. Despite the fact that it was around 2:00 a.m., there was steady traffic, mostly trucks. We had seen several large chunks of tire on the side of the road from some trucker's blowout but suddenly there was one in the middle of our lane! I had no choice but to drive over it. There was a bit of thumping but nothing else. It seemed we had escaped harm and all was OK. When we were just about 15 miles south of Wolcott, (hmmm, familiar name....) the engine light came on. In the next minute, all the "idiot lights" on the panel had popped on and the van began to lose power. We coasted to a stop on the shoulder and prayed for help and peace. I made the kids stay put while I took the van's window shade that says "NEED HELP--CALL POLICE" on it's back side and stood in the light of the van's head lamps holding it up for some helpful trucker to see. After 8 or 9 trucks passed I got back in the van and said to the boys (one of whom was panicking,) "Well, that ought to to it. Let's wait a few minutes and see what happens."
Within five minutes, a truck driver had stopped and loaned me his cell phone to call AAA. He also checked under the hood and brought us a jug of water to give the dogs a drink. Yes, God sent another angel of mercy on this deceptively innocent looking highway from Hell. He didn't leave until we had confirmation from AAA that a police officer would be out shortly and a tow truck in 90 minutes or less. The policeman got there in good time and waited with us while the boys alternately took the dogs for walks at the fringe of a cornfield and laid down on a blanket admiring the clear night sky. When the tow truck arrived the driver told me he had instructions from AAA to take us to a hotel that had ok'd the dogs and then take our van to the shop. I rode with the tow truck, the dogs remained in the van and the boys got to ride into Lafayette with the officer. The panic situation had turned into a big adventure and despite the fact that we checked into the hotel at 3:45 a.m., the boys had trouble getting to sleep. ("No, you can't see which cartoons are on at 4:00!")
We spent Tuesday at the Lafayette Inn and, after a continental breakfast, passed the van keys to a courier from the garage and watched TV, visited some little shops near by and had a nice meal at Cracker Barrel. We were able to buy dog food since we had none with us and then everyone was satisfied. On Wednesday morning, after talking with the mechanic, it was decided to sell the van as salvage. Remember that chunk of tire in the road? It must have knocked a hose loose from the radiator because there was no coolant (and it wouldn't hold any,) and the engine had overheated to the point of severe damage to itself. I had called our pastor the previous night and he arranged for a nice man from church to borrow a cargo van and come pick us up. By 3:30 Wednesday afternoon we were safely back in Indy.

I learned a lot about trusting God on this trip, as did the boys. It was like being in school
and taking a practical exam after lots of theory. The peace was there, the calm spirit and the surety that everything would be fine. Wow. God is good (and then some!)
A side note: don't ever expect your kids to be perfectly dependable even in areas that they seem to have a good grip on. Alaric, the oldest boy, had his bike on the trip. It is only a year old and he typically takes very good care of it. When it was unloaded from the cargo van, he didn't actually take it out himself. He assumed that whoever took it out put it away as well. (Silly, silly, silly!) It never did get brought inside and although it was leaning up against our apartment, it was stolen in the night.

Ethel

I had the nicest time yesterday. My kids told me that an elderly lady lived in the end unit of our townhouses but I hadn't seen her yet. When they went out to ride bikes in the morning, they said she was out tending her flowers. I sent the middle son back to her house with a couple of pieces of mulberry pie. She was delighted and told him to send me over to chat some time. Hey, there's no time like the present so I headed over.

I was there almost two hours and the time flew by. Ethel is one of the original residents of the neighborhood. She and her late husband bought their unit when it was brand new 40 years ago. When she told me she had eight kids I was a little surprised at them buying a two bedroom place with no basement. I was even more surprised to hear her say that they bought the place as a retirement home. "Just how old is this smooth-faced, energetic woman who doesn't like pets because they tie you down?", I wondered. I didn't have to wait long because when I told her how old my kids were she said, "My birthday was May 13th. I'm going on 93 now." Whoa!! I NEVER would I have guessed that! Her yard and garden are immaculate and she does everything but mow the grass. She grows both flowers and veggies--LOTS of each. There are dozens of jugs all over the patio because she collects rain water for her plants. ("It's the best, you know,"). She visits people in nursing homes and loves to go out for dinner and shopping. Her birthdays are her favorite times to go out because one of her grand-daughters takes her out to dinner and puts her up a nice hotel each year for a "pampering". Her great grand-children are my kids ages and she watches them on a regular basis. I only dream of being like her at 92.
I think she will prove to be a blessing to my family as we will try to be one for her.

Good-bye to friends from the Hundred Acre Wood....

My sister e-mailed me with the sad news; Tigger and Piglet died within a day of each other last week. Well, at least their voices did. After decades of bringing those delightful characters to life it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to accept new voices as "authentic" or sounding "right". I don't even know the names of the real people behind Tigger and Piglet but they, along with the other actors, created a sweeter world for thousands upon thousands of us.