Back across America

In 1982, we had decided to leave R.I. Marvin had another bypass operation. And he wasn’t doing any better. He tried walking for miles in hopes to improve the circulation. To no avail. Plus the weather was raising cain with him. 2 to 3 days before there was rain, his veins felt like they were on fire. While my folks thought this was wonderful, because they would know whether to mow their hay or not, they understood we had to move back West.
So we sold our home.. Marvin had taken the 63 Chevy out to Idaho on a previous trip. As he did the GMC which he towed behind him, a 1940 Pontiac, which we had acquired. We bought a school bus from the Catholic church. We had the Ford pickup tow a 65 Mustang that one of our sons had bought. Our friend Wayne, from Priest River flew out to help us drive back. Marvin drove the bus, and our friend Wayne was his alternate. A young man, Tim, we had befriended in our neighborhood, wanted to relocate and get a fresh start. So he drove the Ford pickup and I was his alternate.. It was the beginning of Oct. So we wanted to drive straight thru with a stop in Minnesota to see Marv’s family and a quick rest before we continued. We wanted to beat the weather, and get the kids back into school We had removed all the seats but 3 on one side and 2 on the other. The 3, we had one facing forward, then the other two faced each other, booth style. Behind the 2 we had an apt. size refrigerator. Why, I don’t know. But when we got ready to pull out, I had 3 loaves of frozen bread in the freezer dept. We had it plugged in until the morning we left. Then we put 3 bags of ice in the refrigerator and shut the door. Behind this was all our worldly possessions, stacked up to within inches of the roof.
We drove out of the driveway, waving to my father at 8 am. Ironically the Willie Nelson song, On the Road Again, was playing on the radio. We headed out of R.I. into Mass. About 5 p.m. we are driving thru New York when I noticed the refrigerator door slightly open. I went to see what was going on. I open the door to a massive white goo. It looked like the blob from a 50’s movie. It was the frozen bread, that had thawed and was rising for lack of a better word. We had decided to stop at the next rest stop. Which I got out the camp stove, cast iron kettle, and oil, and proceeded to cook friend bread. It took over a hour just to fry up that stuff. 3 loaves, made over 50 donut size fried bread. We drove night and day. Wayne with the bus and myself in the pickup at night. We were doing fine. Went thru Chicago at about 3:30 am. Which is a good time to go thru. We came into Wisconsin town of Janesville at 6am. Because Marvin was worried about going thru Chicago, he was tired. So we decided to find the first rest area in Wisconsin and rest. We slept until about 11 pm. Even the kids. Then headed out again. It was getting dark as we were coming near the Minnesota border. We were heading north. We came to an area that was like San Francisco. Up and down hills on a 2 lane highway. At which time the pickups lights decided to take turns turning off and on. I would go a mile or so and then the road was pitch dark. And then the lights would come back on about 3 minutes later, and then go out a mile or so down the road again. It seemed to me like it was always as I was getting ready to head down over the hill, that the lights went out. After about 5 miles I couldn’t take it any longer and called on the cb to have Wayne find the nearest wide spot in the road and pull over. He thought when the lights went out, I had fell behind and was behind the hill. Marvin said it had something to do with the high beam switch. So he direct wired it and said it would be ok, just on low beams. Oh, fun. We went into Minnesota, arriving at his brother’s house at 7am. The next day we left, heading into North Dakota. Some where hear the Painted Hills, early in into the evening, I blew a tire and took out my brakes. I limped over to the side, and called the bus. They had to back down a mile to get to us. Got the tire fixed and drove into the rest area that was a mile down the road. The men worked on the brake line. The kids and I went and looked at the Painted Canyon. It was the most beautiful scene. I believe it is the Roosevelt park. The colors in the rocks were awesome. Back on the road, with Wayne and I back behind the wheel, we made it thru North Dakota fine. When we got to the Montana border we had switched drivers. They drove all day thru Montana, I was sleeping on the bus on the floor and Wayne in the front seat. At about 6 p.m. I heard Tim say on the cb, aren’t we out of Montana yet? He couldn’t believe how long it was. We switched drivers again. We were driving thru the mountains and there was snow on the sides. It was really hilly and Wayne was down in compound low with the bus trying to get over, and then we would head down the hill and back up. As we were cresting one of the hills, he said, I am going to give it hell going down so I can have enough speed to go up the next one. Which he did, except it wasn’t as tall going up and soon we were going down again. This time way faster than we expected. I looked in the mirror and the Mustang is trying to pass me. I can remember telling myself, don’t touch the brake, don’t touch the brake, you will jack knife this thing. So I just push the gas a little until the Mustang disappeared and let the engine slow the rigs down. As we were approaching the bottom, I told the guys, 10-100… which to all you young people who were not around during the cb days, that mean bathroom break. Wayne got out of the bus, and Marvin was quite awake. I guess as we came flying over the hill, Wayne had said OH, SH_T, which immediately woke up Marvin. We started out again, crossing the Idaho border at sunrise. We stopped so we could take a picture of the kids and the guys at the Welcome to Idaho, sign. Pulled in to Vay, just outside of Priest River, about noon. All safe and sound and only one flat tire in this trip. . Not bad for driving across America……. Twice..