Crossing America...

In the fall of 1978, We had decided to move from Ellensburg, Washington to Rhode Island. My husband at the time Marvin (he passed away in 1986) had been operated on. He had his second series of bypasses. The Dr. at that time, in the Vancouver Vet's hospital had told us that there wasn't anything else that could be done for Marvin, that was the last operation for him. (which turn out not to be true, but that is another story) So we decided to sell our place in Ellensburg and go to Rhode Island. A two-fold idea. One being if anything happen to Marvin, I would be near my family. Second one, my folks were getting up in age and we could be of help to them.
Marvin built two trailers. One out of a pick up bed. And the other one was a 20 foot that he built from scratch. It had plywood sides to it. My brother came out from R.I. to help with the driving. So we had a caravan. Marvin, driving an older GMC truck with a box bed. The kind that have cabinets and shelves on the side and the bed being empty with a lid. In there he had his welder and every part he could think of that we may need to replace on our trip. Fan belts, batteries, fuel and water pumps. Marvin was an expert at this as he had moved from Minnesota to Washington state quite a few years before. He towed the long trailer. Which had all of Marvin tools, tool boxes, (4 of them) steel in case he had to weld something, and every thing he could put in there that came from his garage and the beds. You will see in a minute or so how fool hardy this became, kind of. Next was our 72 Ford 3/4 ton pick up and towing the small trailer. Which, both, contain all the house hold things. In the very front of the pickup bed was Marvin guns. Being a Patrick McManus type man, (hunter and fishing) he had many.. I mean many... Being my R.I. brother who never had a gun in his life, was driving this vehicle, he was glad the guns were way back there. Next bringing up the rear...Me..driving our 63 Chevie convertible. With the kids. The ones that weren't in the other two vehicles. Why would we take a 63 car across the country? One, because it was in good working order and mostly because this car had been promised to our youngest since we had bought in 1972. So we pull out of Ellensburg at about 8am. The trip was going fairly well, ha ha... seems that we had to wait up on the top of the far side of Vanatage for a half an hour for Marvin to drive up the hill. I think he was going the top speed of 15 mph. He found out that the trailer was quite heavy. And it swayed... So we pulled into George, Washington. They sent us to a gas station in Moses Lake. To buy a sway bar.
That took out that problem and we were off on our way again. We reached the Idaho border at about 10 p.m. We had stopped for gas, and were going to spend the night with friends in Vay area near Priest River. We had pulled away from the gas station about a mile. And BAM!!. The large trailer not only blew a tire, but broke the axle.. (remember the garage stuff?) . The long and short of this is, the boys, (ours) Marvin, my brother Roy, and our friend who we called, worked on it all night long. They got it jacked up, welded and on the road again by 2 am. I had taken the rest of the kids to our friend's house. We slept until 7am. Got up and was back on the road again. My brother got broke into Idaho living. Our friends hadn't gotten their house finished yet so they had a outhouse. So my brother was surprise when he asked for the bathroom, and then bowled over with my friend (who has a wicked sense of humor) as he asked my brother a question. He asked my brother, do you go to bathroom in your house? How weird, we don't like to do that here, so we have ours outside. The look on my brother's face, was a riot. Anyway we went from Idaho, thru Montana, North Dakota, blowing a tire per state, .....yep, on the large trailer. Going thru North Dakota was fun, as it had its usual weather... thunderstorms and pouring rain. In North Dakota there is a town called Jamestown. My brother lived in Jamestown R.I. and there is a giant buffalo in that town. I made him stop and get out of the truck and go stand under the buffalo. Told him I would tell all his friend he had this great opportunity and blew it just because of a little rain storm. Ah, the power of an older sister. ha ha...
We went into Minnesota to see Marvin's family and rest for one day. As our sleeping had been on the lawn of rest areas while the kids slept in the vehicles. Our diet consisted of eggs and cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch. (peanut butter and jelly and spam were the choices). So stopping was great for everyone. Showers, good food and rest in beds or on the floor. To our surprise, when we woke the next morning, my mother in law brought in her paper and there was a picture of our GMC. I forgot to mention, that the hunter Marvin had put his prize Washington Elk horns (14 pionts) on the top of the cab in front of the truck bed wall. With the title of family on the move or something like that. We left Minnesota and cut across Wisconsin and stopped at a McDonald's before crossing over into Chicago, Illinois. At the parking lot a gentleman came over to see the elk horns and talked to us. As we were getting ready to pull out, he said. "watch out, if you break down, keep driving until you can pull into a gas station as they are wicked over there, they will strip your vehicle and things before you can find help." Of which my brother's eyes widen. We made it thru there and of course once in that area, you go thru toll booths after toll booths until we got to Mass. Luckily we only had a short (2 hours) to go thru Mass. And my brother was sweatting bullets. Remember Mass has a very tough gun law. Automatic in jail for a year with any guns, if Mass isn't notified they are in your possession and the where abouts of them. We pulled into Jamestown R.I. on a sunny morning. We had blown over 8 tires on the large trailer. And to this day, my brother refers to it as the Peanut Butter and Jelly run.
next time... I will tell you of the run back across when we left R.I. almost 4 years later.