Trip across country - coming west

Dad's last transfer was back to the Bay Area in California. By then Paul, Carma & I had driver's licenses, but Anne and Lynn had flown the coup. So Dad drove the car that pulled the trailer, and Carma, Paul and I took turns driving the other car. It was a great adventure, crossing the country as teenagers. The last time we did it, we were almost all in elementary school. It was fun to see all the different states, and I think we stopped at some tourist sights, like Carl's Bad Caverns.

But the most memorable part of the trip for me was when Carma & I were in the follow-car and we were almost to Ca. It was rather late at night, and Dad took a turn that Carma and I missed. I can't remember what city we were in, but it was an incredibly lonely and desperate feeling to be suddenly without parents. Cell phones hadn't been invented, so loosing them, meant we had to rely on a miracle. We were also out of gas. We may have known the next city we were headed to, but not where to meet them if we found it. We didn't have a map of the city or of our travel route, or any money. We drove around a bit, hoping to find a policeman, but didn't see any. We stopped at a couple of gas stations, and put the hose in the gas tank, hoping for a few drops, but didn't get enough to make any difference.

Finally, we decided to pray. That was the only choice we had. It seems as soon as we lifted our heads from praying, a policeman came to the car and asked who we were. Our parents had called them, and he was looking for us, and helped get us reunited. What a relief! It was definitely one of the biggest testimony builders of my youth.

The only other thing I remember about the trip is that when we got to the Santa Cruz mountains, and knew we were only about 20 minutes from Campbell where we would park the trailer, there was bumper to bumper traffic, moving about 5 mph. We took milk out of the fridge of the trailer and put it over cereal. It was mostly frozen and tasted so good, but those last few miles seemed to take forever. We were soooooo glad to finally get to our destination after so many days on the road.