El Reno Bound

Bill, hold onto your hat - I'm continuing the story.

After Sis 2 and I managed to get in the tow truck Sis was very agonized over the disposition of the car. 

Did I mention the name of the towing company was Miller Time? Yeah, you read that right, Miller Time. Sis and I were rescued off of I-40 by Miller Time. 

As she was pondering the car conundrum  Mr. Miller Said "I'll give you $150 cash right now. I will take it straight to the crusher and probably get $250 out of it."

Sis said "I'll think about it. Okay! $150 sounds good!" 

So Mr. Miller took us to El Reno. We were both starving by now but procuring a place to sleep and get the car cleared out was the most urgent thing on our plates right now so we checked into a major chain motel with a steakhouse right next door. The only room available was on the second floor but there was an elevator. They didn't allow pets but Mr. M pulled around to the side of the building so I could hide Honey Ruth and he went in with Sis to make sure we got a room. 

He then drove to the back of the motel to help Sis unload the car. I got a room key, my purse and everything else I could carry and Mr M checked to make sure the dog was completely covered before I went in. I stayed in the room and every time I heard a noise outside I would open the door and drag in the bags of stuff they unloaded. 

When the car was unloaded and the business was transacted Sis and I walked to the steak house. We were crossing a ditch when sis asked "Have you ever been in such a bad situation?" I assured her I had. 

Early 1990 Hubby 3 and I had gone to South Carolina. Hurricane Hugo had been through not long before and we were hoping there was a decent job market so we loaded up my old blue Ford and took off. Hubby 3 had been a resident of Kansas City, MO for a while so we left north Arkansas and went to KCMO. 

While in KCMO we traded my VCR for a camper that fit on the truck. It had a 3 burner stove and refrigerator and a bed. Pretty nice in case we had trouble finding housing. 

Hubby 3 had a sister in the Charleston area so we had a place to go. However, things in Charleston were not what we wanted so decided to leave. But the problem was, we needed money to travel so he managed to sell truck and camper to a man for $2100.00. We got our 4 black trash bags - holding all of our worldly goods - and 2 rifles and 2 shotguns out of the truck and were walking to his sisters house. 

Back then I was half the woman I am now and I was wearing a cute light blue sundress and flip flops. There we were, walking down the road, each carrying 2 black plastic garbage bags and a gun under each arm. 

About that time in my story Sis2 and I arrived at the steak house and I had to pause long enough to be seated and order our sweet tea. Sis was laughing at the mental picture of us trudging along the highway each with trash bags and a gun under each arm.

So I resumed my story. The highway had no shoulder on it so we were walking on the side of the road with him closest to the road and I was on the outside and a few steps behind. Suddenly I fell straight into a drainage ditch that was fortunately dry. 

But the ditch was about 4 and a half feet deep and very narrow. I hadn't seen it because the tall grass covered it completely. The fall had knocked the wind out of me even though it was a straight fall and I had landed on my feet. Now I was chin deep in a roadside ditch with a gun still under each arm and trash bags on the roadside. I couldn't speak for a few minutes, my head was surrounded by grass and Hubby 3 walked a ways down the road, still talking before he realized I was gone.

He came back and was mainly concerned about the guns but he finally did help me out of the ditch. 

Sis 2 said she felt better because in that bad situation I was still able to laugh about it and she knew we would be able to look back on her car blowup and laugh about it too. 

We had a wonderful dinner and returned to the motel and called my niece, Sis 2's daughter. 

Next: Escape from El Reno