Graduate work at summer
school passed very quickly. Then it was time to head out to St. Paul Lutheran
Church and School in Tracy, California for my church-assigned duties. My memory
is that the congregation offered to pay my bus fare from my home in Texas to
Tracy. I chose to go by a route other than bus. As I did quite often, I
checked the newspapers and found a car that needed to be delivered to
California: a beautiful two-toned brand new Pontiac. A friend from Texas joined
me. We went from Chicago to Central Texas to San Francisco all without incident
other than one stop by the Highway Patrol in Arizona. I think they had seen me
speed down a long hill but were too far behind me to track the exact speed. So
I was stopped, the officer examined my papers, I told him about my “sacred call
“and he wished me well and sent me on with his blessings (and no ticket).
This was my first of
quite a few trips between Texas and the Midwest, always by some means other than
public transportation or my own car. I had been at St. Paul’s school only a few
months when the PTA very graciously raised money as a gift to allow me to visit
my fiancé, Jane, who was teaching in Michigan. I always remember Mr. B telling
the parents “I know Mr. K. Let’s not buy him a ticket; instead let’s just
give him the cash. I bet he will come up with an alternative plan.” He was
right. I joined a group of men (found through a newspaper ad) and again we drove
straight through. I did have one stress-filled hour. We arrived in Salt Lake
City around 1:00 am. Of course, there were no freeways in those days and
we needed to drive through the heart of the city. The driver said, “Watch
me. I am going to drive through this whole city without stopping once,” And he
did, though it meant just running through the many red lights we encountered.
The Mormon gods were with us and we made it safely.
After a wonderful
Christmas with Jane, a friend who was the coach at Concordia College in Oakland
found a car in Detroit that needed delivering to San Francisco. Again we drove
without spending a night in any hotel. However, we did have a New Year’s Eve
incident. Just after midnight a car was suddenly stopped in front of
us in the middle of the road and another car was coming up the mountain to meet
us. We had a minor collision. The highway patrol arrived but they said they
were too busy on this New Year’s Eve to write up an accident report. They
ordered us to go the county court house in the next city and write the report.
We went to the courthouse arriving around 2:00 am. We had to wait for the
lone official there to first perform a wedding ceremony for a couple which
had decided at midnight that they wanted to get married at once. The
other party involved in our accident never arrived (we think the driver of that
vehicle actually did not possess a valid drivers license). We went on our way
and got stopped in California (maybe we were speeding) but then it got
interesting. We told the officer about our deal on delivering the car. He asked
for the name of the company to which we were headed etc. etc. etc. Then I
showed him the papers. “WOW !” he said. ”You are lucky. This guy is famous for
bringing cars into California illegally and changing registrations in an
improper way. You are one lucky gentleman. I will not confiscate this vehicle.”
And he sent us on our way rejoicing.
There are other stories
of this kind of travel. Jane and I drove a vehicle from Ft. Wayne to Muskogee, OK
because our new car had been nearly totaled on the way to the wedding and had
to be repaired in Muskogee. Once we drove an almost new Cadillac
from Detroit to Orange County. The air conditioner went out in the middle of
that summer heat, but again we made it.
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