1968 Catherine's Trip to California Diary -Dec.21-29

12/21/68
11 AM - first stop - Marathon Gas Station, New Vienna - [odometer] 42306.  Arrived at Mary Beth's house for lunch.  Spent afternoon decorating tree and house.  Nice to see all – Jeanne, Bev, Marti.

12/22/68
Left Burkholders about 7 AM - 42419
Rationed out the food as follows:

• cheese 200 miles
• eggs 800 miles
• apples 480 miles
• tangerine 800 miles 
• cookies 300 miles

I doubt if we will starve but we sure won't gain weight!

A gas station just gave us a box of taffy and a box of peanut brittle – enough for a piece every 88 miles.  What a treat!  Everything went fine until about 5 PM when the car started gradually slowing down until it wouldn't go over 50.  Ardy thought it was the timer which had gone bad before so we stopped at a bunch of gas stations but none of them had the right tools to fix a VW.  By this time the car sounded worse than a truck, it wouldn't go over 30 and it smelled like the engine was burning up.  

We bundled up (the temperature was about 10º and the wind was blowing about 50mph) locked the car, and started the 3 mile stint to the nearest gas station.  We'd gone about 100 yards when a truck stopped and offered us a lift – we immediately accepted and he took us to Concordia, Missouri.  My left contact became dislocated from all the wind and I thought for sure my eye was going to pop right out.  I couldn't see a thing but I knew I hadn't lost it 'cause it was causing so much pain.  Ardy called AAA who said they could tow the car to Concordia but it would have to be towed to Sedalia (40 miles) to be fixed.  There was a motel right there but we figured it would cost us more than we wanted to spend.  A man at the gas station finally told us about a Mrs. Becker and her son who had a spare room.  She gave us the room, fixed us some supper and breakfast and it cost us each $1.50.

12/23/68

The tow man hauled us to Sedalia where we found out the clutch was burned out.  They fixed it and at about noon, mileage 43055, we started west again.  Car still won't move very fast so we found a VW place in Kansas City, Kansas.  Nothing wrong.  Interstate almost all the way through Kansas except last 30 miles – made really good time.  Called Sue when we got about 40 miles from Denver (10:30 PM - MST).  Got to Sue's house – great to see her family again.  Ardy went to bed, I stayed up and talked to Sue for awhile.

12/24/68

Got up at 6.  Mr. & Mrs. Steusloff were both up and had delicious breakfast (real food, even!) waiting for us.  Left about 7 with mileage 43764.  Back before we left I called home.  The Colorado mountains were really beautiful and the roads were good.  But then came Utah where the weather was good but the roads were terrible.  We went around Salt Lake City just as it got dark so didn't get to see the Great Salt Lake.  Stopped in the first town in Nevada at a Casino – cafe for coffee.  Hard to realize that gambling is legal.  The radio is getting a little repetitious every half hour we hear the same news stories about Apollo Eight and the Pueblo Crew.   Between news casts we hear the same Christmas Carols only each time we sing them louder to keep ourselves awake.  As the night went on we hung our imaginary stockings and made an imaginary fruitcake out of our food: cheese, tangerines, apples, oranges – all held together with taffy and the peanut brittle on top.  We celebrated the coming of Christmas in Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, and finally Nevada.  We stopped twice more for coffee and in the meantime the weather is getting increasingly bad.

12/25/68

(just a continuation of 12/24/68 – we drove straight through.)  Arrived in Reno about 5:30 AM – roads are just covered with snow and ice and when we finally got in California (where they confiscated our remaining apples and tangerine) we were told we couldn't proceed any further until we had chains put on the car.  Had to get off the road and make our way to the gas station to get the chains.  

Back on the road where it is snowing even harder.  Thank goodness it is divided road so we didn't have to worry about the cars coming the other way.  We were doing fine until it began snowing so hard the windshield wipers wouldn't work.  I rolled down my window, put half myself outside the car and scraped the snow off with the ice scraper.  That worked fine until I froze and Ardy thought the road curved where it actually went straight so we plowed into the snow bank.  The snow was up to the hood on one side.  We pushed, pulled, and spun the tires but nothing helped.  

Finally, after we had almost resigned ourselves to spending the rest of our lives in the snow, two cars came along.  The men got out and helped us push and pull until we eventually got the car dislodged.  We just followed the blurry taillights of the car in front of us which worked fine until they went faster than we could go.  Back down went my window but this time I just kept Ardy posted on how far we were from the snowbank to our right.  Then came that blessed sign "chains no longer required," the snow turned to rain the roads were clear, and we zipped on our way.  

[Although it seemed like an eternity had passed it was only 9:30 AM when we got out of that stuff.]  We stopped to see Ardy's friend Mary in Berkeley and arrived at Ardy's house at about 1:00 with the mileage 45069, making a total of 2763 miles between New Vienna and San Mateo.  We had two oranges and 5 pieces of taffy left.  Her family got home shortly thereafter, (Mother, Father, and sister Dell) Ardy opened her presents and at 3:00 we went to bed.

12/26/68

Woke up at 6, but that was about the soundest 15 hours of sleep I ever got.  All my stuff came through fine except my German book which is completely soaked from the melted snow which collected under the seat.  We went to visit Ardy's sister Janet who lives in an apartment in San Jose.  She is 2 1/2 years older than Ardy and just came out of the convent last summer.  Then we went to see her friend Joyce who she used to work with, go to school with, and they went to Hawaii together before our bicycle trip last summer.  We stopped and I got some postcards and then we went to her sister Roberta's house, who is married and has a little boy Chris.  Roberta is the second oldest daughter, Maureen who is older yet is in the Convent.  Back to Ardy's I found a letter and a card from home, and Christmas cards from Linda Popp, Marcia Chappel, and Micky Roussere.  Joyce called Ardy and she's having a party on New Year's Eve.

12/27/68

Messed around all morning.  I finished writing my postcards.  We exchanged some Christmas presents at Macy's and Hatfield's then took the car to a Body Shop in San Carlos to have the trunk fixed which the towing co. in Concordia had broken.  While it was being fixed I got something to send home and to the Steusloff's.  Also bought a bus ticket from San Mateo to Kalamazoo.  Got the car and drove down to San Jose – went through Palo Alto and got a glimpse of Stanford.  Saw San Jose State where Ardy went to school.

12/28/68

We went to San Francisco and saw alot of the sights – Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, Cliff House, Point Lobos, Golden Gate Bridge, the Golden Gate Park with the Japanese Tea Garden, museums, etc. and can't forget the cable cars.  Met Ardy's friend Cheryl who has an apartment on Ashbury.  We all went out to dinner at Que-Lai a Chinese place – very inexpensive and the food was delicious.  We went to the ACT theater where they have a student standby plan.  The seats on the edges of the sections which don't sell by curtain time are sold to students cheaper.  We got $6 orchestra seats for $2.  Saw "A Flea in Her Ear" a really funny French farce which K put on just this past fall.  Stayed all night in Cheryl's apartment.

12/29/68

Had breakfast at Cheryl's and made it to 9:45 mass at St. Ignatius (sp?).  Picked up Ardy's oldest sister Maureen at the convent and then back home.  Found some mail – grades, . . . .  [continued in a letter dated December 30, 1968.]