Chapter 26

[Arnold's manuscript]

It was quiet and we found a safe spot to cross and immediately went into the woods to be out of sight from the road. We waited to here for any hue and cry but it stayed quiet. We walked back to the town staying well away from the road. We arrived at the outskirts and looked at our same road. We found a similar tripwire and worked around it.

I told Maria that I hoped to untie our wires and retie them behind us to further hide our passing. She nodded. She whispered, "Now, all we have to do is get the truck and drive through. What are your plans?"

"I think we should find another place from which to watch on this side for the day. This is going to be important for us and we can take our time." She nodded. We went further into town and found another two-story building and climbed into the second story to watch for convoys and our watchers.

In the late afternoon, a school bus came by and exchanged our two sentries for another pair. We never noticed two of them outside during the day. That suggested to me that one rested, prepared meals, or otherwise lazed around during their off times. As I watched them, I decided that early morning might be the best time to pass across the street with the truck.

We watched through the evening. There was the same motorcycle rides but the rider was going much faster than the others and showing more flare. I did notice one thing. The tripwires had a glint under the glare of the motorcycle's lights. I would have to remember that. We left early to search for a place to hide the truck after we passed across the road. We found a place that would offer us shelter and not show our truck to any casual searchers. We wanted to keep going but this would be a bolt hole if we needed it. Around lunchtime, we crossed back over the road through the woods.

We returned to the truck to make everything ready for tonight. I thought of something else. The truck had daytime running lights in front and tail and brake lights in back. I carefully terminated all those lights. We would have headlights and backup lights if we wanted them. All other lights were gone. Maria thought about all that for a moment and then nodded.

That afternoon, we walked our chosen path and listened for the convoys. The school bus came and went. We returned to our truck and were ready. We heard the motorcycle and cranked the truck and climbed out of the gully up to the paved road. We hid the truck and waited to see if anything out of the ordinary happened. It was quiet again. Twice more, we heard the motorcycle make its noisy round. It was shortly after that third trip that we cranked the truck and let it slowly move to the road and across. Maria was driving and she kept going to our hiding place while I retied the tripwires on each side and skittered to the new side of the road and caught up with Maria. Just as I was getting close, I heard the motorcycle crank for a pass. I watched with Maria as the rider went by looking carefully at the tripwires. That suggested that one of them had heard enough to be suspicious. We lay low. I whispered to Maria, "We've been lucky. Let's wait until there is a change of guard before we go further. We can use the day to map a long route back to our road."

She nodded and we went back to the truck and napped. Then, I unloaded the bicycles and we rode out of town on our little road. It was pretty level and we rode a few miles before even looking for a way to return to our chosen road.

We found a beautiful little primitive farm with a small house. It had an artisan well for water but little else. It was pretty and undisturbed. It had a bedroom with a good bed. Maria said, "Arnoldo, let's move to here and then figure things out."

"That sounds like an excellent idea. We can ride back. When a convoy comes through, we can crank and leave. We will be beyond their hearing. We will have to watch for smoke from any fire we use."

She went into the bedroom and lay on the bed. "It will be good to sleep on a bed without having to listen for bad people in the night." I smiled.

"Let's ride back and then move back here." We did it just as we planned though were nervous until we pulled in. There was a barn and I pulled the truck into it to hide it from casual eyes. We waited, listening for motors but heard nothing.

I said, "We'll stay here tonight and then continue on to Morelia in the morning."

Maria nodded. "Do you think we made it by them, Arnoldo?"

"I hope so but there's no way to tell unless they come for us." We carried our emergency packs in with us. We made it a point to never be separated from them or each other. We had a simple supper and the night was peaceful.

We left in the morning working toward our original road and away from the convoy route. We met up with our route and made it to Morelia safely. We picked a house on the outskirts of town again and set up a hidden quarters while we searched the town for any friendly survivors.

That evening, our chosen house had no electricity and we had to use candles which the house had in multitude though the different scents were mind-boggling. We decided to plan our next long step to Hermosillo and mark the map. It would be a long leg of over a thousand miles and take us from highlands and cool temperatures to a desert climate and heat. We planned our route to take it in steps. Knowing where we were going, we tried to plan ahead. One thing we did was preparing a fifty-gallon barrel for water. We packed it in the truck and tried to insulate it as best as possible. We also put together a twelve-volt pump with hoses for gas.

Maria said, "When we get to Hermosillo, do we keep going?"

"Yes, dear one. I don't think it will be a good place to live. We would need to be more east to hope to find a wetter climate. I think when we get there; we will make the final run for California. I am hoping for better living conditions without the altitude. We will have to look around."

The trip to Hermosillo was dull. There were no people and, the closer we got to Hermosillo, the less water we found. We did swim in the Gulf of California, naked! Of course, there was no one to see us. It still felt daring and was great fun. We felt that this part of the trip was a second honeymoon.

At Hermosillo, we had to plan our final route. We planned to stay in Mexico entering the United States through Tijuana. It would be a shorter leg of about five hundred fifty miles. We prepared again for a dry trip with nothing available for food or anything else good. We grabbed batteries for our lanterns and flashlights. We picked dried food and cleaned our clothes. We were getting tired of traveling and finding no one. We had hopes for San Diego but we were no longer optimistic. Knowing that our trip was not through a thickly populated area, we packed a small tent and sleeping bags if night found us needing shelter and none was available.

Our trip was as we expected it until we reached Tijuana. There we found people!

It was a group of about forty Mexicans and Americans who had banded together. They seemed to be good people but were leaderless. There were some engineers, farmers, a doctor, and a man and a woman who had been in the army. We met them when we saw them leaving a group meeting as we drove into town.

We talked with them and they voted us in! I explained that I wanted to publish my travelogue and leave it at the airport in San Diego. We agreed that I would leave this document telling future readers that we are going east. Our travels are at an end. Maria is overjoyed to find a doctor since she is pregnant with our first child. We will have to pick a male and a female name since our doctor has no ultrasound equipment to determine sex. We don't care. We are looking forward to our first child.

We will take this manuscript to the San Diego airport and leave it there like I had the one in San Salvador. Then, we will head east. God bless any who read this. We are happy and will make a new life in this new world.

Arnold and Maria Ralston

[Janice writes]

That completes the manuscript as we found it. We don't think the Ralston's and their group moved north or west from San Diego. We found nothing to the east so Mike and Jen want to try looking south. We'll see.

In my view, we have three unfinished pieces of business in the west. One is the fate of the Ralston's and their new group. Second is the fate of the Salt Lakers. Third is the situation at Bakersfield and the rest of our original exploration trip.

It is early summer. Andy and Charlie are counting the months and days until next spring when they both turn fifteen. Both have soloed in the Cessna and are learning to fly King under my tutelage. They are taking self-defense lessons also. Andy has been surprised a few times when I made her do something difficult physically. She was honest enough to complain. I told her that if Charlie were bleeding to death and she didn't know how or didn't know that she could physically do something, how would she feel when he died. Andy blanched and then buckled down. I said, "If you're going to fly with me as a pilot or if you're going to fight by my side, there has to be nothing you can't do. You may have the lives of my spouses or son or other children in your hands. You have to be able or know that you aren't." Neither one ever complained in any serious way again. They are still Poppa Jack's flying chauffeurs though he is learning to fly. I was going to teach him but had to hand that job off. I couldn't bring myself to discipline him!