Chapter 20

It took us longer to move everything we'd packed from the suburban to the motor home than it did to pack it. It also took two trips. While Bonnie and Thelma went back for the second load, I was going over the features of the vehicle with the salesman.

I had him go over the leveling and on how to hook up to the facilities at a campground. Nothing was too complicated, so we finished fairly quickly. I then drove the RV around the lot a couple of times to get the feel of it. God the thing was huge. I had driven RVs when I was George. I had even taken special training for driving them. The power steering and brakes were excellent, so there wasn't a lot of physical strain.

When the Suburban was hooked on the back and everyone was aboard and settled I asked Bonnie the big question, "Where the hell are we going?"

Bonnie got a big laugh out of that. "I guess I have been pretty secretive about that, haven't I? Get on route 80 headed east. We're going to Nevada."

"Are the passes clear?" I asked.

"I checked with AAA this morning. All the roads are open, and free of snow. It may be the last time this year they can say that, so I thought it would be a good time for us to head in that direction."

I put the travel monster in gear and eased my way out of the lot. I checked the fuel gauge and decided we could get on the highway and find a truck stop safely.

We stopped just outside of Oakland and I filled the diesel's tanks. It's quite a shock when you pump in almost two hundred gallons. I sure am glad it wasn't at 2003 prices. It also took a while. We also filled the propane and water tanks. I was getting a little hungry, so we pulled over into the truck parking area.

The girls fixed sandwiches and soft drinks which we ate while we sat around the living room and talked. Sharon found my lap, and decided she was better at feeding me than I was at feeding myself. I'll have to admit I enjoyed having the attention.

"Bonnie, would you like to drive for a while, now that we're on the open road?" I asked.

"Mike, it scares the pee out of me to think of driving something this big, but it also makes me wet. Yes, I'd like to try. Will you sit up front with me while I do?"

"Of course. I won't abandon you. I think you'll get used to it quickly though. After you've had a turn, we'll see if Thelma would like to give it a spin."

"Oh yes, I want to try," Thelma said. "It's kind of like having sex for the first time though. Just as Bonnie said, it scares you to death, but it is also very exciting."

I had Bonnie drive around the parking lot a couple of times, then pull back into the slot we had been in. She did very well, but I could see she was a little nervous, especially with the Suburban hooked on the back.

She was confident enough to get her out on the road, so we did. She held just below the speed limit, which was fine with me. We were on the road in the early afternoon, so we would be missing rush hour traffic, which was also fine by me.

Bonnie had been driving for just a little over an hour and we were and we were approaching Sacramento when she pulled into a rest stop and asked for me to take back over. I told her how well she had done, and she gave me one of her million watt smiles.

"It scared me at first," she said. "After I was driving a while I really began to enjoy it. You're so high up you can see everything."

We all got out and stretched our legs. I found out the rest of the family had been playing cards as we traveled. We romped around a little while, playing grab ass and tickle monster, then I told everyone I'd like to get by Sacramento before their rush hour started, so we hit the road.

I was driving and Thelma was riding shotgun as we started our climb toward Donner Pass. Once we had gotten out of the range of Sacramento traffic, I slowed us down so everyone could enjoy the scenery. I had been driving an hour and a half or so when I decided it would soon be time to eat.

I called Bonnie on the intercom and asked her to come up and talk with Thelma and I for a minute. When she came in I asked her if she'd like for us to stop so we could prepare dinner, or would she rather we found a place and ate out.

After discussing it, we decided to stop in Truckee and get something to eat and check on the latest road conditions.

While we were eating at a truck stop in Truckee, I happened to notice a couple of state troopers at the counter. I went over and talked with them for a couple of minutes, asking about road conditions. They told me the roads were clear, but it was definitely cold, so to be careful, especially after the highway started down toward Reno.

It was just starting to get dark as we left Truckee. We hadn't gone more than five miles when a light snow began to fall. It wasn't anything serious and the officers I had talked with said there wasn't any accumulation predicted.

I was following a car that was taking it kind of slow. I made sure I stayed far enough back to stop if he suddenly stopped in front of me. We had just reached an area where the mountain dropped off sharply on the right side of the road when I saw the car swerve sharply.

I applied my brakes and watched, sickened to my soul, as the car hit the guard rail and plunged over the side of the mountain. A deer ran off, across the median as I reached the spot where the car went out of control. Sharon, who was riding shotgun gasped then buried her head in her hands as I pulled off on the shoulder.

I grabbed her shoulder and shook her. "Get me a heavy coat," I shouted at her, trying to break her out of her shock. I got out, not waiting for her to return and went over to where the car had broken through the guardrail.

I could see the car about fifty feet below me. It had come to rest against a tree that looked to be about four inches in diameter. It didn't look like it was going anywhere. The lights were still on, but it looked like the engine had died since the rear wheels were not turning.

I was trying to see if there was a way down to the vehicle when Sharon showed up with a coat for me and the rest of the family in tow. Damn it was steep. I couldn't see any hand or footholds and I knew we didn't have any rope in our RV.

"Bonnie, get all of the sheets you bought and bring them here. We'll also need a knife."

Bonnie was running to the RV before I even finished speaking. Beth followed her to help. When they got back, I took the knife and started a cut midway of the top of a sheet. I then tore the sheet in half. "Someone do the other sheets like I just did this one," I told them as I was tying the two halves of the sheet end to end.

Working together, we soon had a rope that would reach below the car. I tied one end of it to the guardrail post and started down. My hands were freezing, but I knew I wouldn't have as good a grip on the sheets if I were wearing gloves.

I was beginning to worry about the occupants of the car since I hadn't seen any movement inside the vehicle. I lost track of it as I was going down as I had to focus all of my attention on climbing. When I got down to the level of the car, I had to swing slightly to my right to get to it. I was able to walk across the face of the mountain, and it was a short enough distance I wasn't feeling a lot of sideways pull on our makeshift rope.

I could see in the passenger side window. There was a man behind the wheel and a woman in the passenger seat. Both were slumped forward, obviously unconscious or dead. There were two smaller bodies in the back, both lying against the back of the front seat. The windshield was busted and small pieces of glass were everywhere.

I made sure the passenger wasn't leaning against the door, then opened the passenger side door in the front. The wheels on the passenger side were in a wash that summer rain had cut into the steep slope. The car seemed very stable, so I wasn't worried about it slipping off the tree and going on down.

I mentally probed the couple in the front seat. The woman was dead. There was no response from her at all. I could see from the angle of her head that her neck had been broken. The man appeared to be just unconscious. I was afraid he'd wake up while I was trying to get them out, so I told his body to sleep until one of us woke him.

The girl in the back seat was starting to wake up as I climbed into the car. She had been holding a large teddy bear when they hit the guardrail, and it probably saved her life. The boy who had been riding behind his father hadn't faired as well. His right arm was badly broken, with the bone protruding through the skin. The jagged end of the bone had cut a vein and he was bleeding profusely.

I managed to get the vein to heal itself, and the bleeding stopped. If I had been just a few minutes later, he'd have been with his mother. I put the little girl, who appeared to be about seven or eight back to sleep. Her brother appeared to be a few years older, and I reinforced his sleep as well.

<Bonnie, we need to bring these people up, > I told her. <We have a dead woman, a man, and two kids.>

<Okay, if you can tie them on to the rope, I think we can pull them up.>

<I'm going to send up the dead woman first, > I told them. <Everyone has to come out through the door she is blocking. When you get her up, tie something to the end of the rope and let it back down close enough to the car so we can reach it.>

I tied the rope around the woman, under her arms and managed to get her out of the car without falling down the cliff myself. I told the family to pull her up and wished I was up there to help them.

When they had her all the way up, and had removed the rope, I thought of how rough it was going to be on the other occupants to be pulled up in the same manner. <Send down a pillow when you drop the rope back down, > I requested.

When the rope came back down, I took the pillow and doubled it up lengthwise. I cut about three feet off the end of the rope and used it to tie the pillow around the man's neck. This would keep his head off the ground as they pulled him up.