Odie and I had contacted the LaNasas of our trip to Florida and we planned to leave Florida and go to New Orleans for the 1946 Mardi Gras.
On our way from Miami we went through Naples never expecting that at some later date we would own a home there. And even more coincidentally we had an accident in the northern part of Naples that had to be close to where we later lived. Leaving Naples in a rainstorm at a curve on old Route 41 we slid off the road into a ditch. We were able to get out of the car, and fortunately within a few minutes a car came by and they took Odie to a garage in Bonita Springs. There they had a vehicle to pull our car out of the ditch and towed it to the garage. This all occurred on a Friday. A part that was needed would not be available before Monday, so we were taken to a hotel in Fort Meyers where we stayed until the car was fixed on Monday. We never made it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras on Tuesday. And even several years after we had the home in Naples at Landmark did I realize that the accident had taken place practically where the main entrance was located! Incidentally, the hotel where we stayed is fondly remembered by Odie. On Saturday night we were the only ones in the dining room, and there was a small band playing for our entertainment!
Our stay in New Orleans was short. We had a couple of days to share with the LaNasas, and then received a phone call from my parents that Odie’s mother was very ill, so we left immediately and started driving north. I have no recollection of what happened on the way home, except for one incident. Somewhere in Tennessee we had to climb a high mountain. Before we reached the top the car’s motor stopped! A farmer who came up behind us stopped to ask about our problem. He said something about the air being so thin at that altitude that it caused the motor to stop. He pushed our car with his truck to the top of the hill- we were only about 100 yards or so from the top- and as soon as we started rolling down the other side the motor started and we kept on going. The roads we travelled over were only two lanes, but I believe that the hill is the one we travel to get to Knoxville on I-81- now four lanes! I have no recollection of where we stayed; we couldn’t have made it in one day. By the time we got to Pawtucket, Odie’s mom was feeling better.
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