The Griswolds Part II The BUS

Living in the military is not a glamorous life. Most soldiers at a certain rank do not make much money. So was the case with us.

1993 I had just had my son Ben, and we wanted to go home for Christmas but we could not afford to fly, or take the train. Therefore, we decided to go home by bus no big deal 36-hours on bus with a 6-week-old baby and a 5 year old was worth the inconvenience to be home.

The bus station was in St Louis and the morning of our journey, a friend drove us to the station. Everything was going well, we boarded our bus no problem. We were sitting in our seats waiting to depart when disaster struck again. The entire bus station swarmed with police, swat teams, fire trucks. We began to notice that the station was void of any other human life except the people on our bus. Which made me a little nervous because we had no idea what was happening. I thought there was a sniper at the station.

The police boarded our bus and started checking passenger’s tickets. Then the police left and came back and checked tickets and identification. Then the police got back on the bus and asked us to remain in our seats and not get off the bus. I said jokingly to the officer standing in front of us, “what is there a bomb on the bus” he replied, “I didn’t say that”.

Why was our bus the only bus left in the station? In addition, why were we sitting there for hours? About 3 hours into this ordeal, the police came back on the bus and said, “Your bus can go on down the road now”. I thought for sure, we going a safe distance away to blow up.

It turns out when they were loading the luggage on the bus; a hand grenade fell out of someone’s bag. It was not a detonated hand grenade obviously but it was still an explosive. The person that belonged to the bag was not on the bus. The luggage that was on the bus was removed. Therefore, off we went with nothing but the small carry bag I was holding. A 6-week-old baby and a 5 year old.

What a trip that was. The bus ride itself was worse than a detonated grenade

The Griswold's Part I

We earned the nickname the Griswold's because no matter where we traveled some kind of disaster happened upon us. Just like the famous Griswold family from National Lampoons Vacation.

The Griswold’s Part 1

You were sent to the wrong base. Yes, that is what we were told when we arrived in Ft. Lee Virginia. Unfortunately, it was on a Friday of a holiday weekend, and we were told to wait until the following Tuesday until they could straighten out the paperwork and so that the army could give us the extra travel money to report to the correct base. Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri. You see the mix up right. Ft. Lee, Ft. Leonard Wood. Classic!

After that jumble we had only 2 days to drive to Ft. Leonard Wood, the military does not care if they are at fault. You have to report no matter what or you are AWOL. The following Tuesday we started our 1000 mile journey.

Ah, the mountains of West Virginia, beautiful but it was nighttime and we were traveling at the speed of light to get to our destination. My husband and I got into a little argument because I decided he was driving too fast. Mind you, we are in unfamiliar territory, the highway was this long and never-ending road of twists and turns and runaway truck ramps. (Runaway truck ramps are for trucks who can’t stop because they are having breaking problems) This happens when you are driving on a highway in the mountains.

Where is our money? The first stroke of bad luck. Losing all our money in the mountains of. How you ask. Considering we were on limited time to get to where we were going, speed was the one thing on our side. Speeding through the mountains, not such a good idea. My husband and I got into a little argument when I asked him to slow down. We stopped to get gas at some rinky-dink gas station in the middle of nowhere. In the mountains all the gas stations, restaurants etc. were below, meaning all the off ramps led you down into a little valley area. Anyway, we were arguing, I had all the money and travelers checks in a waist bag. I slammed the bag on the back of the car (our old Camaro with the tail fin) and told my husband to take it, after I had paid for the gas. He picked up the bag or so I thought, and off we went. About 20 minutes later he said, “lets get some food” and it struck, where was the bag with all the money.

We set off into a panic, not remembering what gas station we had been to (they all looked the same); we checked every gas station going back for miles, no bag! We thought for sure someone picked it up and stole it. Here we are, in the middle of nowhere and no money. We drove up and down the highway looking on the side of the road. We figured if someone stole it, they took what they wanted and tossed it out the window. We did this for about an hour, up and down, back and forth on the road to nowhere. Then we spotted something on the side of the highway and we stopped.

There was our bag, the zipper broke and all our money was scattered on the grass. The bag hung onto the back of the car until it finally slid off. We found everything but a $20 dollar traveler’s check. (to this day I never have all my money when traveling in one place).

The Griswold’s Part II coming soon! It gets even better