In 1974 my sister Lucille suggested to Marie and I that she would like to make a trip to Marshalltown, Iowa, to visit some friends of hers, a Mr. and Mrs. Don and Muriel Weatherman. In high school they had all been close friends with her and our brother Glen. Prior to the Weathermans getting married, Muriel lived with an aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. John Evans, who owned the bank in Beaman, and lived in a house just north of the one we lived in. So Marie, Margie, and I talked it over and decided to take Lucille to Marshalltown. While there, we would visit Beaman, Iowa, where Lucille and I went to school. Leaving Lucille there, Marie, Margie and I would go on to Nebraska for a few days to visit with Rev. and Mrs. Victor Augsburger. Rev. Augsburger had been the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Biloxi.
In Beaman, Iowa we saw the house we used to live in and the county school that we attended. Marie, Margie, and I left Marshalltown, and arrived over at Storm Lake, Nebraska to visit with the Augsburgers for a few days. On our first day there we began to smell gas leak around the car. A new tank was not available. So Mary Jane called a garage manager and asked him to patch the gas tank good enough for us to reach Marshalltown and later to Biloxi. This he did.

The Augsburgers lived way out in the country and had no particular town to call home. When not preaching, Victor was managing, with some help, a large farm where he raised corn and wheat, and was quite successful in doing so. Originally he had been a Mennonite, and a Colonel and chaplain in the Air Force and was very good at what he did. While we were there he had a Vacation Bible School program going on and invited us to go with him for a day on a large boat over on Storm Lake. This was quite an eventful trip, as a small storm actually took place. After this we left the Augsburgers and went back to Marshalltown, for a day or so and then went back to our home in Biloxi.




After arriving in Biloxi, I was very glad to have a new gas tank put in the car. I was holding my breath all that time hoping that the gas tank would hold out until we reached Biloxi. Traveling on vacations does have its unexpected problems.