My two-day odyssey from TX to PA fueled by nothing but a Texaco credit card…

While this wasn't the longest trip by distance I've ever made (I've driven cross-country twice), it was far and away the most physically grueling and mentally taxing. A friend was starting a graduate program in Texas, and I volunteered to tow his car (packed full of all his worldly possessions) behind my battered SUV. The trip down was eventful enough (we actually jack-knifed across the center of the highway at 3 AM near Texarkana and ended up facing backwards on the grass in the center of the highway at one point--somehow we got the cars back on the road), but it was the return that really did me in.

We were both poor college students, and I essentially ran out of money while I spent two days helping him unpack (and partying in the evenings). When I realized I only had around ten dollars left to my name, I knew it was time to hit the road. I left around 5AM on a Monday morning from just outside Houston and started driving. Like I said, I had a bit less than $10 in cash, but I also had a Texaco credit card my parents had given me for school. And so my 33-hour, straight-shot odyssey began. I pretty much only stopped at Texacos—both for gas and to eat. After all, the Texaco card represented my only ability to buy food. And as far as eating goes, I survived largely on coffee, No Doz pills, and various odd bits of junk food—remember, much of the drive was through places like Alabama and Tennessee, and twenty years ago it was hit or miss as far as what types of food a gas station off the beaten path might stock.

I have a vivid memory of driving through the hills of Tennessee at around 3AM, in a fog so thick that I could manage only about 25 MPH, and realizing that even though I was more than 18 hours into the journey, I still had almost as much distance still remaining to cover. I finally gave in to exhaustion in southern Virginia, dozing in the driver's seat for around 30 minutes at a rest stop just as the sun was rising over the hills. The short nap seemed to give me the energy I needed for the final push to the end, and I remember the feeling of relief that washed over me as I exited near my parents' home in Camp Hill, 33 straight hours after setting out from Texas. At the time, it seemed like an unfair and extreme hardship. Today, looking back, it actually sounds like a nice escape from the daily grind…;-)