The following story is a true story about my family's Christmas vacation back in 1982. This is the article that the Associated Press had in every major newspaper around the country. Enjoy..
I'll be home for Christmas.....if I don't get out at the rest area.
It's a miracle! she made it home.
As the old song goes, "I'll be home for Christmas.....if only in my dreams."
Jane Greiman's attempt to make it home to Garner for Christmas turned into
a nightmare. But she is now able to laugh at the series of episodes that left
her coatless, shoeless, and flying over the U.S. after being left by her husband
Patrick at a rest area.
THE COUPLE LEFT their home in Manteca, CA. with their two sons, Jamie,
age 12, and Joshua, 8, at 2pm., Tues., Dec. 21 planning to drive day and
night until they arrived in Garner to spend Christmas with Jane's sister,
Pam Van Gerpen, and her parents,Jim and Bonnie Steward.
The first series of misfortunes began when interstate 80 was closed due to bad
weather and they had to re-route to the north to Interstate 50. Just as they began
to make their way though a mountain pass into Nevada, the road was closed, during
their three hour wait, they purchased a set of chains. "guaranteed to fit the van"
Jane emphasized. But when it was time to put the chains to use .. of course, they
wouldn't fit. After considerable effort, a serviceman was able to link up the chains
and they were once again on their way.
For a while.
THE VAN BROKE DOWN In Wyoming at around noon on Weds. for two hours they
waited for assistance. A highway patrolman arrived and sent out a tow truck to
jump the van to get it started. The truck arrived without any jumper cables.
After three hours, the four were on the road again. By now there was quit a bit of
lost time to make up. "I'd drive a stretch, would pull over and then Pat would
start driving," Jane explained. "I went to the back of the van to sleep on the couch
so I'd be rested to drive later"
What must have seemed like an eternity, she will not rest, ride in the van, or
see Pat and the kids again.
DURING THE NIGHT, with Pat at the wheel, he pulled into a rest area near
North Platte, Nebraska for necessary reasons. While he was away, Jane woke
up and decided she better use the facilities, too. Pat, trying to make up for lost time
jumped into the van and headed on his way... with never a thought that Jane had left
the van. Jane, herself in a hurry had exited the van like many women might... she
left her shoes behind, her coat behind..... but she took her purse.
It cannot be printed what she thought when she came out of the restroom with no van
in sight. It did cross her mind that she had come out the wrong door, but a quick check
proved that there was only one door. With haste and hysteria, she began pounding on truck
drivers' doors. But these men who had pulled into the rest area to catch a few winks had
left their trucks running were oblivious to the disturbance. Jane finally did arouse a trucker
and asked that he use his C.B. to contact Pat on the van's CB radio. But by this time, Pat
was out of reach of the radio waves. The truck driver told Jane to notify the sheriff and the
man took after Pat and the van.
He was not to find him.
"WHERE ARE YOU?" was an unanswerable question put to Jane when she called the North Platte
Sheriff's office to explain her plight. "I'd been sleeping and had no idea where Pat had stopped!"
Jane remarked. Using the telephone number from where she was calling from, the sheriff was
able to track her down to where she had locked herself in the bathroom. "I was scared,"
she admitted. "He pounded on the door," and Jane came out to meet her mentor for the next
several hours. "they were so very nice to me," she said. For three hours they sat and waited
hoping that the highway patrol would find the van and radio the message to them. Finally
at 3 a.m. Jane checked in at the sheriff's office and called her mother in garner to explain
her problem and hope that Pat might contact her when, or if, he discovered her missing.
250 MILES LATER. Pat and the boys did discover her missing. And then it was by sheer luck.
Needing fuel, Pat pulled into a service station near Lincoln Nebraska. he told the boys to empty
out pop cans from the back of the van, but to be very quiet so as not to awaken their mother.
Pat wanted to surprise Jane by entering Iowa while she slept.
A surprise was certainly in store for them.
As Jamie climbed into the rear of the van, he thought his mom looked "awfully skinny" under
her blanket. Curious, he touched the blanket and made the discovery. The young boys first thought
was that she had fallen out the back. pats first thought was that she had been kidnapped.
Then he remembered the rest stop. Driving into Lincoln, he notified the highway patrol and soon he
and Jane were able to talk with one another and make plans on how to be reunited. "Instead of six hours
in driving time for Pat to come back and get me," Jane explained, "we decided I should fly out and meet
him in Des Moines. "And remember, Im still socking footed with no coat."
FROM THIS POINT ON comes the real nightmare.
Jane's first inclination that things could still go amiss came when she phoned the airport
(when it opened at 5 a.m.) and was put on hold "until 5:10 a.m." stated Jane indignantly.Asking for the
soonest flight to Des Moines, Jane was then asked, "could you be here in 10 minutes?" With a gasp,
Jane put the question to the sheriff who replied, "You'll be there." With red lights flashing and sirens blaring,
the sheriff was good at his word and got her to the plane on time. With an 8:45 a.m. arrival time in
Des Moines that Thursday morning and with Pat safely on his way to meet her there, Jane began to relax.
She shouldn't have.
In the haste of making the plane's schedules, it was not mentioned that the plane made stopovers
in Lincoln and Omaha. The same cities that Pat was driving through to reach her in Des Moines. But
that was still OK, Jane thought because she'd soon be in Des Moines and things would be all right.
All wrong.
FOG CANCELLED the flight to Des Moines and the plane was held over in Omaha. The scheduling station
gave Jane two options. the soonest flight to Des Moines would arrive at noon. But she could take a flight
to Kansas City that would go back to Des Moines by 10 a.m. Being a logical person, Jane opted for the
second flight. her reasons being that 1) it was better than sitting in the airport, and 2) she was still
with out shoes and coat.
So, still with no shoes she boarded the flight to Kansas City, and you guessed it, there was fog. the
plane circled for three hours before the decision was made to take the plane to Moline, Illinois.
Jane was less than thrilled. "here I am flying all over the country, without my shoes and coat."
By now, Jane was beginning to be quit well known by the flight personnel. "The pilot came back to tell
the passengers just where they were going." Jane relates. he turned to her and remarked.
"But I'm not sure what to do with you!" he remarked.
PAT AND THE BOYS, in the meantime, were patiently waiting in Des Moines for Jane to arrive.
Jane had contacted sister Pam in Garner to let her know of her whereabouts. Pam, in turn, called
the Des Moines airport and paged Pat to relay the message of just were Jane was. Remember, she
was currently in Moline. So, shoeless and coatless, Jane got off the plane in Moline. She then called the
Des Moines airport herself and talked with Pat. She told him she'd feel much better at this point if he
and the boys would drive onto Garner without her. "he wasn't too happy about it, but he conceded
to go on," Jane said.
THE FINAL STRAW came when the airport decided "to ship me to O'Hare airport in Chicago and then
onto a flight into Mason City," Jane remarked. "This is when I freaked out. It had been hours with
no sleep, socking-footed. I told them I wasn't going any further!"
From an experience like this, friends are made. just such a friend Jane met on the Kansas City flight.
"She was trying to get to Cedar Rapids but Cedar Rapids was fogged in, too. After she saw all the troubles
I'd been having with the flights, she got off with me and phoned her boyfriend in cedar rapids and he
picked us up at Moline," Jane explained. "And my dear sister and her husband picked me up in Cedar Rapids,"
Jane said with a sigh. She arrived safe, a little unsound, in Garner at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, almost
20 hours after being left at the rest stop.
HOW DID IT FEEL to be home?
"I was so happy!" she said. "My kids hugged and hugged me and the youngest
just wouldn't let me go." The family make the drive home to Garner "every other year" says Jane."but never
again in the winter, only in the summer," she said with a laugh.
LEAVING THIS WEDNESDAY MORNING, providing the weather is favorable . Jane has no qualms
that she could be left behind somewhere. Pat is driving an Iowa Mold Tooling truck to be
delivered near their home and Jane will be the sole driver in the van.
Story by Deb Storm
Associated Press
