In the late 90’s my mom and I went to Kingsville, TX my old stomping grounds in which I lived for almost 4 years while Jim was in college. We loved S. Texas while we were there; the history and folks, who live the S. Texas life, were the salt of the earth. My plans to take my mom there was to show her how special S. Texans were. One such treat for S. Texans is: they love to shop in Mexico. While we lived in Kingsville they showed us the ropes on where to go and what to buy, when we traveled there. So, we planned a day trip over the border into one of Mexico’s border towns. It was always an adventure to shop and look for bargains and be a part of a different culture for a day. My plans were to visit friends in Kingsville, take her to the historical King Ranch, eat at all my favorite spots and stay at one of my friend’s home (Mary), and go shopping in Mexico while we were there. We planned to leave early in the morning for Mexico so we could get there before noon, to shop all day, leave around 4:00 for Kingsville, and this would get us back to Kingsville at a decent hour. We decided to go to Nuevo Laredo a good size border town, with easy parking on the U.S. side. A walk over the bridge and you are there. We got up early, had breakfast and off we went. The drive from Kingsville is a couple of hours and you go through a few small towns and the last trek of the drive you are in no man’s land. You can see for miles and miles and miles. The landscape is flat with small brushy growth and you sense you are in a desert. You better make sure you have a full tank of gas after leaving the last small town, because there is nothing until you get to Nuevo Laredo. We were traveling in my mom’s fairly new T-Bird, low mileage and good on gas too. Our laid out plans were working well, we got up early and ate, drove to Nuevo Laredo, parked the car, walked over the bridge (11:30) and shopped till our hearts were content. Before we knew it, it was 3:30 and we had not eaten all day. Oh well, let’s finish shopping and we can stop and eat something on the way back to Kingsville. Our bags of treasures we found had to go through customs (which took time) and we finally got back to our car at 5:00. We were starving and had not eaten for 10 hours. The 5:00 traffic getting out of Laredo was not fun and we kept our eyes open looking for a place to pull over to eat, but nothing caught our eyes. Before I knew it we were leaving Laredo and heading into no man’s land. I assured my mom, “well… we will find something in one of those small towns before we get to Kingsville. Hang in there… we will not starve.” The road in no man’s land is straight as an arrow, flat as a board and you can put the petal to the metal and make some good time, so that is what I did (we were hungry). There we were traveling at the speed of about 85 miles an hour, smooth as glass, did not see anyone else on this desolate road, just me and my mom in the T-Bird cruising along in our “adventure.” About 20 minutes into our smooth as glass ride; I looked into my mirror and saw lights, blue lights on top of a police car, on my rear-end. Oh my…. Where did he come from? I could see for miles and he appeared out of the blue. So, I pull over in the “middle of Nowhere - Ville”, and proceeded to pull the gear shift into park. It would not go, it was stuck in drive. With my foot on the brake, I pulled and pushed and it was stuck. As I was trying to get this car into park the policeman came to my window and I rolled it down. He started the conversation; “Miss, Did you know you were speeding and could I please see your license and registration?” “Yes officer”, was my reply as I was tugging on the gear shift. I went on to say, “Officer my gear shift will not go into park, see… I am pulling on the stick and it is stuck.” While I am telling him my dilemma he is looking at my license and registration…then hands them back to me and says, “Pop your hood and I will see if I can manually pull it into park.” I popped the hood, the officer moves away from my window and heads to the front of the car and opens the hood. He studies for a minute, locates the gear mechanism and starts to manually pull it into park. It was stuck! He tried several times and it would not budge. The Office then closes the hood, walks over to my window and says, “Miss, You were speeding, but I am not going to give you a ticket, only a verbal warning. Please watch your speed. Where are you heading?” I told him, “We had been shopping in Nuevo Laredo all day and were heading back to Kingsville.” He then went on the say, “Miss, please do not speed and do not stop anywhere. You go straight to Kingsville without stopping.” “Yes sir”, was my reply. I rolled up my window, watched in my mirror as the Officer returned to his patrol car and got in it. I then pulled forth from the shoulder of the road and started driving towards Kingsville. The police officer was behind me, following at a close distance and I would from time to time, look in my mirror to see him following close behind. It must have been maybe 10 minutes, hard to say the exact time, I looked in my mirror and he was gone, disappeared in an instant. Remember we were on a straight flat road and you can see for miles. His last words of advice echoed in my mind; “do not stop, go straight to Kingsville.” My mother and I were planning and discussing how we were going to get the car fixed when we did get to Kingsville. What a mess! We finally drove into Mary’s driveway and were in Kingsville. I went to put the car into park and as smooth as a baby’s butt it went. I did it again and again and each times the same results. My mother kept that T-Bird for another 7 years and it always, without any trouble, would slide into park as smooth as a baby’s butt.
We have reminisced many times over the years about our trip to Nuevo Laredo. We both truly believe that the Officer was an Angel in disguise. Who knows what lurked in one of those small towns that could have harmed us. Our Guardian Angel did know what lurked and we give all the thanks and praise to our Father in Heaven who cares for us and our angel who steered us back to Kingsville.
