Memoirs of the Beginnings:

It was a long way away from where we came from. We were miles away from the nearest Western Union and as far as I could tell we were so far away from the nearest internet connect. Just a few miles back Simone and I were greeted with what seemed to be a hospitable gesture of welcome openness. No it was just a small quiet neighborhood of senior citizens home owners that were pretty suspicious of newcomers. After exploring what seemed to be a foreclosed home with water damage the neighborhood quickly came alive with onlookers and people that just wanted to get a glimpse of our out of state license plates.

As we got back into our rented vehicle we noticed a stare and glare that came not too far off in the distance. An elderly man was really paying attention to every move that we made, and as I drove up to him it made Simone and I feel as if we really did something wrong. I quickly rolled down my window and asked the gentleman if he knew the owner of the home that we viewed. He said he did and we exchanged information. I didn’t know if the man was telling the truth or not. I just wanted to give him the reassurance that we were honest and just traveling to find a new place to settle down and start our family.

The man didn’t have too much to say and just took note about our license plate being a very long way away from home. “Are y’all sure you’re in the right neighborhood?” That is when I explained it all to him about our journey to become masters of the universe through digital publishing. “Well That’s interesting”, the gentleman commented. After a few more words Simone and I drove off and reached the main interstate highway a few miles away.

We were pretty young and inexperienced about traveling by ourselves long distances. We soon drove past the state line leading from Arkansas to Texas. We were fixated about being successful on our adventure with our final destination being San Antonio, Texas. I really couldn’t get it all out of my mind. We all have ambitions with a little bit of imagination and luck mixed in, but we we’re thinking big and acting big too!

Along the way for the next hundred miles or so Simone and I drove along and talked about our plans to make something of ourselves. Our plans were to settle down in our newfound location that stayed warm pretty much year round. We also discussed future travels, and of course our dream to own our own piece of the American pie. We not only talked about owning a home we also talked about running a business. We had the perfect ideas for running a new age publishing machine. The new age of digital publishing was just taking off and we managed to take off on a journey right along with the digital publishing industry.

Before we we left Massachusetts we made sure we had enough money deposited to take care of all of the necessities for getting us settled in with our new surroundings. We made all the preparations to let family know where we would be in case of an emergency. We even called from time to time to various family members to let them know how far along we were in our travels.

The relocation trip was coming down the home stretch and over the course of the 2 day ride and I was itching with excitement. My body was also itching, because I needed to take a bath. It was becoming uncomfortable now to even try to sleep when Simone would replace me as we took turns driving along the way. As I began to doze off from the corner of my eye I could see that we were about 50 miles away from Dallas. It was late in the afternoon, but the the late winter air in Texas didn’t require any jacket at all.

From where we came from there was still a fresh winter north eastern breeze in the air. This was occasionally accompanied by some sort of snowstorm. Even in late march this was possible in New England. It was great to be dozing off with a little bit of air conditioning running and at least being able to eat a few snacks here and there. Life was going to be just fine. All of a sudden the dreaded fuel light on the dashboard comes on and Simone says, “We’re almost out of gas!” I don’t panic I know for sure we have plenty of funds on our bank card, or so I thought. As I call into the bank’s automated system eagerly I await the balance information. In a moment of reassurance to myself I say to Simone, “I know there’s about $100 left on the card.” The balance information came on the line and I almost broke out in a panic. “$2.45!” This wouldn’t be enough to get us anywhere, especially not in this kind of SUV, I thought to myself.

Preparation is definitely key. Especially when I have grand ideas about taking over the planet with my multifaceted digital solutions and publishing tools. I had all of these ideas lined up and ready to be explained to anyone with an interest in that side of the business world, but I somehow mismanaged gas money on a cross country trip. Fortunately for us the mismanagement blunder was short lived. Simone had a plastic zip lock bag with at least 10 dollars worth of quarters in it. We got off the highway at the very next exit. The moments became more and more tense. This exit off the highway was different from typical exits that we were use to seeing. There was no recognizable service station right off of the exit road. It all became even more annoying to see on the odometer the amount of miles left before the gas
tank would be completely empty.

As we rode along after taking the exit I said out loud, “Please God where is the gas station! We have the money we just need the gas!” On this day God had to be the only one that found the gas station, because I reluctantly said, “Let’s get back on the highway and get off at the next exit.” The next exit was more than 7 miles away and our GPS locator did not pick up any information about gas stations for miles. We actually made it to the next exit and the gas station was not too far away, but still we had to do a little searching for it. As we approached the service station we began to see why it probably wasn’t coming up on the GPS. To be honest it looked like an old abandoned gas station that had been shut down years before. Amazingly, there was a customer pulled up to the pump and getting gas. I go inside and purchase the $10 worth of gas and I’m thinking my troubles are over. “We’ve got the gas and we can make it to Dallas tonight! We’re almost there!”

After pumping the gas and finding a way to smile I quickly realized that Simone and I now had another problem. We were a day ahead of schedule and didn’t have any other money set aside for interruptions in our plans. Our dreams were going to have to wait and be put on pause until Monday morning when the bank opens, because our initial deposit that we made before we left Massachusetts had not cleared in our bank account over the weekend yet. That is another story, another beginnings memoir.