Rudy Cope -The Montgomery Inn… its name conjured excitement and anticipation as Mike Warren ’93 and I set off for Cincinnati Tuesday morning.  We would meet Steve King ’97 for lunch at Skyline Chili restaurant and then make a quick stop to Withrow International High School. 

The primary objective of our trip, however, was for an alumni dinner at the Montgomery Inn.  When Mike and I left Crawfordsville at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, we knew that bad weather was coming.  We didn’t think that the eventuality would be a cancelled dinner.  Sure enough, though – at about 2:30 p.m. – the realization that the dinner could be cancelled came to us both.  Shortly after, word came to us from Roger Billings ‘59 that we had to cancel. 

As the snow came down, Mike and I realized it would be too dangerous to drive home.  Winds were blowing and several inches of accumulation came in short order.  Mike was thinking ahead and packed a change of clothes and shaving kit.  Of course, I did not..

Could it get any worse!?  Yep.  Not only did the Cracker Barrel close at 7 p.m., but as we looked for someplace else to grab a bite, I realized our tire was flat.  I could have thrown up (mostly because I was still mad about the fact that there would be no sawmill gravy for my evening meal, let alone the Bar-B-Q bliss of Montgomery Inn!).

We pulled in to a Watson’s parking lot to fix the thing.  After the sorry excuse for a jack (the jacks that come with cars are so weak!) collapsed and the axle crashed down onto the snow-covered pavement, we called AAA to find out they had a two hour wait.  No surprises there on this night. 

Providence had it that a friendly police officer came by and offered to help.  He flagged a tow truck over long enough for them to put their floor jack to work and put the donut on.  It was a long, cold evening.

I recalled, on the way home, that Mike had been my travel buddy to the Evansville golf outing.  That outing was cancelled because of severe thunderstorms.  As my own stench reminded me that I hadn’t changed clothes in some thirty hours, I thought of the movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and half-jokingly told Mike our traveling days were through!