I’m headed to Beaumont, Texas this week to tell some stories in the schools. I was supposed to go there earlier this month, but our mini-blizzard came through and postponed it; once a hurricane did so, too. Usually it just rains when I go there. My husband said “usually” means “always.”

My mother thought it was “lucky” when I went to Beaumont. Perhaps that is because she scratched off a $20,000 winning lottery ticket when I was there [Yes, people do win the lottery, but you probably won’t. Please do not buy tickets because of my trip.] Momma bought herself some “new knees” and helped her financially ailing daughters with her windfall.

After that, Momma always told me to buy lottery tickets when she heard I was headed to Beaumont. She laughed when she said it, but she was deadly serious.

In 2003, I reluctantly scheduled a one-day trip to work for a regular client in Beaumont. I say “reluctantly” because it’s a 790 mile round trip. That’s a lot of driving in two days.

As I began my journey from Denton at around 7 a.m., rain was pouring down so hard that my windshield wipers couldn’t keep it clear. With the visibility so bad, I couldn’t drive faster than 45 mph. I thought, “This is going to be a long trip!” I didn’t know the half of it.

Driving through Fort Worth (35 miles and almost two hours later) I had to navigate a construction zone on Interstate 35. A careless driver knocked one of those orange construction cones down, and I had no way to dodge it. As I ran over it, it lodged under my car. I dragged that cone to the next exit, pulled over, and struggled for ten minutes in driving rain trying to pull it out from under my car. I tried backing off of the cone. I tried driving over it. Nothing worked.

Finally, a trucker passed me in his big rig. He saw my dilemma and pulled off the road. Down he climbed from his cab and came running toward me in the rain. In other circumstances, I might have scrambled the other direction.

The man was huge. His shoulders were so broad he seemed to have no neck. He was bald and tattooed and didn’t look like a very savory character at all. He smiled at me and his gold tooth gleamed. The man was an unlikely looking Knight in Shining Armour. “Are we having fun, yet?” he asked.

Then he proceeded to drag the cone out from under my car using brute strength. He tipped an imaginary hat to me and without another word ran back to his truck to drive away. Chivalry is not dead.

Many hours later, I was driving on a two lane road near Cleveland, Texas. My brakes were wet and making horrible noises, which wasn’t helping me to keep calm. I noticed water rising in the ditches on either side of the road. Then, a deer bounded in front of my car! I tapped the brakes and hydroplaned nose first into the ditch. As I stood pulling my hair at the side of the road, a beaten up pickup pulled over. Two “bubbas” got out, hitched up their overalls and pushed my car back on the road. Did I tell you that Chivalry is not dead?

On I went to Beaumont, but when I reached town, I discovered the streets were flooded. Cars around me had stalled out in the high water, so I pulled into the parking lot of the mall and called my hosts for the night. I was told that, since the rain had finally stopped, the streets would probably drain in less than an hour. They said to just wait before driving again.

By the time the water drained off, it was dark. I started my car and headed toward my destination along a street that a local person had told me would “probably be safe.” Suddenly, I hit a low spot and water washed over my side windows. Immediately I pulled into a driveway, but my power steering was gone and when I stopped my car sputtered and died. It wouldn’t start again.

I had no choice but to get out and walk twenty-six blocks, in the dark, in water up to mid thigh to the home where I was lodging that night. The next morning, we started trying to find a mechanic, but there were none available. They were all busy working for their regular customers. With weekend coming on, it began to look as if I might be stuck in a hotel for several days. I didn’t know what to do, but called the husband of a friend, who knew “everybody.” I thought that if there was a mechanic to be found he would know about it.

Bob said, “Don’t worry, just leave your key on the front tire and go to work. You’ll get to go home tonight.”

I was skeptical, but I trusted. I figured that my car repair bill would eat up everything I made that day and more. That afternoon, Bob called and said, “You’re good to go.” He told me that he had loaded my car on his flat bed trailer, drove it to Vidor (18 miles away), and called in a favor from a mechanic friend. The serpentine belt had slipped from my car. They put it back and checked the car for damages—there were none. He wouldn’t let me pay him a thing, even though he lost a half day of work helping me. Do you remember what I said about Chivalry?

Halfway home, when I stopped to get gas, I called my sister to whine about my pitiful trip. She said, “Did you buy a lottery ticket while you were in Beaumont?”

I said, “Are you crazy? Why would I waste the money? I have no luck at all!”

“Oh, yes you do,” she said. “Think about it. Where would you be if all those people hadn’t stopped to help you?”

Oh my. I don’t want to admit it, but my little sister is wise. But, I’m thinking that perhaps I didn’t have “good luck”–I had “good people.”

I may buy a lottery ticket when I’m in Beaumont. But, I think if I get there and back safely, I will have won.