Larry's job had taken us to England to live for three years. While there, we had a wonderful opportunity to travel. During the last summer of our tour, we drove to southern England, crossed the English Channel by hovercraft, and spent three weeks staying in lovely bed and breakfasts in Luxembourg and Germany.
We were driving on the autobahn near Nuremberg in Germany heading for Calais and the hovercraft to take us back to England, when our tire blew out. Our car veered all over the road. Thank God no other cars were near us, as there is no speed limit on the autobahn. Some drive as fast as one hundred miles an hour. We were averaging sixty to seventy miles an hour at the time of the blowout. Larry gained control of the car and stopped on the shoulder of the road. However, the shoulder dipped down and formed a small ditch which made it impossible to jack up the car with our jack.
On the autobahn are telephones for emergencies. Larry decided to walk to one and call for assistance while the children and I sat at the top of an incline to wait for his return. Larry had walked about a mile and was almost to the roadside emergency telephone when he realized that the person answering the phone may not speak English and he spoke no German except for "Ach du lieber". He asked God to help him.
Just as he got to the phone, a car pulled up and the driver asked if he could help. Larry said, "You sure can, if you can speak German." He did, and he made the call for Larry, explaining just what was needed to a garage mechanic who did not speak English. The mechanic came and fixed our tire with the use of a special jack. We were able to continue on our way thanks to our "Autobahn Angel."
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