God Showed Himself to Me
Soon after the Christmas tree operation, I met this young lady(Carol D.). I was depressed, broke, and still searching for God. I was driving a 1965 Chevy, 1 1/2 Ton Truck, yellow and black in color. (God would soon be driving). Carol and I decided to go to Hearst Castle in California in January. On our way, we would stop and visit a girlfriend of hers who was in the Army, stationed at Fort Ord, a base near Monterey, California.
I had an ounce of PCP on me, the street value at the time worth about four thousand dollars. We thought we would be able to sell the PCP through her girlfriend, to the soldiers there, and then we could all make some extra money. I gave a couple of joints of PCP to this young lady. Leaving Carol with her girlfriend, I went to a church on the base that night. I was alone as I went into the church. I knelt down in one of the pews and cried a flow of tears. They came from within me in a way that they never have since. I could not figure out why they came the way they did. Going to my truck, and I looked in my side mirror; it was cracked, and no one was around. The crack in the mirror, as I looked back in the mirror, was centered on the steeple of the church. That was when churches were left open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I went back to where the girls were staying, at off-base Housing. Young soldiers were waiting, since they wanted to buy more PCP. I could not do it. I thought, "This has to be the worst thing I could do, to American Soldiers on a Military Base." I said, "Tell them I have no more and let's go."
We left in the truck and continued to Hearst Castle. It was a long, winding, slow, rough ride. We got there to find out it was closed for the season. I was frustrated, angry, depressed, hungry, and broke. Not to mention it was cold, cloudy and getting dark. I just wanted to start the grim ride back. I drove like the Devil, fast, honking my horn, passing cars on that treacherous, winding, narrow, high-up-on-dangerous cliffs, two-lane Coast Highway. We drove for an hour; she kept telling me to slow down (she had no clue she had just hopped a ride with Lucifer in the flesh). I paid no attention to her; I told her "To shut up, or I would drive faster."
Finally, after hours of torturous driving, I stopped at the first bar I saw. That was the first sign of any civilization I had seen for hours. I calmed her down and said "I was sorry, and it would never happen again." We walked in and sat down with a few fishermen at the bar. I think I had about thirty to forty dollars on me. I continued to order drinks, then for some drunken reason; I said, "Does anyone want an ounce of PCP?" Nobody said anything, I said, "Well, I'm going to throw it in the ocean." One fisherman said, "No! Do not do that! You will kill all the fish." We all laughed, and I continued to drink up every penny I had on me.
"Time to leave," I said to Carol, "Let's go," we were walking out the front door of the bar. A long-haired hippie was walking in, and as we passed each other, I put the ounce of PCP in his hand. He instantly put it in his pocket. It was like we had it planned; I had no clue why I did that. Carol said, "What did you do that for?" I said, "Shut the blessed up and get in the truck."
Satan was back at the wheel, but I only drove about four miles. The top of a steep hill, approximately a two to three-hundred-foot cliff on the ocean side, maybe more, and roughly a one-hundred foot cliff on the other side. I stopped the truck in the middle of the road, put it in neutral, and turned off the key, let go of the steering wheel. I said, "Let's see if there is a God."
The truck started rolling backward down the Coast Highway. The narrow road had a slope to either side. I grabbed Carol and held her from jumping out, grabbing the steering wheel, or trying for the brake. She was screaming, and such a foul odor came from that lovely little lady. The truck rolled backward like something had a hand on it; it was going backward in a perfectly straight line. With a slope on each side of the narrow two-lane road, that should not have happened. The truck got up to a speed of about forty miles per hour. The vehicles that were coming up the hill on the highway must have seen the truck coming at them backward and stopped on the road, but it was too late. It all happened so fast; the first car the truck hit was a Volkswagen bus; it smashed the front windows out and then bent the steering wheel between the driver's legs. On the bus were a husband and wife, with their ten-year-old daughter, on vacation from Wisconsin. That Volkswagen shot backward and hit a Mercedes Benz. The Mercedes-Benz catapulted back and hit another car.
Carol and I got out of the truck and ran in different directions. I found myself coming out of a blackout, standing in the driveway of a home, whistling as loud as I could. God felt I needed some attention. The owner of the home informed me to get off his property. I informed him that he better get back to his house before I blessed his behind.
I was not moving, and before long, and at the same moment from opposite directions, the Monterey County Sheriffs and The California Highway Patrol arrived on the scene. The Highway Patrol asked me, "What are you doing here?" I said, "I do not know." They asked me, "Do you own a yellow and black truck?" I answered,"Yes." They said, "It was in a hit and run accident earlier." The Highway Patrol Officer said, "Come with us," since it was on a state highway. They gave me a sobriety test, and to my amazement I passed.
They took me to the tow yard where my truck was, asking all the way, "What happened?" I kept saying, "I do not know." It was as if God put his thumb in my head and was guiding me around and blocking my memory out. Then He gave me my mind back. As far as I know, I was telling the truth. I said, "I had a young woman with me." I asked them, "Have you seen her?" They asked, "What's her name?" I said, "Carol." They looked at each other. It seems that they also had prior girlfriends named Carol. They laughed and said, "Those Carols, stay away from them, they are trouble!"
When we got to the tow yard, they saw the Christmas tree needles and tinsel on the truck. One Officer asked me what I did