I started out and upon reaching the town found there wasn't a tire to be had there, but maybe in the next town. Finally located one there which was questionable, at best, but was told it was only slightly better than the one they took off. By this time, it was getting dark, so it was one nervous gal who limped home to Walter, who spent the next three days repairing the many things wrong with the car, and mumbling what a louzy brother I had who would turn such a broken down car over to his sister! At the completion of Walter's training period, instead of an overseas assignment, he was given a list of five airbases, and told to choose the one he'd prefer to be sent. We chose the one just outside of Sedalia, Missouri, as that was the closest to Calif., and also knew that Helen and Parker Rogers were stationed there, as Parker had returned from the South Pacific some time earlier. (Helen and Parker were our good friends we'd lived with in Dalhart at the beginning of our Army days.) We started for Sedalia, stopping in every town along the way, at the ration board, trying to get permission to buy tires for our car. Since Walter was on travel orders it was easier to negotiate. By the time we reached Missouri we had all four tires replaced, so now we could go out in the car without stopping to patch a tire every few miles. Helen and Parker had managed to find an apt. for us, located in the basement of someone's house, which was kind of dark and dreary, but better than the single room we'd been used to getting. Not long after we arrived there, Parker was released from active duty and they were on their way down south to Carthage, Missouri, where their home was. We took over their apt., which consisted of the entire upstairs of a two story house. The people who owned it were named Wigton, and they turned out to be not only our landlords, but our very good friends, as well. The included us in all their family get-to-gethers, picnics, fishing expeditions, etc. Since the war was drawing to a close, and we could be quite confident that Walter wouldn't be going overseas, after all, plus his training and flying time had lessened to a minimum, our stay in Sedalia was the most pleasant and normal we'd experienced during the three plus years we'd been married. Perhaps that had something to do with me finding myself pregnant once more, and overjoyed about it. I welcomed the morning sickness as an old friend, and Mrs. Wigton gladly came tripping up the stairs each morning to give me some dry toast to munch on before getting out of bed which helped a lot. I didn't want to take a chance on the long drive home to Calif. in the car, so when Walter was about to be released, and I was four months along with the pregnancy I flew home, and thus ended THE WAR YEARS......