Thanks to kind folks who live in P. Bluff

To the Editor,

My husband Bill and I are from southern Indiana. To celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary, we planned a camping trip through Kentucky and southern Missouri on our way to visit our daughter and her family in Kansas City, Kan., then planned to return home by camping through central Missouri and Illinois. We were pulling our new 20-foot camper trailer with our recently purchased used SUV.

On Thursday morning, September 5th, smoke billowed from our engine compartment as we drove down US 60 just east of the exit to Missouri Hwy 67. We exited the highway and pulled to the side of the road. Our transmission had blown.

This was the beginning of our experience with the good people of Butler County and Poplar Bluff.

Almost immediately a gentleman named Tony pulled over with his wife and daughter to see if we needed help. He affirmed it was our transmission and recommended a wrecker service as we called AAA for a tow. He stayed with us until he was sure we would be OK and gave us his name and phone number in case we needed anything.

Several other kind people stopped to see if they could help as we waited.

Soon Carl Capper and David Greer of Swank's Towing arrived to tow our SUV and our trailer to Poplar Bluff. We accepted their kind offer to park our trailer next to their business and plug into their electricity while our vehicle was being repaired at Baldwin Ford/Lincoln/Toyota for the next week.

We would like to thank all those who were so kind and helpful during our stressful experience: Tony the good Samaritan on the highway; David, Carl, and Al at Swank's Towing; David Allen and the staff and mechanics at Baldwin's; Josh at Hertz car rental; and Debbie at the Verizon store who helped us replace our ancient cell phone which decided to die while we were on our trip.

Even though I wish we hadn't had car trouble, I'm glad it happened close to Poplar Bluff and the kind people who live there.

Mary Blair

Indiana