The ICIS conference is the premier academic conference in my field. At the time, the major recruiting for universities looking to hire new faculty happened at this conference. In general, it was expected that the third and fourth year Ph.D. students from Florida State attended the conference. However, the department did not provide any funding to attend.
As with most large conferences, ICIS was held at a major downtown hotel with $200+ per night room cost. The conference registration was a couple hundred dollars as well. Not to mention, the airfare cost of a few hundred and food at the hotel restaurant. Given our budget, Annette and I did not see how we could afford for me to attend the conference.
We decided I needed to go to the conference and it would be cheaper for us to drive to Cleveland than to fly. I found a Days Inn in a southern suburb of Cleveland where we could stay at a more reasonable rate (around $50 per night if I remember correctly). We planned that Annette would drive me downtown to the conference hotel each morning and drop me off and then come back at night to pick me up.
To save money on the trip, we took groceries (bread, tuna, flour, sugar, etc.) and our waffle iron with us to use for cooking meals in our hotel room. The waffle iron had reversible plates so we could use it as a griddle. While on the road driving, we splurged and ate at Taco Bell once on that trip (I think plain soft tacos and bean burritos were $0.69 each).
At the time, my Aunt Colleen (my mother's sister) and Uncle Ray Knowles were serving as full-time church history missionaries in Kirtland, Ohio. My mom told me that we should call them once we got to Cleveland to see about dropping by to visit them while we were in the area.
I called Aunt Colleen around 9 or 10 p.m. on the night we arrived in Cleveland. She told us that we could come and stay with them (they were living in one of the church history restored homes) in Kirtland as we should not be staying in a hotel when family members were so close. Annette and I were elated because Annette would not have to stay in the motel room all day by herself with the kids.
The next morning as we got ready for Annette to drop me off at the conference hotel and for us to check out of the motel, we could not find our checkbook. We looked everywhere in the room. We looked in the car but could not find it anywhere. We were sure we brought it with us. In our prayers that morning, we asked for help in finding it.
Annette dropped me off at the conference hotel and drove to Kirtland to meet Uncle Ray and Aunt Colleen. Uncle Ray come to pick me up that evening from the conference hotel. At dinner that night we talked with the Knowles about our lost checkbook and decided that I would call the bank the next day to report our lost checks and to put a hold on our account. We continued to pray we would find the checkbook.
That night, Annette dreamed that the checkbook was in the jockey box (some call it a glove compartment) in the car. She told me about it the next morning. I knew it was not in the jockey box because I had looked through the jockey box more than once since we lost the checkbook. But, I agreed to look again.
I opened the jockey box and could see the checkbook was not there. However, this time I noticed that the back “wall” of the jockey box was not very tall. I reached my hand behind the jockey box and there was the checkbook. It had fallen “behind” the jockey box.
What a blessing and answer to our prayers.
I called Aunt Colleen around 9 or 10 p.m. on the night we arrived in Cleveland. She told us that we could come and stay with them (they were living in one of the church history restored homes) in Kirtland as we should not be staying in a hotel when family members were so close. Annette and I were elated because Annette would not have to stay in the motel room all day by herself with the kids.
The next morning as we got ready for Annette to drop me off at the conference hotel and for us to check out of the motel, we could not find our checkbook. We looked everywhere in the room. We looked in the car but could not find it anywhere. We were sure we brought it with us. In our prayers that morning, we asked for help in finding it.
Annette dropped me off at the conference hotel and drove to Kirtland to meet Uncle Ray and Aunt Colleen. Uncle Ray come to pick me up that evening from the conference hotel. At dinner that night we talked with the Knowles about our lost checkbook and decided that I would call the bank the next day to report our lost checks and to put a hold on our account. We continued to pray we would find the checkbook.
That night, Annette dreamed that the checkbook was in the jockey box (some call it a glove compartment) in the car. She told me about it the next morning. I knew it was not in the jockey box because I had looked through the jockey box more than once since we lost the checkbook. But, I agreed to look again.
I opened the jockey box and could see the checkbook was not there. However, this time I noticed that the back “wall” of the jockey box was not very tall. I reached my hand behind the jockey box and there was the checkbook. It had fallen “behind” the jockey box.
What a blessing and answer to our prayers.
.jpeg)