In the Box #2

As I revealed in my last post, Dotty had yet to make it to Houston by the time her step-mom had mailed her a letter via general delivery.  On November 18, when the letter was marked for return to Bridgeport, Dotty, Edie, and Ev were in Arizona.  So why did Lou (Dotty’s step-mom) send mail to Houston?

Here is the schedule that Dotty gave to Lou of when to send mail.

Dotty created this schedule to give her family an idea of when to send mail so that the girls could receive it over the course of their trip.  In the two days that the three planned their trip prior to their September 1st departure date, Dotty mapped out a basic route of where they would go.  Based on that route and mail delivery speed, she created this list.  You’ll see that the first destination where they hoped for mail was Cody, and any mail sent there would have to be posted prior to September 6th.  There likely wasn’t enough anticipated lead time at earlier destinations to expect to get mail.

Now if you remember, Lou’s letter to Dotty wasn’t postmarked until November 4th, three days after Dotty’s suggested mail-by date.  Was Lou just running late? No. In her letter, she acknowledges that Dotty, Edie, and Ev were no longer on their originally planned schedule, after all, who sticks to schedule on a major leisure trip?  Lou just didn’t realize at the time that they were off by nearly a full month.  As you can see Dotty’s suggested mail-by date for the Grand Canyon was October 15th, but when did she send home a postcard from there? November 15th.  So what or where was it that threw them off schedule?  Find out in an upcoming post.

Thanks for reading!