Fall, 1999- After being abused by two husbands for a total of 20 years and being a widow for 15 years, I finally found out what true love means. At first, I had many disappointments.

It all began after I met two nice ladies on the web, in a chat room. Theresa became my best web friend. Tammy was a truck driver that enjoyed meeting her web friends that lived along her routes. I finally got to meet her at a Toledo, Ohio truck stop in September, 1999. She's quite a lady. The second time we met, she told me that I should meet this guy with the nickname of Chuck-295. She said he & I had a lot in common, we were meant to be together. He lived in Illinois & I in Ohio, almost 300 miles apart. Theresa on the other hand lived in Florida. She would e-mail me and tell me all about Chuck-295. She also told Chuck & I that we were meant for each other. I hadn't met him yet and I knew all about him. (So I thought).

It was in late September when Tammy called me and told me she was coming my way for the third week in a row, and that Chuck was going to follow her, all the way to our regular meeting place at Toledo-5 truck stop. Shorthly thereafter, Chuck signed my guestbook (an excuse to meet me). I replied back to him, telling him how glad I was that I was going to meet him in person. He started calling me on the phone, every day. I couldn't believe how nice he was. I couldn't wait to see him. I was falling for this man and I didn't even know him yet. I was afraid to be let down again. I had stopped believing in men for a long time. We were suppose to meet on Saturday morning. Chuck told me he couldn't wait either.

Early Saturday morning, Tammy called me and told me that Chuck couldn't make it, his brother that lived in Wisconsin had a bad car accident. I felt bad about his brother but I was very disappointed that he couldn't make it. I tried to call him and all I got was the answering machine. He wouldn't answer my e-mail for 3-4 days. I figured his brother must have gotten hurt real bad.

In the beginning of October, I received a message from him telling me he was going to come to Ohio to get me on the following Friday to take me to Bingo in Milwaukee. He worked the midnight shift and he was leaving right after work, early morning and would meet me at the T-5 Truck Stop, around 10:30 AM, central time. I waited and waited .... By 4 PM, I was really worried about him. I called his house and got the answering machine. I e-mailed him and no reply again. I left a message at his home for someone to please call me back, that I was very worried that Chuck had an accident on his way to Ohio. No calls, no e-mail from him. By late afternoon, I was not worried anymore, I was mad.

I called Theresa and told her that he probably went to Bingo by himself in Milwaukee or was too drunk to drive to Ohio. She assured me that he did not drink and that he really wanted to meet me. He finally replied to my e-mail early Monday morning. He told me that he had to take his mom out of town and he didn't have time to call me. He was going to make it for sure the following Friday. We spoke on the phone every day, until Friday. We had opened a chat room called: Chuck-Nic, so we could chat privately.

Friday came and again, no Chuck, no messages and no phone call. That was the third time he stood me up. I waited all day for him and by evening, I knew he wasn't coming. I was crying my eyes out and I couldn't understand why that man was getting to me so much. I hadn't even met him in person yet. I e-mailed Theresa, telling her what was happening to me, how I couldn't stop crying. She called me, reassuring me again that something must have happened that stopped him from coming. That didn't ease my mind a bit. I thought that he must have had an accident or something like that. I kept on calling his house, no answer. I e-mailed him about 50 times, thinking that if he was on the web, his e-mail box would fill up and if he was checking his mail, I would know about it, when a message would make it to him. It worked, he WAS home checking his mail. I also knew that he took the "Call-waiting" feature out on his web, because the line was busy. He must have felt guilty about standing me up again, because he finally called me late Saturday night. He said he was on I-80 in Indiana, on his way to Ohio, when he got a flat tire and his spare was also flat.

He walked to the next service area to fix his tire and when he returned to his van, it had been vandalized. He said that his windows had been broken. He drove to the next Indiana State Patrol office and reported the vandalism. I did NOT believe his excuse that time. I was more upset than ever. Theresa told Tammy how upset I was, and Tammy called me. She told me how sorry she was that she ever tried to match us up. She also didn't believe his story. She suggested I call the Indiana State Patrol and check his story up. I did just that. I called all the State Patrol offices in Indiana. We were both right, no vandalism in the state all weekend. I sent him a message, telling him that I knew he lied about his van being vandalized. Same thing again, no replies, no answering the phone.

He must have gotten tired of my messages, because I received a message from him, at 3 AM Sunday. I replied to him telling him to call me and explain. He called me right away. He still insisted that his van had been vandalized. He told me he was coming to Ohio right away. He would call me when he arrived at the T-5 Truck Stop.

I finally fell asleep at about 8:00 AM. At 10:00 AM the phone woke me up. It was him and he was at T-5. It was a 20 minutes ride there but I made it in 15 minutes. When I spotted a van with Illinois plates, I knew it was him. I could tell he was more nervous than I was. We went in the restaurant and had breakfast. Then, he followed me home. We talked at the kitchen table for about 3 hours, then we kissed. My heart was pounding. He had to leave around 3:00 PM because he had to get ready to go to work at 11:00 PM. He promised to come back the following weekend. That was in late-October.

On Friday, he called me and told me he couldn't make it. It was his mom's 86th birthday on Saturday and she wanted to go to Bingo in Milwaukee, so he had to take her. He said he had 4 days off for Thanksgiving, he'd pick me up the day before Thanksgiving, and he'd take me to Milwaukee Bingo.

The day before Thanksgiving, at 8:00 AM Ohio time, he called me, he was on his way. He was taking me to Illinois for the rest of the week. I started packing my bag and my Webtv right away. I felt like a teenager, I was so excited.

When he arrived at my house early afternoon, I was ready to go. We left for the long weekend right after supper.

We stopped in Laporte, IN for the night and took the first Motel we saw. The Motel manager was outside drunker than a skunk. We should have left and gone elsewhere but we were too anxious so we rented a room anyway. We made passionate love for the first time in that motel. It was NOT a nice, clean room. We nicknamed the place "Silver Fish Motel". We definitely didn't spend another night there. As soon as we woke up, we were out of there. We headed for Milwaukee.