Frederick was just six and a half hours away and Jed wanted to see if he could make the drive, never mind a long day playing golf and the fact that it was already 7 p.m.. By midnight, we were just 120 miles away from Frederick and I succumbed to my heavy eyelids. I headed back to sleep in the bed and Branic moved up front to the front seat. By the fifth lamb, I had already gone unconscious but before I knew it, Jed had woke me up saying, “Emergency. RV Broke down.” The rest of the night was completely a daze to me since I had already entered REM, so much of what I will be writing was retold by Jed and Branic, and further confirmed with short bursts of my memory or just for the sake of argument.

In all of the haze, I learned that the RV had frozen up while driving and the steering wheel locked and the engine started shaking. Jed frantically tried to hit the brakes and steer to the shoulder but the brakes hardly worked and Jed was using all the force in his legs to finally slow the 32-footer onto the shoulder. The RV was without a doubt out of commission, and it was 1:30 in the morning and we were just 90 miles away from our final destination, Frederick. How ironic would it be that after 20,000 miles, we couldn’t go another hour and a half. Jed borrowed my Sidekick and used the new relay function on it to call for a tow truck. By 5 a.m., the truck finally arrived and after much struggle, finally got The Mary Augusta hoisted and on the way. While Branic and I were safely in our dreams, Jed was busy working getting all the details for getting the RV repaired. Angela drove to pick us up near Martinsburg, and we left to Frederick and finished our trip in a tiny car. The RV would sit at the shop for one week getting all the repairs it needed after taking us across country and back, and then some. We took the day to try and wrap up as much as we could with the tour, and had one final scheduled stop at McDaniel College in the morning before our 93-day journey would come to a close.

David Martin is Deaf Studies professor at McDaniel College and is a proud graduate of Gallaudet University. He has been a big fan of our road trip and happily arranged a tour of what is widely known as one of the best graduate programs in Deaf education. The thing that sets McDaniel apart from other universities is that it is the only college in the world that teaches the Bilingual/Bicultural approach. They have about 75 students every summer session filled with some of the best Deaf educators in America or upcoming educators who need licenses or renewals. The college also offers an ASL house where hearing students can live in a house with Deaf residents and be forced to use ASL inclusively while in the house. It’s a great way to learn and practice ASL, and is one of few such programs across the nation for ASL.

Walking around the beautiful well landscaped campus, I could clearly see why the Baltimore Ravens chose this location as their training camp. We briefly visited two classes taught by Brian Thorn and Andrew Byrne, both of whom are temporary instructors for the summer session. Andrew Byrne brings his expertise in ASL storytelling from his hometown of Toronto, Canada, and Brian Thorn brings his Bi/Bi educational experience from the Indiana School for the Deaf. McDaniel College is serious about bringing in people who know their stuff, and not fancy degrees that reflect nothing about experience. I had the chance to talk with Sara Hansen, who is in her first year of graduate school but her fifth at McDaniel. She has been immersed in the Deaf community ever since a chance encounter when she was a young girl, and decided on designing a self-directed major for her Bachelor’s at McDaniel. She signs almost fluently, and attributes her skill in our language to one semester at Gallaudet University and countless semesters living in the school’s ASL house. She is proof that hearing students are capable of obtaining a great education in Deaf education at McDaniel.

I also talked to Norman Weiss who comes to McDaniel trying to earn his teacher’s degree after leaving the business world to pursue a career in education. He works at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, and when I asked why he came 3,000 miles to get a summer school education when he could have done it locally. His response was simple. Twenty-five teachers at the Riverside school received their licenses at McDaniel, and there was no reason for him not to be the 26th. The school also attracts students internationally, bringing Miya Kori from Japan to the school in hopes of bringing the Bi/Bi philosophy back to her homeland where there are 107 schools for the Deaf, almost all of which practice the oral method of teaching.