When the world economies collapsed, Gus' wife was on vacation with her sisters in Germany. Beth and Jimmy were on their honeymoon at Gus' fishing lodge in the mountains of Washington state. They were determined to get back home to Tennessee, 2400 miles away. The task seemed impossible, but they decided to try. Ellen was at college in Omaha, when she tried to get home she was carjacked and left stranded in Rockport, Missouri. She was stranded over 500 miles from home.