Travels Take Couple Across Kansas--the Wrong Way : Jinxed Journey Takes Another Bad Turn

Orville and Nellie Obendorf, who spent 13 days trapped in their car in a Kansas snowbank and were thought missing again, are apparently on their way home to Idaho--unless their wrong-way odyssey takes another turn.

Authorities in Kansas had been looking for the Obendorfs after a relative feared they were in trouble again. But Sandy Leyba, a desk clerk at the Best Western Motel in Eagle, said Orville, 71, and Nellie, 65, of Nampa, Ida., checked in Thursday and resumed their journey home today.

Orville Obendorf, one foot bandaged because of frostbite, had to be carried into and out of his motel room, she said.

Leyba said she told Mrs. Obendorf that she ought to call relatives to tell them the couple were safe, since a sister in Iola, Kan., had told the Kansas Highway Patrol the Obendorfs were missing. Mrs. Obendorf said she didn’t want to call anyone until they returned home, Leyba said.

The couple apparently drove west on Interstate 70 after leaving Eagle. They were still driving the 1981 blue Chevrolet in which they were stranded in northwest Kansas during a snowstorm on March 23.

The Obendorfs were driving in a rural area northwest of Norton, Kan., when their car became stuck and buried in a snowy ditch during the first of two blizzards to strike the region in a week.

A farmer found the couple last Saturday. The Obendorfs said they survived on hope, prayers, two boxes of Girl Scout cookies and eight cans of diet soda. They were down to their last cookie when rescued.

They were taken to Norton County Hospital, and when they were released Wednesday, they were given explicit instructions, including a marked Kansas map, to travel to her sister’s home about 300 miles away in Iola, hospital Administrator Richard Miller said. Iola is near the Missouri border.

On Wednesday afternoon, a highway patrol trooper found the Obendorfs and their car, which was out of gas in the westbound lane of Interstate 70 near Colby, Kan., about 50 miles from the Colorado state line.

The trooper gave them some fuel and told them they were headed in the wrong direction and should turn around, authorities said.

“How they got to Colby, I don’t know,” a patrol dispatcher in Norton said Thursday night.

The Kansas Highway Patrol issued an all-points bulletin Thursday for the Obendorfs after a relative reported that they might be in trouble again.