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By Joseph Cress September 30, 2004

Last updated: Thursday, September 30, 2004 11:23 AM EDT

Neither rain, nor wind, nor three inches of mud could keep Eddie Lail from his appointed rounds.

No matter what the condition, he had to get through and make his deliveries in Carlisle.

Only his route took Lail through the remnants of Tropical Storm Jeanne, not a local neighborhood.

And his packages were not mail, but auto parts on special order from overseas clients.

A vendor from North Carolina, Lail just experienced the worst trip in his 24 years of attending the annual car swap meet and corral at Carlisle Fairgrounds.

He and other employees of Steele Rubber Products left Graham, N.C., about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, heading north to south-central Pennsylvania.

They hit rain just 10 miles up the road and the miserable conditions continued all the way up to Cumberland County, says Lail, who attends car shows, auctions and flea markets for his company.

"It seems we were in it the whole time," he says. "You could hardly see in front of you."

Using a Freightliner to tow a sales trailer, he and Brent Dyson slowly made their way through a driving rain, lashing winds and flooded roads.

At one point they had to take an exit ramp off Interstate 81 and then right away go down an entrance ramp to avoid a wreck at the interchange.

Flooding all around

Another time, they passed through a section that highway authorities then closed because of flooding, says Dyson, a customer service representative. "You could see the water rise."

Normally it takes the men about 6 1/2 hours to drive to Carlisle. With bad weather factored in, it took them about nine hours to reach the annual event.

Upon arriving at their site, the two men worked under a persistent rain to position a sales trailer over three inches of churned-up earth, mud and deep tire ruts.

Steele Rubber Products could not open Wednesday because of the muddy conditions. Despite this, they expect a successful fall meet.

Several hundred vendors and customers walked carefully around mud puddles and a patchwork of straw as the show opened Wednesday.

"All in all, it's always worth it," Dyson says.

Lail agreed, saying his company had to make an appearance to spare it from being out of sight and out of mind. "People expect us to be here," Lail says. "If we miss a show, they may think we are out of business."

Salesman Tommy Stubbs had a similar experience on the drive from North Carolina. He and other members of the Ausley's Chevelle Parts team left Graham about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Along the way they encountered four wrecks, including a collision between two tractor-trailers and another involving a car turned upside down.

Traveling with Jeanne

"It was just nasty ... You could not see three cars in front of you," Stubbs says. "We were just coming up right along with the hurricane."

This is just an example of how resilient the vendors are, says Becky Hein, communications specialist with Carlisle Productions. "It is their life ... their job. They are used to it."

Hein adds the Carlisle Productions staff has been running the event for years and has a good handle on how to operate under a variety of weather conditions. She adds the weather should be nice when the biggest crowds arrive this weekend.