CHAPTER TWO Professor Plum had spent all day keeping quiet, trying not to be seen or heard as he watched the Doc hard at work trying to fix the time circuits in the DeLorean. The professor's attention perked up when he heard something from the Doc's walkie-talkie... apparently Marty was in some kind of trouble. Then he heard the Doc's response: "I can't take the DeLorean out in the daylight... but don't worry, Marty; somehow I'll get over there"
This was his chance. All the Professor had to do was wait till he was sure the Doc was gone, and he could jimmy the door, hotwire the engine, and he'd be off. After waiting a good half hour to make sure the Doc was gone, though, the Professor found out that was far easier said than done... it took him fifteen agonizing minutes to get the door open; jimmying a 1985 car was considerably harder than the earlier models he'd done in the past year, plus, he didn't dare damage the DeLorean, otherwise the Doc might figure out that it had been stolen when he returned for it... Plum had to return it in its exact current condition. Hotwiring the car wasn't quite as difficult, though... it seemed to have been done once before; Plum recalled that was why the Doc and Marty had come there in the first place. When the Professor pulled the steering wheel towards him, the car ascended slightly. A press to a button under his left thumb shifted the wheels into flight position. Turning the switch between the seats turned the time display on and off. The hard part was figuring how to travel through time.

First, though, Plum had to write down the current readings from the time display, to duplicate them when he returned it. He pulled out pencil & paper and began to copy the data:

Destination Time:
NOV 12 1955 06:00AM Present Time NOV 12 1955 05:45PM Last Time Departed:
OCT 27 1985 02:45 AM

Then he entered his first destination time: two weeks before he met the telegram singer:
JUN 20 1953 05:00 AM He wanted to give himself a comfortable amount of time to get from Hill Valley to New York City.
Now down to business: to figure out how to trigger the actual time travel. Perhaps a high speed was needed to collect some sort of particle to punch a hole in the continuum. He floored the accelerator to test his theory, and saw that same flash that woke him when he reached 88 miles per hour.
His next stop, a small gas station in the apparent middle of nowhere, 50 miles east of Las Vegas, had two purposes: to confirm that he was indeed in '53, and to fill the gas tank to get to New York. He landed just before pulling up to the right side of the pump. The professor found the gas valve easily enough, then asked the attendant as he paid the $4.27: "Tell me, sir, what's today's date"
The attendant responded: "Twenty-first a' June, fitty- tree, Mac"
The professor then re-hotwired the car and took off, continuing his eastward journey.