first of all, i was not planning on going home for thanksgiving until a week before the holiday. second, i had to work until right before thanksgiving. third, i left the day of thanksgiving. and forth, i had never driven with a dear friend (jill marie haar) from utah to california.
the real meat of the story comes into play on the day of thanksgiving. after much deliberation i left for the thanksgiving break on thanksgiving due to work factors for me and my traveling companion. we were planning on leaving around noon that day so that we could make it home in a decent hour. after much texting, calling and waiting for other people to do what they said they were going to, jill showed up around 2:30 - 3:00 to pick me up for our adventure home.
we started the journey late, yes, but that didn't deter us from attempting to get to at least las vegas before stopping at some friends house out there to sleep. everything was going great. we were making great time and made it to saint george at a decent hour for the car that we were in (7:30 - 8:00). after stopping for gas and getting a chance to look around for some food we decided to head on to vegas to eat because it is more of a tourist location and the chance that restaurants were open was greater there then in saint george. as we started to head off in that direction there was a peace officer on the highway that got off the freeway, and i am always paranoid that they are going to get right back on the freeway to catch people that are speeding. i made sure that he exited but drifted into the rumble strip (that thing that makes your car vibrate on the side of the freeway) and then proceeded further after seeing him turn to not come back on the freeway. however, a short distance later the car started to shake so i got off the road at the port of entry exit to see what the matter was. the car has a little smoke coming from it and then i was informed that the fluids that needed to be checked before the trip had not been. thinking the worst i opened the hood and then proceeded to check the various reserves and fluids. all the levels were low and made us think that we had done something terrible to the car.
i called my dad to see if there was anyone in the saint george area that he knew and he informed me of two families that were friends and then i proceeded to call them as jill called aaa to see if we could get someone to come out with fluids. i reached one of the families and then we cancelled the tow truck because we did not want to pay for a tow truck to come out and help if someone would do it for free. i reached a family friend that offered to help and he told us that it would be thirty minutes before he got there and that we should just sit there and wait. we obliged and then (seeing as how it was thanksgiving) he asked us if we had had anything to eat. we told him no and then said that he would bring us food so that we could at least have a little thanksgiving and salvage all the time that was left in the day.
thirty minutes later he showed up with fluids for the car. but he also brought turkey sandwiches, celery, peppers, carrots, candy, pumpkin pie, and a half a gallon of milk to wash it all down. we gratefully accepted the meal and were stoked to receive such a bounty for our troubles. we then toped off the fluids and told the family to go home but they said they would follow us to make sure that the car was running properly at least until the next exit because you cannot return on the port of entry exits. we then travelled a total of three feet before i realized that nothing had changed and that the shaking was actually worse off. i got out of the car and inspected the tire to find that we had a flat. all that waiting and we could have just changed a tire. stupid me! but in my defense i have never gotten a flat tire before so i didn't even think of checking it.
after i got the tire changed we attempted to make it to the next exit to turn around and head back to saint george to get the tire fixed to finish the trip the next day. after all that was said and done we started to drive and realized that we were not going to make it to the next exit and had to call aaa again to have them send out a tow truck. we were on the phone with them and family for the next little while explaining the situation. no matter what we did dick morgan (the family friend) offered to stay with us until all the problems were resolved, and once things went south, he offered us a place to stay for the night so that we didn't have to stay anywhere else that night.
well, long story a little shorter, we stayed at dick's house but didn't even make it there until 11 something. three plus hours after arriving in saint george. we entered the home to find beds made for us and then in the morning an amazing breakfast laid out for us and we were obligated to eat it before we could leave. we accepted and ate our hearts out and then got on the road and made it home safely the next day, but we (jill and i) could not have seen this love and kindness from a family that, really, neither one of us met.
pictorals:
i was not even kidding about the milk.
why would you ever joke about a thing like that!
1 comment:
Haha, you have the worst luck w/ roadtrips. Thank goodness you had someone w/ you. Being alone would had sucked.
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