So, my friend, Lauren, moved back to Cour de lene, ID and was planning on pulling a trailer behind her Toyota Corolla. Andy and I both felt that would be a very bad move and we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if they (her and her ex boyfriend, Luke) got in a car accident. So we, being the unbelievably incredible friends we are ;), offered to drive it out for her. Seeing as we have a Jeep it wouldn't be a big deal, right?
The trailer her father had purchased was supposed to be given to us as a "thank you". It wasn't registered so Andy had to stand in line at the DMV for about 3 hours and pay $49 to register it. It also had been really shaky on our trip down to his dads house to store it there until we could get out to ID. So, being safety conscience we put new tires on the trailer $150. As well as the jeep because we wanted to make sure we got out there safely $750.
We start our little excursion and the trailer is still whipping everytime we hit a bump going over 55 mph. We don't have another time that we can take it out so we decide to drive 55 mph. Leaving Cali at 5 pm after work, we finally ended up in Utah (home) at about 8:30 am. Now, I HATE driving sticks but seeing as the jeep is the only big car we had guess who got to drive it anyway! Through Vegas...which just happened to be under construction to make things worse! Well, thank heavens, I made it!!!
In Utah we asked Grandpa Starkey if it would be ok if we took his truck. Seeing as it is bigger and won't be thrown around nearly as easily as the jeep (it was the same size as the trailer). He said yes, YAY!!! It was the best decision we made the whole trip! It was so much easier to drive and we could drive faster then 55 mph!!! :) Around 11 or 12 am we set off again on our adventure. (We were obviously taking turns driving and sleeping.)
We are somewhere in WY and we pull over to get gas, I decided to buy a scratch and win lottery ticket...I won $6! YAY!!! Back on the road, I HAVE TO PEE!!! So we pull over in the middle of nowhere and I am able to go at some random RV place. Trying to get back onto the freeway (thankfully we have gps) it takes us to this road....
HILARIOUS!!!! I can't help but take a picture!!! :) Thank heavens for phones!!!
Ok, back to the trip...We make it there around 11 pm and Lauren has her new "boy toy" and friend there to help us. We got the trailer unloaded in about 20 minutes and sat down and talked for a while. Andy went and took a shower to feel better and we were going to spend the night. The shower woke Andy right up and since I wasn't a big fan of her boy we decided to leave. Finding out that her dad wanted to see the trailer and decide whether he wanted to keep it or not. She said o-well and we took off. We made it to the gas station and I felt guilty. I know my dad would be pissed if he spent money on a trailer and never even got to see it. So I ask her if we should just leave it there. Expressing my frustration with the fact that we spent $200 on it but still knowing that he deserved to at least see it and I didn't want to spend the night. She says yes, but she is gone. So we would just need to leave it out front. We do and leave around 1:30 am. (Oh, Lauren did give us $200 for gas money so at least we made up the difference in what we spent on the trailer I guess)
On our way back home, after about an hour and a half Andy gets tired so we both sleep in the car for about 5 hours. Then we are WIDE awake! We get home around 5 pm and go to Chuck-A-Rama with my family. YAY! We spend the night with my family (aside from a detour to get my truck from JD who is fixing it for us to take back home). $150 on a new battery for the truck. Next morning rolls around. We say our goodbyes and I drive the Jeep and Andy drives behind me in the truck. Hitting Provo Andy tells me (over CB Radio, Yes we have one in both cars) that there is a cop and I need to slow down. So I do...I'm driving along and all of the sudden he is gone...Turns out he forgot to put up his temp registration and got pulled over. The cop let him off with a warning and we meet up again in Payson. An hour and a half into our drive it feels like the fuel pump is starting to go out on the truck. Pulling over in Beaver we head into town and buy a new fuel pump $30. Deciding not to waste the time putting it on until we absolutely need to we head out again.
The truck starts working perfectly again. Yay!!! This time I am behind him so that he can set the speed in case anything goes wrong. About 20 minutes on the road and BAM!!! about 6 blocks of wood come out from under the truck. One of them slamming into my windshield ($155)!!!
Good thing it hit the bottom first because otherwise it probably would have come completely in on me!
Skipping ahead we are now about 13 miles outside of St. George and I have to pee! So I tell Andy and then I decide I want food too. He tells me to go ahead of him so I can choose where to eat. As I am passing him I am making all sorts of silly noises on the radio making it so I can't hear him talk. Apparently he was asking if his tire was wabbling. About 5 seconds after I get past him the tread on his front tire goes flying off and his wheel jerks hard to the left! Good thing I passed him!!! I, of course, didn't see any of it until about 10 seconds later I look up in my rear view mirror and he is gone...again! Time to stop and reverse....
Checking out the damage it took out the fender pretty bad. YIKES!!! I am SO glad I wasn't driving!!!
There is NO tread left on that tire!!! We pull over in St. George and go to my Uncles shop. Thank heavens for relatives!!! He sends us to his mechanic and we left the truck there. We have no idea how much it is going to cost us, seeing as the Hubs were overheating. Yikes! And we have no idea when we are going to make it back to pick it up. But the for whatever reason we weren't supposed to bring it home just yet.
We made the rest of the trip home safely and this was the "silver lining" of the trip...
It was a gorgeous sunset even though there is a bug smear where you would be seeing it. All in all it was an adventure to say the least!!! I guess it's those types of experiances that help us grow into who we are today! I am so thankfully that I was able to see my family and all the help that they gave us! And I know the Lord was watching out for us and kept us alive and well! We may be out of a couple thousand dollars but that is much better then our lives and/or health!!! I am so grateful to have the gospel in our lives (even though I may not be the best at acting like it)!
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