The Misfortunes and Misadventures of our Arduous Voyage to Utah

 

Just to recap, we were SOOOOO BUSY in June and July.  It was a crazy mess of camps, Leo working and me working full time right until we moved.  Actually I think I was so overwhelmed that I did quit work the week before we moved, but it wasn't enough.  The kids did so much work!!!  I seriously was impressed, because we moved our whole house pretty much by ourselves.  Leo was only home a little bit, and a couple guys in our ward came and helped us with the heaviest pieces of furniture that I wasn't strong enough to lift and help Leo with.  Anyway, so again, the kids and I did almost all of it, trip after trip after trip with our Expedition and little camping trailer.  This photo was of me waiting at the storage unit at one point for the kids to bring up stuff and then I would stack and arrange it in the unit.  

And this is a photo of ONE of our three rented storage spaces.  UGH!  I really probably should have thrown more away or sold it.  But I guess I'm sort of a pack rat when it comes to some things.

    Anyway, it was a lot of work and we did not stay on schedule.  In fact, the last time Leo was home, we had a flat tire on our Expedition and ended up taking that in to get all new tires, and renting a Uhaul to use in the meantime.  That put us behind a lot though, because there wasn't a Uhaul available to rent for a couple of days, and so we weren't able to get as much done while Leo was home.  So then, I rented a Uhaul the next week so we could go faster.  This was on Saturday the 22nd I think.  Anyway, we loaded it and took it a couple times to the storage unit.  And then some friends came to bring us dinner (the Fawsons).  I think they were so inspired to come because I was pretty desperate at this point.  They saw my desperation and helped for a couple hours that evening to load the Uhaul.  And then they came back the next day even though it was Sunday--we had it loaded already but they were going to help us unload it at the storage unit, and then I ran out of gas.  Seriously, first time ever in my life.  I was so embarrassed and the Uhaul was just in the middle of the road at the end of our neighborhood street.  Another little miracle happened though, and another couple in our ward who lived nearby happened to drive up behind us, and they went and brought gas from his garage to fill up the tank a bit. 

Eating the food the Fawsons brought plus whatever random stuff we had left in the house.  

This is how our house looked Saturday night when we were supposed to be leaving the next day.  

Almost ready to go.  

We had a greenhouse in the back of the trailer because I was taking the plants to Lindsay.  Plants add up $$$ more than you'd think.  So anyway, after finishing loading everything Sunday afternoon, we cleaned like mad because we were THREE days behind schedule at this point and I refused to stay in the house another night.  We had cleaned on Saturday too, just fyi.  But I didn't want to leave in the morning because all of our cleaning would have been wasted if the little boys and all of us had sleep there and eat breakfast and whatever, plus we weren't really equipped to stay the night bedding-wise.  

So we left at 10 PM Sunday night and I was just going to drive till I got tired and then find a hotel room.  We actually had a great time singing away for hours, and then at 2 AM I decided I was tired enough that I should stop for the night, only there was county fair going on and we passed three little towns where all the hotels were completely full.  So it 3:30 AM by the time we stopped.  I still got the kids up and going the next day by 8 AM.  We drove a couple hours into Colorado, went up one big hill, and our car stopped.  

Also Sebastian got a bloody nose before that  and I had to find a Dollar General in some little town to buy tissues and paper towels.  His bloody nose kept going on and off the rest of the day.  Sigh.  Anyway, back to being broken down in Colorado.  We waited about 45 minutes, trying to call Leo, and then amazingly, the car started back up.  So we kept driving to Denver.  Only I had to stop to adjust the straps on the canoes and I was panicked each time that the car wouldn't start again and I was cursing Leo and the stupid ladder we had bought instead of paying to get the upgraded, sturdy fenders because the ladder is impossible when parked on the side of a highway with hardly any shoulder. Also cursing the mechanic we had taken the Expedition to in Wichita when I had so many problems with it driving home from Ana's wedding.  We thought it was all taken care of.  Obviously not.  Anyway, we had almost made it to Denver when the car started acting up again and it died again on a huge freeway just outside of the suburbs. I called Leo, and he called tons of different mechanics and I called mechanics, one of which told me they could get me in September. 🫣🫣 Finally Leo, who was in Alabama, found one relatively close that would look at our car that day.

 

Our HEROES!!!   Seriously, shout out to Prestige Auto!!!  So, like before, our car started again after about an hour on the side of the road and we made it to Prestige Auto.  It was in this little strip mall with practically no room to maneuver or park a trailer so I had to go across the intersection (with a light) to park the trailer in the much larger parking lot there.  The car died 4 times going from the strip mall and crossing the street.  Thankfully, and clearly another blessing from heaven, it started up again each time pretty quickly and none of those four times was when we were directly in the middle of the intersection, which was my nightmare scenario.  

So then we spent 6 hours here, in the auto body shop's waiting room, while Sebastian occasionally bled all over.  We went to 7-11 for lunch and I lost my phone, which was my only connection to Leo--I didn't even know his number because he had recently gotten a new telephone with his new job.  This is when I started to cry.  Miraculously, an hour later, I got my phone back.  I had gone to the 7-11 to ask if anyone had found a phone right after I discovered it missing, and so when an hour later someone did find it in the parking lot, they called Elena's number that I had given them and let me know.  I cried again.  Hallelujah!!

We had waited around the auto body shop in part because it took some time for them to look at the car and see what it would need to be fixed and so we weren't sure on timing of repairs for a long time.  It was hitting their closing time when we finally knew it would be days because there was a certain part that he couldn't source locally.  So then Leo white-knighted again, and found us a hotel that was willing to send a shuttle to the auto body shop to pick us all up.  We had to go across the street and I dug through the trailer (the night before we had just slept in our clothes and hadn't planned or prepared to unpack anything before arriving at Lindsay's) to get out almost all our luggage because it was packed to go to Colombia, not for a brief overnighter.  Anyway, we eventually made it to the hotel and I walked to a nearby Subway and a delicious Greek Gyro place and bought us all dinner.  The auto body shop guy was awesome and parked our trailer for us in his locked shop area because he said it would be gone by morning otherwise. 

More bloodiness at the hotel.

It was a very nice hotel, yet the hot water was having issues so half of us had cold showers.  Ugh. I had spent the late afternoon calling to try to rent a vehicle that could pull our trailer. That was actually way more difficult than I ever expected.  They would only allow a 350 diesel truck to pull a trailer (no 150 or SUV etc) and they wouldn't allow me to drive it only one way, it had to be returned to Denver.  So the next morning, I was up at 5 AM, caught an Uber to the rental place, picked up the truck and drove it to the auto body and again, the auto body shop owner was amazing! He had put all our food from our cooler into his fridge for the night and cleaned up something that had spilled all over inside it.  Then he went across the street with me to AutoZone because I ended up having to buy a hitch thing to connect my trailer because it didn't fit the hitch on the rental.  And then he patiently helped me back up the huge truck in the itty bitty space behind the shop where the trailer was--seriously no room whatsoever to maneuver.  So then I got back to the hotel to find the kids hadn't realized breakfast was not a buffet that was included (I was surprised too, it was set up and looked like it), so then I paid A LOT for breakfast at that very expensive hotel.  Joy.  And then we headed out.

Only to be caught traffic jam going out of Denver for hours.  Lovely. 

Umm, yeah, the truck didn't really have 7 seatbelts but we managed.  The kids were well behaved and helpful thankfully. Almost no fights.  

Colorado is really beautiful and I had never driven this route before. 

YAY!!  We made it to Lindsay's house in Vernal!!!  I unloaded a bunch of stuff, tried to arrange things so we had what we needed for the next couple of days (the plan was to go to Idaho the next morning) and then I showered and slept for an hour and then drove back to Denver.  

This was leaving Vernal.  I drank more Redbulls that night than I ever have before and hope never to drink that many again.  I did sleep for an hour parked off the road near some reservoir.  But I really, really hate driving tired, and I think it was a miracle I survived that drive because I didn't even remember most of it the next day, and it probably was the most dangerous thing I have ever done.  But I made it to the drop off point for the truck by 5 AM and then caught an Uber to the airport.  I didn't even dare try to nap before my flight because I was worried I wouldn't wake up to catch my flight. And then I flew to Salt Lake City where Lindsay (yep the sister I left in Vernal the night before) picked me up at 7:45 AM.  Her husband and her had left their house at 5 AM that morning with my kids and her kids *packed* into their two cars. And then we drove to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho where the kids played and I slept in the grass.

So this is me after flying back to Denver almost two weeks later, where I took an Uber to the body shop, waited an hour an half on the sidewalk for it to open and then waited another 3 hours for them to finish on the car. A random guy from Ethiopia remembered me from weeks before and asked how my son was (he remembered Sebastian's bloody nose).  Then he asked me if I was Christian and proceeded to give me an Old Testament sermon on Elijah and Jezebel for 40 mins. I was the definition of a captive audience and it just added a bit of a surreal aspect to the day.  I finally was able pick up my car and drove back to Vernal, where I picked up our trailer and finally arrived at Kayli's house with car and trailer, just two weeks late. Awesome.

(The mountains from my flight.) The whole thing was very long and expensive and stressful to say the least.