Adventures in Road Tripping

I thought I'd share our weekend adventure - it seems like the type of story that's going to get funnier with time - so I thought I would remember it here now. Forgive the strange first person/present tense of this story - it just came out that way.

Matt had a terrible week at work. Anything that could have gone wrong, has. He needs a break, big time. So I have plans for him. Mexican food. Beer. TV. Love. Sleep. It’s going to be awesome. We have a community Christmas party that we were planning to attend on Saturday night. Pictures with Santa Clause and hot chocolate with the neighbors. They do it every year, but we somehow always manage to miss it. Ash really wants to see Santa this year, so I’m thinking this is the perfect opportunity and we are planning on going, come Hell or high water. It’s the ONLY thing I have planned for the weekend. Other than that, it’s all about Matt resting.

Except the week’s not over yet. A client in Craig, Colorado, has a problem and can’t load. “Can’t load” are my two least favorite words in the English language when paired together, by the way. His dad wants him to plan on leaving to head out there first thing in the morning. Hopefully they’ll be done in the afternoon and can head home then. But Matt says he’ll go himself and get it done faster. He wants to leave tonight (Criag is 6 hours from here) so he can get started first thing in the morning and then be home tomorrow night in time for the party. He wants me and the kids to come with him. We can sleep late, have breakfast out (the kids favorite thing) swim in the hotel pool, whatever. The actual work should only take him 3 or 4 hours.

I say no, I don’t want to go. I have a Girl Scout lesson to prepare for, Tessa has a research project she needs to work on, and entertaining 2 kids in a town the size of a postage stamp does not sound like fun.  But then I think about it a bit longer and decided why not go? It’s not that long of a trip and it might be fun to ride along and see all the funny little towns (because we pass through 3 on the way to this one) that Matt goes to work in all the time. Plus, this way I can make sure he stays awake on the road and take care of him a little bit.

The kids are totally psyched. We eat dinner, load up the car and are ready to leave when I suddenly have a miniature panic attack. 

I tell Matt I feel like there is some reason we shouldn’t be doing this. I don’t know why or what I’m worried about…the only think I can think is that maybe I’m worried that one of our dogs (Indy is very old and in bad shape) will die while we are gone? I’m pretty sure, though, that something is going to go wrong. I remind him that last time I felt this way before a trip we had some serious problems.  He tells me it’s not too late to change my mind – me and the kids can stay home and he’ll go himself, if I want. I say no – I‘ll be okay. But if anything happens, we’ll know I am psychic. I calm down and we leave. We stop at a gas station and Matt runs in for some snacks and I decide to call my mom and let her know that we are going – even though it’s only overnight and even though I normally wouldn’t have even thought of doing that. After a bit – 20 minutes or so – I am fine, no more anxiety.

The drive out is easy – the kids watch their DVDs, eat some snacks, and go to sleep. Matt and I love road trips and always have great conversation in the car, so we enjoyed ourselves. He drives and I unwrap starburst for him to snack on. He says it’s much nicer than having to open them himself, lol. We made great time, got into town and check into the hotel around 12:30 and go to sleep…except me – I stay up until 2:30 finishing my book J

In the morning we run Matt out to the worksite and the kids and I have a long, leisurely breakfast at Village Inn. Then we go to the Wal Mart and shop for a while. Matt needs work boots. I need the new Twilight movie.  Before we are done shopping Matt calls and says he’s finished – yay! So we pick him up and head back to the hotel. We try to take the kids swimming before we leave, but the hotel pool is closed for maintenance.

We drive half way home before stopping for lunch in Vernal, Utah, which is about 3 hours from home. Asher had begun complaining of stomach ache and I was worried he was going to be sick in the car, so we were in a big hurry to stop and get him into a bathroom. Matt chooses the restaurant – a Golden Corral Buffet. In general I refuse to eat at Buffets (ick!) but I told him it was his choice and he says in this town (another one he works in often) it was pretty good. So we stop, we eat, Asher uses the bathroom 15 times. We get back on the road after lunch and start out of town, looking for a gas station. 4 or 5 miles down the road Matt decides to flip around and head back the other way – we aren’t seeing any gas stations in this direction, but he knows there are several behind us. As we pull onto the shoulder the truck chugs once, and dies. It’s about 3:45 now.

We figure we’re out of gas. Matt had just checked the gas gauge and it had said we had a range of 53 miles, but it must have been wrong. So he pulls out his phone and called AAA, but before he can even get them straightened out on where we are, a cute little old couple that was pulling out of the church we were stopped in front of drives over to ask if we need help. Matt hitch’s a ride with them to the nearest gas station where he purchases a 1 gallon can of gas. While he’s gone I post on Facebook that we were ‘out of gas, lol!’ I’m thinking this is pretty funny right now. I’m also thinking it’s only an hour delay in our trip. No big deal.

The sweet couple brings Matt back, he puts the gas in the truck, and…it still won’t start. So we tell the cute little old couple (who had been waiting behind our truck for 10 minutes by then!) that we were just going to call AAA, and thanks for their help. They drive away and Matt calls AAA back, asking for a tow truck with a bigger gas can on it – still thinking that maybe we had just completely drained the truck and more gas would be our ticket out of town. About then our sweet little old couple comes BACK and hands us a business card with their home phone number hand written on it “in case we needed anymore help.” Sweetest strangers EVER. 

The tow truck shows up about 4:45 – it’s beginning to get dark now and the natives (our children) are getting restless. Matt and the tow driver put the gas in the truck…nothing. They try this, that and the other, working on the thing for about 45 minutes, until the sun is basically set. The truck still won’t start, won’t even turn over and the battery seems to be fried now, too, probably from all of the key turning they’ve been doing. It’s obvious that we’ve got a real problem – not a gas issue. Unfortunately, it’s 5:30 on Saturday – no mechanic is going to be able to see us until Monday morning. We have no extra clothes, we have no food, we have no transportation. Asher is still complaining of a stomach ache and Tessa is whiny (she’s been trapped in a truck with nothing to do in 30 degree weather – go figure!) so it’s important that we get them out of the cold, (the temperature is dropping with the sun) somewhere they can be more comfortable.  We decide to head to a hotel to wait for a ride home. The tow truck takes us to a Holiday Inn Express just a couple of miles up the road and drops the truck in the parking lot. This is the highlight of the weekend for Asher – riding in a tow truck. Oh. My. GOSH! He’s seriously so excited it almost makes the drama worth it.

We check in and Matt calls his dad to tell him what’s happened and ask for a ride home.

His dad says no – he can’t come – try his sister or brother. His sister can’t come. His brother doesn’t answer. So his dad says fine, he’ll come when he’s finished doing what he’s doing. It’s about 6:00 now, so we’re figuring we can be home by about midnight to sleep in our own beds and figure the repairs, etc. out from home. The kids rest in the room for 15 or 20 minutes, watching TV, warming up. Then they are restless again. So we take them swimming in the hotel pool. While we are in there, the hotel manager tracks us down – Matt has a phone call. It’s his dad. He’s decided against coming tonight – since we already have a hotel room. His sister can come get us tomorrow afternoon.

I am okay with spending the night. Matt is NOT. He wants out of here and home ASAP. There are things to do at home and he is not going to let this trip ruin one more day of the weekend.

We decide to be finished swimming. He wants to call around town and see if he can coerce anyone into taking a look at the truck tonight. In the hotel room I get the kids settled in, feed them a snack (I snagged some saltine cracker packets from the buffet for Asher’s tummy and we had some beef jerky in the truck) and turn on a cartoon while Matt calls around. Then I jump in the shower. Matt joins me after a minute – there are only 4 mechanics in town and those that he was able to get a hold of aren’t interested in helping us out.  I’m still washing my super thick hair with crappy hotel shampoo (using the entire tiny bottle and wishing for more) when his phone rings and he jumps out to get it. It’s his brother.

Ryan can’t come for us tonight, but he will in the morning if we need him. It will be noon or 1:00 before he can be here…in the meantime, his girlfriends family is in Roosevelt, 30 miles from us, and her dad is a police officer there. He can call him and see if he knows of anyone that might be able to help us. The girlfriends dad, JC, calls Matt just a few minutes later. Matt fills him in on the saga and JC has some help to offer – a trick he knows to prime the engine in case we’ve air locked it. It’s a two man job, though. So Matt asks the hotel manager for help and they head out to try the trick. I’m out of the shower, dressed (in dirty clothes) and restless and they’ve been outside for 10 minutes or so when I go looking for Matt. I find him in the hotel lobby, on the phone with JC again – expressing profuse thanks because (HOORAY!) the truck is running and has been for about 10 minutes. We go out to check on the truck and it’s still humming away, so we race upstairs, pack up all our stuff and run to the truck. It’s 7:30 by now, and the kids are hungry. Asher wants a hammer burger (his version of a hamburger) Tessa wants chicken nuggets. Both of them want a cup shake (which is what Ash calls a milkshake.) Matt promises them the world. He’s so happy to be going home he’s smiling ear to ear and bouncing around like Tigger on speed.

When we get to the truck…it’s not running. S’okay, we think – it will be fine once we’re driving. So Matt gets the manager, who comes around with his car and his jumper cables. We hook them up, I hop in the drivers seat, Matt lays on the ground under the car and starts banging on the fuel tank (JC’s trick) while I turn the key. BAM! The truck starts. Manager unhooks, I move over, Matt climbs in the truck and…it dies. So we try it again. Same thing. So we try it AGAIN, and this time I stay in the drivers seat, foot on the gas, feeding the engine a steady stream and keeping the RPMs around 1500. We let it run like that for about 10 minutes, then decide to give driving a try. I circle the hotel parking lot 6 or 7 times, and things seem to be okay, so we decide to try for a gas station, fill it up the rest of the way and get the hell out of town. At our second stop light, the truck dies. Matt jumps out, runs around and starts banging away on the fuel tank while I turn the key and pump the gas – we start back up. I say to Matt “you want me to turn around and head back to the hotel?” he says “No! go to the gas station!” So I do. I keep the truck running and the gas pedal depressed while he pumps the gas, but it dies, anyway. There’s no restarting it this time. So we give up. 

It’s 8:00. It’s dark. It’s cold (the bank across the street says 23 degrees.) There’s a light, constant rain on the windshield. Matt calls AAA for another tow back to the hotel and I call my dad. He’s my last resort, because I’m absolutely sure he’ll come for us. 

My mom answers the phone. I ask her what she’s up to. Nothing. She asks what I’m up to. Me? Oh, I’m stranded at a gas station Vernal, living out the biggest cluster of a weekend that there ever was. Would she and dad mind picking us up the morning? She says she’ll call me back.

The kids are hungry. So much for that hammer burger, chicken nuggest and cup shakes. Matt finishes up with AAA and heads into the gas station for dinner – the kids want fritos . This is just another part of the adventure for them – all the junkfood that mom normally says no to!

My dad calls back. He gives me some shit about running out of gas – apparently my sister saw my facebook post and filled him in. He says to call when we get back to the hotel and we’ll make a plan for the morning. The kids fall asleep in the back. They are covered in blankets and I hope they are warm enough. We wait. And wait. An hour goes by. Tessa has developed a strange, hacking cough. Probably a result of all the cold air and all the water she swallowed while flailing about in the hotel pool. We raid the back of the truck for the emergency blankets I keep back there and pile them on top of her. Ashers sleep is restless, so I pull him out of his carseat and settle him into my lap, two blankets over the both of us. 

Holding him has a weird effect. Our body heat combined with my wet hair (in a ponytail so still not dry from the shower) has coated me (and the drivers side window and windshield) in a moist film…which is freezing cold.

My dad calls back again – aren’t we back at the hotel yet? He says to call AAA or the tow company or whoever and tell them to get here and pick us up! So Matt does and, sure enough, it looks like the first call was never dispatched. They apologize. They understand. It’s just that they are very busy tonight and their computer system is down. Matt is remarkably patient with the phone agent. I, on the other hand, am not so cool. I say – loud enough that she can hear me, I hope – that we have two sick kids! It’s 20 degrees! If we had known it was going to be THIS LONG we would have WALKED back to the hotel rather than sit like homeless people in our car! And as far as their computer system being down and having a high volume of calls – what does that have to do with ME?! I’m in Vernal, Utah! I guarantee you that there is not a high volume of stranded people waiting for a tow truck in VERNAL, UTAH!  There may have been a curse word or two thrown in, also.

10 minutes later the tow company contacts us. He’s on his way. He’ll be here in about 10 minutes. Poor Matt is feeling very down – depressed about us being stranded. He says he’s made every wrong decision he could have in the past couple hours. We never should have tried to leave. We should have turned around when the truck died at the stoplight. We should never have waited so long to call AAA back.  I tell him it is not his fault that this happened. Not a bad thing that he wanted to get us home. Not a bad thing that he was actually patient with AAA. Not his fault that THEY screwed up. Everything is cool. We will all live. I don’t blame him! I say “I only love you.” This is something I say sometimes when things are rough…it makes us both feel better. It means I don’t love anyone else more. It means I don’t feel anything for him other than love. It means that our love is the only thing that matters. It works – he says he only loves me, too. 5 minutes later the tow truck shows up.

We are back in the hotel a little after 10pm. The kids are back to sleep (Ash never really woke up, since I held him the entire time) within 5 minutes. I talk to my dad – he’s planning to leave to come get us first thing in the morning. I should call his cell when I wake up. I’m wound up and not ready for sleep, so I read for an hour or so (good thing I brought two books!) and Matt does some homework before we go to sleep.

In the middle of the night I wake up…sick. I’m so hot I could heat the building. Matt turns on the air conditioner. I sleep. Starting at 7am, though, I’m in the bathroom more than I care to talk about. Matt also seems to have picked something up. I’m figuring it’s a combination of stress and The Golden Corral. My dad calls at 7:30 – they are about 75 miles away. We head downstairs for the complimentary breakfast, then pack up…between bathroom visits. At about 8:45 I have an epiphany – Immodium AD! Matt finds some in the hotel store. We both pop a couple.

Just after 9am my mom and dad show up. We pack up the car and the 4 of us squish into the backseat of the trailblazer. Not the most comfortable seating arrangement ever – but far preferable to staying in Vernal for another day. At our first gas stop I have Matt pick me up another packet of Immodium. Hooray for modern medicine.

We get home about noon. The house is to be bathed in a golden light, straight from Heaven. I’m so happy to be home that I almost cry. Matt’s joy seems to surpass my own. Both dogs, by the way, are fine. I am firmly convinced of my low-level psychic abilities. Maybe it’s a result of the Cortexiphan trials I was part of as a child? (if you don’t watch Fringe, ignore that last, incredibly geeky sentence)

We feed the kids. We shower. I work on Tessa’s research project with her while Matt does his own homework. I’m still sick, but Matt seems to be better. We make dinner. We put the kids in the bathtub. And at 5:30 we turn a movie on for the kids in our bedroom and finally sit down on the couch. Whew!

So there’s our weekend adventure. This morning Matt and Ryan headed back up to Vernal to town the Avalanche back to Salt Lake. We’ll have it worked on here, and pray that the repairs don’t cost a fortune.

Next post will be about our recent trip to Disney World and will be A LOT more fun, I promise!