Adventures in Traveling

Before we go away, we always pray that we'll be kept safe and that the car will run well for us. From now on, we'll have to be more specific in our prayers. Our trip up to Salt Lake for our niece's wedding was uneventful except for forgetting the clothes that we'd wear to the wedding itself. We got an hour and half away from home and realized we'd need to return home to get the clothes. Cost us some extra time and we only had a few hours to spare before the actual event due to a late departure (my fault as usual). But, the day was lovely and it was SO very nice being with family in the Temple and being reminded of our wedding some 30 odd years ago.

Had a nice albeit short visit with other family members and then it was time to come on back to lovely California.

We got about 125 miles away from home - deep in Feather River Canyon, and had one belt break. Then about 5 more miles down the road the alternator belt slipped off. It was still dusk, so we traveled without headlights for a little while, then turned them on and drove for as long as we could until we lost the speedometer and other gages. We figured we'd better find a safe place to pull off as the headlights were almost gone and try to get help. We found a rest area and backed in all safe and cozy. Then, of course, NO CELL COVERAGE! So, Mike tried to flag down drivers with his little flashlight. Man! Is it ever dark down in the middle of a canyon at night!!! A lady finally stopped and said she'd call the California Highway Patrol as soon as she got cell phone coverage. We only had about 10 more miles left in the canyon. So, we'd wait. Luckily, a C.H.P. came along, just by chance, and Mike flagged him down again with his tiny little flashlight and he called a tow-truck for us. We waited an hour for it to come and 85 miles later we were home. The tow cost $350. YIKES! Then we charged it and made it almost to the main road, and had to have it towed again to the shop for $65 more dollars to get fixed. Aren't Car Troubles SO MUCH FUN????!!!!!

BUT, we did make it home safely. Yes, yes we did. It could have been much worse. The stars were beautiful while we were waiting and it wasn't too cold. We did get home and found all well here.

Me thinks I'll stay put for a little while now though, until it's time to take the next trip.....