Road Trips Aren't Always That Much Fun

Well, it's been a while since my last post. I suppose I got kind of busy. Work has been the same, although I'm definitely not getting as many hours as they said I would be. K Mart is a great corporation, but just like any job, it's hard to work for them some days. People get really power hungry. Other than work, I've been trying to have fun around Corvallis and get the fun out of my system before school starts. When school starts, the fun will really need to stop.

A week ago I had 6 days off of work. (Didn't ask for them off, and didn't really want that many days off because it'd be nice to work. I need money!). I decided that would be a good time to go home. I haven't been home all summer except for my Brother's wedding reception. But I don't count that because it was only for a couple days, it was a very stressful time so I couldn't really enjoy it, and I didn't even get to sleep in my own bed. So, it's been a while since I had been home, and I miss it everyday. So even though I would've loved to be working, I was grateful for the opportunity to be able to go home.

The night I got there (Sunday night), my Mom asked me if I'd be willing to drive my sister, Angela, down to Utah for school. I told her I'd be willing to as long as she let me drive a car that she knew was reliable. So I was only really home for a couple days, and on Wednesday morning, Angela and I started early in the morning to start heading to Utah.

The trip was going great. Until about 20 miles out of Boise. We found ourselves on the side of the road in a construction zone (what other kind of zone is there on that drive?). The car was having a stalling problem and didn't want to continue the journey. I called my Mom and she explained the problem. Apparently that car has been having the problem for a couple years. Uhh thanks for the reliable car Mom and Dad! :)

The stalling problem had something to do with the sensors for the air filter. Basically the sensors were dirty and we needed to clean them. There was a special spray in the back of the car. I found it while Angela looked in the owner's manual to figure out where the sensors were we needed to clean. We were able to clean the senors and not be total damsels in distress, and we started going again. For about 30 miles before the car broke down again pretty close to Mountain Home. We cleaned the sensors again, and were on our way again. We got to Mountain Home and stopped for food. Neither of us had eaten all day, and we decided the car needed a little break anyway.

After food and the break, we kept trekking. We got about 80 miles down the road this time, right outside of Twin Falls, before the sensors needed to be cleaned again. This time stopping wasn't so bad because there was a beautiful sunset to enjoy while we popped the hood and got our hands dirty and greasy to unscrew screws and spray the cleaner. The only problem was, we were suppose to be in Utah during this beautiful sunset.

The car got us all the way down to Provo from Twin Falls, so it was fine for the last 170 miles.

We got to Provo at about1 in the morning. I dropped Angela off at one brother and sister-in-law's apartment, and then I headed to my other brother and sister-in-law's apartment.

At the apartment where I stayed, with J.J. and Erin, we continued talking til about 4 in the morning. I love talking to these two, and I could forever. But, after driving for 12 hours and then staying up for 3 hours longer than I needed to, I was exhausted. I don't know how my Dad does it. Driving 12 hours is hard. And of course I wanted to get as much sleep as I could because I knew my favorite niece would be waking me up soon enough.

Thursday I hung around the apartment in the morning and played with Allisyn, talked to Erin and J.J., and just relaxed a little. By 1, Angela and I were heading up to our Utah house in Magna to get her stuff she had stored in the garage for her new apartment. The car did fine getting there. On the way out of Magna, we stopped at the Arctic Circle. It was too hot to go on without an Arctic Circle milkshake! Right as we were pulling out of the parking lot, the sensors decided to be dirty again. Yay....

The car broke down two more times just on the way to Provo. And on the second time, Angela and I decided to call it quits, and asked J.J. to come pick us up in South Jordan. But it took him a while to get there, and by the time he got there I was thinking the car might have had a break long enough to get the rest of the way to Provo, but it was still good he was there so he could follow us just in case. Well, we didn't get to Provo, but we did get to Lehi. We parked the car at Texas Road House, and headed back to Provo with J.J. and Allisyn.

Back in Provo all the siblings and sibling-in-laws got together at J.J. and Erin's for pizza and game night. Spencer came too. :)

We ate pizza and played Killer Bunnies. Which actually turned out to be a really fun game. If you haven't played it, you should. It's fun.

When everyone left, I went to sleep. I was still exhausted.

On Friday morning J.J. and I ran a few errands and then went to Lehi to pick up Angela's stuff from our car. We moved Angela into her new apartment in Provo, got ready to leave Utah, and then J.J. and Erin dropped us off at our car in Lehi on their way to Layton for their romantic two year honeymoon getaway. So Angela and I started praying that the car would make it the 40 miles to the airport. Our prayers must've worked because the car made it without breaking down. It did threaten to stall a couple times by starting to shake a little, but I showed it who's boss and kept it going.

We parked the car at the airport, and as far as I'm concerned, I never want to see that car again. :)

I landed in Portland and got back down to Corvallis, and my new roommate, Kelcie, had moved in the week before. I'm so grateful she's here finally! We talked til about 3 in the morning just catching up and laughing about our crazy lives. I love Kelcie. She's so fun and I'm so thankful I've met her and made such a great new friend. The last couple days of having her around has been a blast. And I can't wait for Rachel to come back to Corvallis in a couple weeks so we can all have the best year ever!

I loved the trip to Utah, and even though the car had so much trouble getting there, it was still totally worth it to go. I love getting to see my family, I feel so blessed to have them in my life. I love my sister-in-laws. I'm glad my brothers married people I get along with, and love so much. Even though having to stop and fix the car so many times wasn't that much fun, I learned something new about cars! I didn't even know cars had any kind of sensors before this trip. So it was a good growing experience.