<– DAY 1: Sunday April 29th: It’s a Fluid Situation! | Day 3: Tuesday May 1: Weathering Oz –>

DAY 2: We made it to Rawlins, Wyoming, yesterday. Progress has been made.

Here’s what happened to delay our departure from Utah …..

After a stressful morning, a very happy wife.

It was an interesting day of twists and turns. Yesterday morning began with a startle. At 5:17am the motel TV’s audio, but not video, sputtered to life, crackling at first, then clearing up to broadcast some kind of TV news interview. I hunted down the remote in the dark, hit the power, thinking the tv would shut off, but instead the video came to life. I hit the power one more time, then the video and audio shut down. That was weird!

Later, as we were leaving the hotel in search of tires, Ann discovered that she didn’t have her purse. If not in the motel room — and it wasn’t there any of the 74 times we checked — then the only other place it could be was at the nearby Spanish Fork’s Cafe Rio, where we ate the previous night. We called the restaurant at 9am and were able to speak with the manager who closed the night before and was opening it that morning, learning that he hadn’t seen the purse. After another search of the motel room, we concluded it had been stolen after we’d left the restaurant. Gone were her cash, her banks cards, her military ID, her driver’s license, her inhaler, her new glasses, and some other stuff.

We are WINNING on this trip, lol.

Back to the tire search … based on my the previous evening’s research, we ended up at the Springville Big-O tire shop. They had the best local reviews and could get the original OEM tires (which no local tire-shops had in stock). Now, we just had to wait.

How to kill time on a rainy day? First, we thought eating breakfast was a good idea. Not wanting to drive very far on the crappy spare tire, we found a Denny’s just a block away. After being seated, the server asked what she wanted to drink and Ann responded “apple juice”.

Turns out, Denny’s sold out of that the day before. Poor Ann, she just couldn’t win …. having had enough by that time, she broke the soda embargo she’d put in place for the past month and ordered a Dr. Pepper. Since Ann couldn’t see the menu (reading glasses in the missing/stolen purse), she explained to the waitress that she could not read the menu, then described what she wanted: 1 egg over easy, 2 pieces of bacon, a bowl of grits, and the Dr. Pepper. I had the grand slam (2 eggs, toast, 2 pieces of bacon, hash browns). Continue reading →

<– Trip Overview Map | Day 2: Monday April 30th: Life’s Twists and Turns –>

DAY 1: When folks ask when we’ll be somewhere on this trip, I tell them it’s a bit of a fluid situation until we get closer to the East Coast. Case in point ….

Yesterday we left Pasco, headed for Grand Junction, Colorado. As we passed by Provo, we heard a strange noise like a tire popping, but nothing seemed amiss. We turned off at Spanish Fork and made it several miles up the canyon when we heard another noise followed by a ding: one of our tires was flat. Fortunately, we were able to pull safely off highway 6 (no fluids spilled, no damage, etc).

We put on the wimpy spare, then drove back down to Spanish Fork, where we spent the night. After a bunch of research on tires, we’ll hit Big O tire in Springville at 7AM to see what they can offer us. By the time we are out of here, we’ll have lost about a day.

Below is the planned route for yesterday … We are 3/4 of the way there.

And, the tire:

Finally, the phone issue. For five hours on Sat night/Sunday morning my phone showed no signs of life. Then, at 2am, when I happened to be awake, it popped on with a Facebook alert. After talking it over with Ann, we decided we would go ahead and upgrade my phone (it had been three years), as I no longer trusted it. We left early, reaching Twin Falls, Idaho, just as the store opened.

Purchasing the phone went fairly efficiently, though the transfer of info was slow, so slow that after we left some of my apps were still loading. By the time the tire blew four hours later, the apps were still loading. So, no Priceline app to reserve the hotel room in Spanish Fork and no Yelp app to help me locate a restaurant that was open (it was Sunday night in Utah after all). For sure, these are 1st world problems, but they didn’t help my day!

Let’s hope tomorrow goes more smoothly.

<– Trip Overview Map | Day 2: Monday April 30th: Life’s Twists and Turns –>