Aprils End

Even though we celebrated her birthday for a week by opening gifts everyday on our trip...she said "it's not my birthday till we had cake." Can't believe she's 5 already. Her next request was "Can Hyrum come play yet. I haven't seen him in forever." Slaves are nice as it was time to get my garden moved and planted. The YW had a pinewood derby. Katana and her Dad got some quality time building it. She's also participating in a color guard club and loving it. Mace is particular with his hair. "Mom I liked this hair you can do it like this again." Of all my kids I think Axel enjoys the Mark Rober CrunchLab build kits the best. I might just redo the subscription on my own next year.  I won two Zarahemla games in the same week after trying to find some under $20 for weeks. A few of the missing pieces I whittled out of an eraser and matches. My siblings started a book club.  My first pick was a fantasy adventure called Ritualist by Dakota Krout. A man becomes a permanent addition to a game world. Completing missions and mastering abilities to learn the worlds secrets. Everyone else is choosing deep thinking, harrowing victories or self helps. I think my next will be Brigerton just to see if Trujillo will comply. ;)  I strip washed Prestons levi quilt; it was nasty. Some fun surprises ended the month. Our chickens hatched with awesome success. 10-12. Our cat had her kittens. One looks just like her and 3 cute black and white calicos. I had a weird "I miss my mom" moment when I opened a bag of chips and a burnt chip fell out. Oddly I realized I like burnt chips too. They have more flavor. Also I think she opened a lot more peanut butter jars without us. At least I get to.

 

April -- Epic Road Trip.

This post only portrays the surface events and we have a few momentos and photos to remember it all. The bulk of our journey however will be housed in memory and captured in our hearts forever.

4-5 Friday This whole week we've been preparing to go. Cleaning, packing, travel games, meal plans and road treats. It was after work friday our adventure began. Preston drove the bus, pulling the van on a trailer. I drove Preston's work truck to the shop. I turned around 3 times before hitting the freeway having forgotten something from the house. including work keys, the 5 gallon water barrel, and power tools. Bringing the van and tools proved to be inspired from day 1. The bus felt "off." Preston was fairly sure it was the alternator going out. We puttered into Soda Springs with no heat, no fans, and barely any headlights to see by. It literally quit / shut down / died right as we pulled up to the Napa Auto Store about midnight. We camped a little chilly but had good sleeping bags and blankets.

4-6 Saturday morning Preston drove the van an hour back to Pocatello to get parts. Meanwhile the kids and I got a tire fixed and toured the town. Statues, Monuments, and the famous geyser. It goes off every hour and shoots 100 ft in the air. Mace found a footprint in cement that matched his size. He fooled Axel by pretending it was still wet and he just made it and would be in trouble. Later Axel accused Mace of peeing on the ground by the bus. It was just Dads rockstar that had tipped. We were very giggly all day. Preston had all the tools and know how to fix the bus and we were on our way again by noon. 80 MPH winds and dust storm had all roads closed through Wyoming. We waited for over an hour. After talking to the officers and several truckers decided to take a two state detour to continue South. We headed down to Utah. We passed through some of the prettiest country going over Flaming Gorge. The road was steep with lots of switchbacks. Prestons driving was solid. Through the Vernal area the kids were delighted to spot at least 10 life-size dinosaur statues. Later we drove through a town called Dinosaur but were disappointed to see only 2 small replicas. LOL. We tried pulling off at a rest stop near Hayden Colorado but it was closed. A bar was locked on the off / on ramps. There was just enough road to pull off and sleep there anyway.

4-7 Sunday. Our new mint mobile phone plan is unlimited so we are able to get conference a little while close to town or stopped. The radio signal was all but nonexistent during the trip so unfortunately our ability to hear conference was splotchy at best. We did hear the accent of our newest apostle Patrick Kearon and that Scotland is getting a temple. Yeah! We conquered Denver pass. 11000 ft of bumper to bumper traffic on the way up and steep snowy patched pavement on the way down. White knuckled is an understatement. We stopped for a late lunch at a Denny's outside Denver for the first hot meal in days. This was our second attempt to stop and eat as a storm had knocked the power out to a few business in the area. Mace and Axel had a new joke "Did you know Jupiter is a big ASS planet?" What did you say? "Jupiter is a big GAS planet." (Eye roll those guys.)  The next 4 hours were the first and last driving I'd do on the whole trip. #1 because Preston is a terrible passenger and #2 because I broke the bus. It started feeling weird. We pulled off in Hays Kansas to get gas. Lights flashing an officer came right behind us. "We've been looking for you. Getting calls you've been throwing sparks for 50 miles." Oops. The bus rides really well you can't see or feel anything back there. No one was honking or signaling me.  Tire was gone.  There was no rubber left. The rim was toast too. Thankfully we'd gotten a new spare in soda springs. Preston resumed driving but didn't make it 10 miles. The oil pressure dropped suddenly and we stopped immediately on the side of the road. Katana and Axel were awake and we had a good devotional pulling quotes from the few conference talks we had heard. "This event was not of celestial importance" "We were prepared, had options and would be Ok." "We prayed for peace to prevail". Preston took the van back to Hays which thankfully had a 24 hr Walmart. We put 3 1/2 gallons of oil in and it started right up. We limped to Victoria. The exit there had a large gravel parking lot and lamppost. We were able to examine the engine and load up properly. It was another mini-miracle or tender mercy. We continued on stopping every 30 min. to check the oil. We had a slow leak but were still going.

4-8 Monday. We tried so hard to get to the eclipse. The closer we got the worse the traffic. Storms in Texas were forcing many up. We tried a few times to change or shorten our journey but even the side roads were clogged. Finally we just pulled over in a random town next to an apartment complex with a large lawn. It was already at 80% - a thin crescent. I was battling my emotions. We had tried so hard to catch the full eclipse and were probably no more than 30 min from totality. The "would have- could have- should haves" were depressing. However I felt blessed. My husband had drove all night with 2 hrs of sleep and the construction guys across the road didn't even stop working to look up at this phenomenon in their own backyard. We watched it slow to the tiniest sliver....growing hazy and cold. It was mid morning but looked near dusk. We saw 99.9% of coverage but it was still light out.  You couldn't look at the sun without glasses.  If you didn't know you might not know. Another testament of Light's triumph over dark. We let the kids run and stretch their legs for an hour as we watched it go back. Crescent-pacman-half-cookie bite-full sun. The traffic was horrible the rest of the day. It was after midnight by the time we pulled into Nauvoo state park campsite. A sign said " dry- no electricity" but was a car trail at best. Coming off the hill we dug a 3 feet deep crater in the ground with our jack. "What is this made out of?" We unhooked the jack and were able to pull out and find our correct campsite. We were exhausted but woke the kids to go shower. Clean we got a second wind. They all wanted to go see the temple at night. It was just up the hill so we did. It was magnificent. I don't think I've ever slept so soundly.

4-9 No one moved till about 10am. We had a good breakfast on our camp stove of biscuits and gravy.  It's beautiful back here. Like fairy forests. So green and lush. There is a nature trail that wraps around the park. we pretty much have the place to ourselves. There is a woodpecker with bright red wings that is really annoying.  We took the van to a car wash so we could drive it around Nauvoo. Found a small self serve center on the edge of town.  The kids were disgusted. "You have to pay them to wash your own car.!" We were one of maybe 4 families in the whole town. Nice because we never had to wait and could stay and ask questions. Some sights were open on different days but we had time. Today's highlights included a horse ride in town, an Ox Ride in a slow circle, brick and barrel making at the Family Living Center and walking the temple grounds. For dinner we tried some of Grandpa Marcs dehydrated E-meals. It looked gross but was hardy after a long day of walking. Axel pulled a prank where he asked me to wish on a dandelion then shoved it in my mouth. I was taking a video so we laughed about it for a long time as we rewatched it. Keokuk Walmart run for basics seemed oddly normal and out of place in our driving, camping, adventure mode. 

4-10 Another beautiful day in Old Nauvoo. More crafts like candle dipping and rug making. A long carriage ride through the countryside hearing history and stories of the homesteaders.  At the Blacksmith shop we ran into missionaries from Evan and JoAnns ward Brother / Sister Jensen. He was making mini horse shoes. One per family but after we moved into the next area he snuck us one per kid. I commented the water tasted a bit off. Then Zara runs up "mom did you drink my rocks?" She was collecting them in an empty water bottle I'd just refilled. Gross.  Zarahemla game between the boys got pretty intense and ran way late. once done we all fell asleep instantly.

4-11 We are traveling during Zara's birthday. Every day the kids open a fun gift. sucker, tatoos, dragon toy, steel tongue drum, ice breaker game, monkey game, and diamond art kits. The fan favorite is the two A-Z Farm / Food Dad Joke books. *What do you call a potato pretending to be  cherry? An Imi-tater. *What do you call it when a swine lose their memory?  Ham-nesia. *Have you heard the joke about German Sausage? Yeah it's the wurst.! *What do you get when you cross a clown with an orange? Peels of laughter.  And that's what we entertained each other with for days!!!!  The church recently acquired the Red brick store, Joseph Smith house and Mansion house. It's the first they've been open this week. The missionaries are spread thin waiting on more help to man all the new areas. The store is empty right now but still neat. We walked the trail of tears to the Mississippi. We took a fun back road through woods and farm fields to the Carthage Jail. The spirit there is so powerful. We followed the river out of Illinois to Iowa. The fields and lawns are overly green and there are no pivots or sprinklers. Weird. 

4-12. After driving past signs for the last 100 miles we couldn't not stop at WALL DRUG. A strip mall tourist trap of shops and pictures. An expensive hamburger in an old solon atmosphere. A chance to stretch our legs. Then cut across "The badlands". Rough sand cliffs and ridges. A country of rugged untamed beauty. The girls were eager to try and catch the little prairie dogs that were destroying the grassland. Not sure we were suppose to stop and walk around but we did. Preston took us out on one of the humps. Sheer drop offs had me a little nervous. We thought about sleeping at a roundabout style campsite in the park. It was full of sketchy looking campers and buffalo's grazing a few steps away. I didn't have a good feeling about it. I could imagine my boys daring each other to pet one. We went on. A random rest stop to stretch our legs in Chamberlain South Dakota held a fun surprise. It's the home of a 50 ft Dignity Indian statue by Dale Lamphere to honor the Lakota and Dakota People. They say "Don't drive sleepy" but there is no where to pull over and sleep. After a long day of travel we spent a cold night on a hill side somewhere in South Dakota.

4-13 Today is Mount Rushmore! We could see it for miles. We read every sign. Took all 422 stairs of the Presidential Trail to the base of Mount Rushmore and back to the grand view terrace. April but the kids found snow in the cracks to throw at their dad. The kids were board by the time we left but it was so surreal. I almost feel patriotic being here.  Yes we saw crazy horse too. We didn't even debark. Just turned around in the parking lot. We were toured out by then. "It gives us a reason to come back in 10 years"  Maybe you'll be able to see something. His face is mostly done and google says he has fingers but from the road you can just make out his pointer finger.  You'd think we'd be sick of the bus by now, But it's part of the fun. The table is super handy for games, crafts and eating. Our bed in the back is nice for a quick nap if a little dusty and bumpy.  We don't have to stop for potty breaks or water. We can just go go go. 

4-14 We hit the back side of the Tetons midmorning. We made a slight detour to Arco. Dan and Grandpa Marc had set up a zip line they were testing for a stake boys camp Grandpa Calvin is in charge of next month. Grandma Pam had dinner and after a week of road food it tasted so good. We thought to spend the night but with no clean clothes and so close to home we were eager to get going. The trees were all bloomed out. spring had come. the grass was green. The house had that empty unlived smell. We just came in and sat. Tomorrow we will start with laundry and cleaning but for now....it's just good to be home. "These were days never to be forgotten."--Oliver Cowdery.