The very long End of a long beginning.

Bryce is sleeping soundly next to me. As he should be. It's 3 AM. This is the third night this week that I've woken up around 1 AM completely awake and no signs of falling back asleep. So I've been trying to fall back asleep for 2 hours and finally gave up and here I am.

Now to go back to our trip!

Another piece of background that you have to understand before this next part:

Bryce and I started the cash envelope system of budgeting last year in Feb and we've really loved it and it's worked great for us. We save a ton by only paying in cash (other than monthly bills). So we usually have a good sum of money in there. But in preparation for the move out of UT, we had to close our Zions Bank accounts and just pull all our $ out in cash. Not that it was much by any means but it was all we had. We kept it all safely tucked away in the cash box. .....

We said goodbye to Kimi and Rob and baby bump. I still can't believe I didn't cry when we left. I think I was so relieved to finally have everything done that I was more relieved to pull out than anything. We left around 4 PM I think. We were just chatting and talking about how crazy all of this was when around 5 PM I realized with horror that we had left that cash box at  Kimi and Rob's house. We had literally No Money other than what was in that box. 

We turned around. (Not so easy with the beast...) I called Kimi. They met us about half way in Brigham city. Bless them for forever. 

We started off again. 

I called my sister, Jen to tell her we wouldn't be making the detour to see them on our way out because of all the delays and the beast. After talking to her I bawled. I was leaving her and Kimi and my nieces and nephews I'd been around for the last 6 years. I'd miss their sweet faces.

The drive went well....until about 11:45 PM. We were south of nowhere....in southernish UT. Bryce suddenly turned off the book on cd he was listening to and pulled over. We had felt a big thud in the back somewhere. We got out and pulled out the maglight flashlights. One of the trailer tires on the passenger side had completely blown. Probably at the weight of all we were carrying and the tire right behind it was pretty well trashed as well. 

I'm trying to remember what our initial response was. I know we got back in and truck and said a prayer together before I crawled through the tools in the back of the pickup to get Bryce a few things he needed. We jacked up the trailer to take off the tires. But apparently his 2 ton (I think) jack wasn't enough to do it. We bent it. 

yeah.

 Bryce bent it back in place and pulled out the 1  1/2 ton jack and we used both at the same time. It worked....barely. We got both tires off and brainstormed on what to do. We only had one spare and as it turned out it had a bubble in it. Not good. Even if we tried to use it we still needed a second one. 

Bryce had hauled two huge axels with wheels and tires on them from an old van he once bought and sold. He just hadn't sold them yet. Luckily he had pulled them apart and shoved it all under the black flatbed on the trailer. We had no idea it they'd fit so we pulled one out and measured. It looked close but we weren't sure. So we tried it. 

The bolt pattern was perfect but the tires were too tall--they would scrape the under part of the trailer. 

We pulled them back off. 

Around this time a cop car pulled up behind us. His name was Kevin and he was on his way home for the night when he saw us. As much as I try to help Bryce with the car stuff, another man was way more helpful than I could ever be. 

We ended up trying the spare tire from the truck and (I think) the spare from the trailer with the bubble).  Surprisingly the one from the truck fit ok. We knew it might get us a few miles but we weren't sure. Kevin said the next exit was his exit for home and there was a hotel right off the exit. He said he could follow us so we could drive extra slow. We talked with him quite a bit while dealing with all of this and then cleaning up. By the time we were ready to leave he had offered twice to let us stay at his home with his family. We had found out he was LDS and had two younger kids still at home and a daughter about to leave for college as well. We both trusted him and he felt the same towards us. 

We ended up taking him up on the offer. He said in the morning he'd help us find a tire shop to get it all fixed. As we followed his directions to his home, it was as he had said the very next exit and only a couple miles total to his home. 

(We realized later that if we had broken down just a few mins later, we would have been past his exit and he never would have seen us.)

Now, this whole thing honestly makes me teary eyed just remembering it. 

When we arrived, he had called his wife to let her know he was bringing home strangers.  When she opened that door she treated us as if she had known us for years and also as if we came to her with nothing. She had made up a bed in an extra room and put out bathroom things for us-everything you could possibly think of. She offered for me to take a hot bath about 3 times. :) She was the sweetest woman I have ever met. 

They stayed up and chatted with us for probably an hour before we went to bed. She offered something to drink about 4 times before we figured she'd keep offering til we said yes. So we did.  She wanted to make us food but we told her several times we had been eating in the car and were fine. Remember this was about 1:30 AM Sunday morning. 

Like I said, they treated us like friends and were so sweet. We finally went to bed and I texted mom and dad to let them know in short what had happened and that I'd call in the morning. We slept wonderfully that night. The next morning we got dressed and went downstairs. I showered and then Bryce did while I did my hair. While I was finishing, he started talking to Desiree. Then I got a text from my sister saying that the town we were in was where our great aunt and uncle lived. She had served her mission with them for a time and loved them. She said my great uncle had been in the policeforce in that town for years before he retired. So we asked Desiree if they knew of them. 

They lived two houses down the street and knew eachother very well.

In fact, while feeding us a ginormous breakfast, she grabbed the phone and called them up. She talked with them and gave me the phone. We ended up going to see them a little later. It was so wonderful! I hadn't seen them since I was really little. We exchanged info for my parents so they could get back in touch. I just wish we had taken a picture with them!

So they fed us breakfast and then Kevin offered again to take Bryce to get new tires. Apparently, on the way out the door he told Bryce he had two old tires up the the rafters of the garage and didn't have anything for them to go to. He had inherited them from a friend several years before and had no use for them so maybe we should at least try them.

The were 100% perfect fit. 

And he had two.

No one will ever convince me God wasn't interfering for us. He was in everything on that trip.

So he and Bryce hopped in his cop car to go find a mechanic. It was sunday. The two shops were, of course, (small town) closed for the day. He called the owners of both but neither answered. Bryce was a little confused about what they were doing exactly but they drove around town and within a couple minutes Kevin turned on the police car lights, pulled a U turn and pulled over a car. 

It was the mechanic of one of the two tire shops. He asked if he would do some friends a favor. The kind man opened his shop and put the two tires on the trailer for us and said just to pay him what we could. (makes me cry)

We offered to pay Kevin for the tires 3 times that morning. He would hear of it. Said he had no use for them and we'd be taking them off his hands for him. Anyone who's ever had to buy tires knows how expensive they are. We would have had to use our precious gas money to pay for them. My heart feels the gratitude of that day.

Meanwhile, I was back at the house chatting with Desiree and having my toenails painted by their 8 year old. She does all their nails every sunday morning. I couldn't convince her not to. (I kept that pink nail polish with sparkles on my toes for almost three weeks.) She showed me around their backyard--they girls' playhouse and the boys' fortress. They were awesome. Desiree did all her own landscaping and gardening. It was so beautiful. I want a backyard like hers one day. She's completely amazing.

Desiree showed me around the house as well after I asked a few questions about her decor. She was also an art major in college and has used it to do all her own decorating from scratch in ways I had never even thought of or heard of. The little girls' rooms were awesome---one had a castle painted on an entire wall, even with the texture of the stone. The other room was a fairy room and even had a giant swing hanging in the middle of the room from the ceiling. 

The little boy's room had rock climbing walls and a fort area built into it. He even showed me the glow in the dark stars he put up himself in the fort. :) He was adorable.

Bryce and Kevin got back and as we got our stuff together so we could get out of their hair she insisted she was making us lunch before we left. "we're going to be eating anyway! Just stay. I'll just do something simple like sandwiches"

Spaghetti and garlic bread with fresh fruit from the garden. Not exactly sandwiches. There is no stopping that woman's kindness. 

She wouldn't let us leave without sending new cold water bottles with us and tons of ice. Which was so  wonderful. With everything that had happened, all ours had melted and our water hadn't stayed cold. 

Before we left we took pictures with these 5 angels in front of their home. 

They are the most beautiful people I have ever met. We still keep in touch with them. 

As we drove away that day, we kept looking at eachother and (literally) laughing out loud at the enormity of the blessings and miracles we'd received and witnessed. I think we were still both in shock over all of it.  But we just couldn't believe any of it. 

We said so many prayers of thanks of the course of those two days. It was amazing.

We called my other sister to tell her we also would not be driving their way to see them on the way---again because of all the trouble and they have a steep hill going up to their house and Bryce wasn't sure about bringing the beast up there. 

You think it's over? No way. We still hadn't gotten out of Utah yet. 

About 2 hours into the drive that day, we were coming out of nowhere (again) into the smallest town you've ever seen....well just a gas station and a restaurant or two. Right as we we pulling up the last hill Bryce felt (I couldn't even tell) the truck steering/driving funny. He knew it wasn't right so we pulled over just before the gas station. We took deep breaths and got out. 

That dang front right wheel. It's the one that we replaced the tire on before we set out on this adventure.  It hadn't been torqued down completely. SO it wasn't tight enough so that thing was rubbing and wiggling so it completely tore up the bolts that hold the wheel on. (I'm not using technical terms because honestly I can't remember all of them and the two people who even read this won't care anyway. :) Two of the bolts were gone (fallen out about 10 feet back). and three were so loose that two fell off in my hand when I went to wiggle them. That left three holding that entire wheel on. (Remember Bryce freaked when we lost ONE back in Las Vegas a few months before) 

Honestly, it was a miracle he pulled over as soon as he did. 

Don't tell but Bryce was at the breaking point. Although we'd felt so blessed and we knew we'd figure something out--he was so tired. He'd been working so hard for weeks to get everything ready for this trip and everything under the sun was going wrong. It killed me to see him so distraught at that moment.

I remember him saying, "Fine. We'll just live here then." (I'm guessing he realized with no car shops and no Cabella's it just wouldn't do. ;)

We went into the gas station to ask if there was a car shop in town or in a town close or an autozone or carquest or something. 

Nope. Nope. Nope. Oh and tomorrow's a holiday so nothing would be open tomorrow anyway. Well, wonderful. 

We got in the truck and prayed. Again. 

We got back out and Bryce leaned against the back of the truck and just thought while I picked up the bolts a few feet back. 

He remembered that back in Las Vegas a couple months before when this happened the first time, and he replaced all of them, he Saved Every Single One---even if the threads were a little chewed up. He has no idea why he would save them but he had. 

We had just enough of them to replace the ones that were trashed. A couple of them, like I said were a little chewed up but Bryce was confident we'd get by it we were careful and we planned to stop often to check on them. While putting them on another cop car stopped behind us.

He chatted with us when he saw Bryce had it under control. We told him the hilariousness of all that had happened and mentioned about Kevin. He said that he knew Kevin well and that if anyone found us like that, he'd be the one to be so generous and kind. He wasn't surprised. He said, also, that he'd let Kevin know he'd found us strays on the side of the road again but that we were ok. :)

He was also very nice and stayed until we were sure everything was good. 

I laughed again as we pulled out. We again felt that we'd been helped. 

After that we stopped every two hours to check the wheels. Every one of them. Just to be safe. 

We never had a problem after that. It was just getting out of Utah that was the problem I guess. It just didn't want us to leave. :)

We arrived in Flagstaff late that night. Mom and Dad were of course there, and my brother Eric was there visiting for the week. And Jana came up so she could see us too. It was so wonderful to be with family!! 

We stayed up late telling them our tales. :) It was so nice to be with family. The stress of the move was so much that it was heaven being there. 

We stayed an extra day.

I inherited an old bike while we were there which was great because I'd been planning and saving to buy one the months before moving but when we found out we would be moving, the money went towards that. 

Also, Eric travels alot and in our preparations for leaving the next day he offered for us to use some of his points to get a hotel in Amarillo, TX--where we planned to stop.  (Oh man, no crying Cherise) I know financial blessings aren't the most important and usually not the most memorable but for us during that time, a free hotel was a HUGE thing for us. 

We love him for that.

As we left the next morning and said goodbye to everyone, Dad of course slipped us some cash for gas as he always does. He pretends not to and is so nonchalant about it but I know what a big deal it is. I love him dearly.

We never had any problems on the drive after that. We still continued to be careful and check and double check everything. But we were finally ok.

The hotel in Amarillo was really nice and no one even stole anything from the truck. (My nightmare I couldn't stop imagining) 

When we arrived the next afternoon at Bob and Lori's, I pretty much slept for a week. Bryce as well. It took a while to recuperate but felt enormously blessed to be able to do so. 

Last thing, I keep thinking. When we got home and looked again at our cash box and our log of what we had spent, where, when and what for----the math still doesn't add up. We should not have been able to pay for all the gas and for the car parts we had to pay for. Even after all the gifts and warranties and all, we shouldn't have been able to pay it all. I think we had something like $8 left over or something. I shake my head every time I try to figure it out.

The Lord is very aware of his children. Although we do have to go through difficult times and sometimes horrible things, He is there through it all and will pour out His blessings if you try to listen and do what's right and second, if you look for the blessings, you will be amazed at what you see. 

Hopefully soon, I will get to do a post about our stay with Bryce's family, finding jobs and about our new house we are now moved into and renting. Oh and about our ward and callings. :)

Life is good---You just might have to look a little harder sometimes to see it. :)