Wow, it's been a crazy couple of weeks!
After having fun in Yellowstone, we headed home to load up the truck. Luckily we had prepared everything really well so it only took about 30 minutes with a few guys (and girl) helping out. On Sunday we had our last day of church in our ward. It was nice, but I felt pretty detached already so it wasn't sad. We finished cleaning and packing that day and then had an open house that night. It was SO fun to see so many people. I loved it. It was a great way to say goodbye to lots of good friends and some family.
Monday morning we got up bright and early, loading the last bits up and then faced our first challenge: loading the Mazda onto the car trailer. We were not smarter than the trailer, and with the ramp being too short and too steep our only way to solve the problem was visit the church parking lot. I backed the car up the ramp to the front doors and Scott backed the trailer up to the car. The slope of the ramp helped decrease the steepness of the ramp on the trailer. It took an hour to do and still totally scraped up the bottom of the car. :-( When we returned the truck we realized the trailer actually had a pump to lower it so the ramp could be almost flat to the ground. Wow. We're smart.
Anyway, we headed out. We quickly found out that a 16 ft truck with a flatbed trailer loaded with a car is not the easiest thing to drive uphill in. We also quickly found out that Wyoming is anything but flat. In fact, it is extremely hilly. We managed to top out on most of the hills at 45 mph. On the "flats" we topped out around 65 mph. The last hill was the longest and we couldn't get above 35 mph for much of it. Quite the experience and loads of laughs urging our truck to make it up "I think I can, I think I can."
Once we hit Nebraska, things flattened out alot and we were able to keep 70 mph for awhile. We also managed to run straight into the most incredibly colorful and interesting storm. We had the sun shining bright from the West behind us, deep blue storm clouds directly in front of us, a bright yellow field of Sunflowers to our right, a lightning strike a 100 feet to our left, and a double rainbow straight ahead in the clouds with rain pouring buckets from above. It was truly incredible. I have never experienced such vivid colors all at the same time. And the lightning bolt seriously was 100 feet or less away. Scared us a little.
When we came upon the town we were staying in for the night, I thought there were 2 exits, so I told Scott to keep going. After the sign that said "Next exit 9 miles" I realized I was wrong. So with a 1/4 tank of gas we went 9 miles, turned around and went back 9 miles. When we filled up with gas the next morning, we realized we made it to the hotel with less than 3/4 of a gallon left.
Realized something. This truck only got 9 miles to the gallon.
We also realized the next morning that somehow our front license plate became detached from our car. However, the plastic cover frame around it was laying on the trailer next to the wheel. So the question is, lightning bolt? Jostling around? Or license plate thief? hmmm....
Our next big adventure came when we were about 50 miles outside of St. Louis, near the place we were staying for the night on Tuesday. A big storm was brewing, once again, directly in front of us. I told Scott I wanted to get closer before stopping to eat dinner. He said he would stop at the next Subway so we didn't miss it. So we stopped and ate dinner. In the meantime, the storm blew threw in front of us on the highway about 5-10 miles farther than where we had stopped. WE realized this because when we got to the point of the storm, the highway was closed. We exited off and Scott found a parallel road that we followed for a few miles before jumping back on.
We realized later that a huge straight-line wind had blown through that portion of the highway and knocked a semi-truck onto a car. Smashing it almost completely. Both drivers were life-flighted and the highway was closed for 2 hours.
Had we not stopped for Subway when we did, we would have been in the same spot on the highway at the same time that wind blew through. We could have been that truck that was blown over onto a car.
Luckily, I think our Subway stop was inspired. We made it to the Lambert's without incident after that and faced yet another challenge of parking the truck. Remember, we had 16 ft of truck with a flatbed trailer that was probably another 16 feet at least. Gloria's neighborhood was designed with one way roads, narrow streets, lots of cars, and no space between houses. We drove around and around before parking the truck about 6 blocks away on the one empty patch of street that was not occupied. Phew.
Wednesday morning we managed to miss the exit for the highway we were supposed to take, so Scott had to maneuver through another tight neighborhood and turn left on a busy road before we got turned around. Then he got to face St. Louis rush hour traffic in our big rig. That was fun too. Then when we got to our apartment, we spent about 30 minutes backing up trying to turn the rig around so we could drive out of the complex. (some people had blocked the only cul-de-sac) We finally got to our place, the missionaries came and helped unload and we returned the truck.
Scott (and I) had never been so excited to drive our Mazda as he was when we left the truck.
We now have a whole new appreciation for semi-truck drivers. They really cannot see anything, and they can't really see you when you're passing. They also really cannot go any faster uphill. They also cannot cut corners, turn right easily, make u-turns or stop quickly. And, they most definitely really cannot accelerate very fast. They have a tough job people, and they deserve a little more respect. :-) We are now friends with truck drivers because we understand their pain.
Now we are at Grand Lake for a Gille family reunion. I haven't been so hot and humid for a very long time, and I'm not loving it, but I'm not hating it. It's just different walking outside and sweating. The cabins are teeny and I am SO excited to be back in my own house with my own bed and Scott (but I'm not complaining, promise!). We went on the lake today and I decided to wakeboard. Yes, I know I'm pregnant. Yes, you can tell me a billion times how it could be dangerous. Yes, I might listen. But will I follow your advice? Probably not. I got up, wakeboarded and loved it. In fact, I went out again this afternoon and boarded again.
Tomorrow? More boat. More lake. More wakeboard. Life is good. The end.
