On the Road...

So I was absolutely dreading the 1900 mile car drive across the country but it actually wasn’t that bad! It started out rocky in Parley’s Canyon where our truck over heated and we literally were going 15 mph up the hill. That lasted about forty five minutes and we were really worried for the long trip we had ahead of us but it never overheated that bad again so that was good! A few hours later in Wyoming we blew out two tires on the trailer!! It was in the middle of nowhere and it was really really hot. The people said it would be about an hour until they could get to us to help us. It was really hot and miserable and we were starving because we hadn’t stopped for lunch yet but luckily they fixed it really fast and we were good to go again! So the first day was pretty long… Jake wanted to drive 900 miles that day and I think we only did about 500. The next day I begged Jake to take a detour so we could go to Nauvoo… I know crazy that I wanted to add more time but I wanted to do one thing fun on our road trip! So we take the huge detour and pull into Nauvoo at about 9. We met a couple missionary from Cache County and they were so excited we were from Logan that they told us to get in their car and they would drive us around. They drove us to all 7 hotels in Nauvoo to find a place to stay for the night but there was nothing available. They wanted us to stay on their couch but we felt awkward so we said we would be find but they kept insisting on helping us so finally we agreed to park our huge budget truck there and then drove our car across the river to find a hotel there. We were striking out everywhere we called except one place that was only $30 a night. Obviously it had to be ghetto but we didn’t have a choice so we drove out to it. It was totally DISGUSTING! It reeked of smoke and had holes in the mattress, stains on the sheets, crap all over the walls and shower, and no light bulbs! Jake went to get a refund we were thinking the couples’ couch looked pretty good about now but the man would not give him a refund. He showed him 5 other rooms that were all about the same - some worse. Finally he showed us one that at least didn’t smell like smoke so we stayed there because we were exhausted. It was totally disgusting and we didn’t touch anything. I got our beach towels and blankets out of the trunk to wrap around the bed so we didn’t have to touch it. Luckily we survived the night and got out of there as fast as we could!

It was totally worth it because Nauvoo was amazing! I wished we could have spent more days there because there were so many cool things to see but we went around a few tours in the houses then headed over to Carthage. It had such a strong spirit and we felt very close to the trials the saints had to go through.

When Jake and I were dating this is the only picture he had of him on facebook and I always made fun of his hands so I had to do the same thing! We were supposed to stay in Greencastle that night with a couple from Jake’s mission but they called us when we were on the road and told us they had the flu so we just kept driving. When we got to Ohio there were no rooms available again because they were having the State Fair. We had to drive another half hour and find another dump. But it really was a fun road trip with good songs and a great book on tape! Plus we were never hungry thanks to the great treats provided by the moms!! And now we are officially West Virginians!!