Our LONG, ANNOYING Journey to Utah

Mark and I saw the movie "17 Miracles" and thought it was such an amazing movie. It made us realize that our trials seem so small compared to the ones of our Pioneers. But I think we could have made our own "17 Miracles" movie with what happened to us on the way up to Utah. We were definitely watched over the whole time and we definitely saw first-hand the miracles that we were blessed with.

THIS IS A VERY LONG STORY...... READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!! I am writing this so I don't forget the details of what happened.

All of Mark's brothers (except one who was having a baby that weekend) and his Mom and Stepdad were going to Utah for the 4th of July weekend. So we decided to go too. Greg and Holly were driving out the same day as us, so we decided to drive together. They couldn't leave until 2, which was fine, so we left our house about 1:15 to meet up with them around the Loop 101 and Cactus Road. Mark had to stop at both of his offices to drop papers off and pick up some things. We actually weren't ready to leave at 2. It took longer than we thought and so we told them to just start driving and we will catch up with them in Wickenburg or somewhere else. Well, we finished everything we needed to do and were on the road driving at 2:45. We said a little family prayer to help us make it safe to Utah. Then, when we were just leaving Wickenburg, I got a text from Holly saying they were just leaving Wickenburg. I thought there was no way we caught up to them that fast and maybe the text was delayed, so I called her to see exactly where they were. It turns out, we were AHEAD of them by 5 miles. They stopped to take a bathroom break. They have 7 kids, so it takes longer to do that. But anyway, we were ahead of them, not sure exactly how. 

But we continue driving and 45 miles out of Wickenburg, our car starts acting wierd. Then our battery light came on. The lights on the radio became dim and the TV stopped working. Then, our car battery died COMPLETELY. All our gages went to zero and we were coasting, trying to drive uphill. Then our car just completely died. We pulled over and for some miraculous reason, we had Greg and Holly behind to stop and help us. We had no cell phone reception in that area. Greg jump started our car a couple times and it would start, but the car wouldn't stay on. So we hopped into their car (they have a 12 passenger van) and we drove back to Wickenburg because it was the closest place. Mark picked up a battery. Come to find out.... the place that sold us the last car battery sold us a battery that was too small for our car. But we drove back to our car, Mark put the new battery on. It was hot, middle of July, but about 3 hours later, we were back on the road driving.

Well, we stopped in Kingman to eat and get gas. After we were done and driving out of Kingman (about 2 miles out) our lights were going dim again and our car was doing the same thing. Luckily, we got our car pulled into a parking lot of a pizza place and we decided our alternator was the problem and it needed to be replace. By this time, it was 9:15 at night. There weren't any car shops open. So we were gonna call our roadside assistance number and have a tow truck tow us to a hotel. We were gonna call it quits, get our car fixed in the morning and head back home. But Greg and Holly were so amazing. We have held them back this whole time. They could have been at the hotel in Cedar City by this point. Greg insisted that they wouldn't leave us behind and that we would get this fixed tonight. Mark had a thought to call Auto Zone to see what time they closed. They were open for another 45 minutes and had the right part we needed. But the problem was getting our car there in time. The tow truck would take 45 minutes to get where we were and we were cutting it close on time. We also asked if there was a guy there at Auto Zone that could help us put a new alternator on. There was a manger there that would help us and stay open for us until we got there. Luckily, the tow truck made it in 15 minutes. By this time, it was almost 10 and we got to Auto Zone pretty fast. The guy there confirmed that it was the alternator that was the problem and we got the part we needed, but it was taking a really long time. We let the kids run around in the parking and they played tag. It took a while to get it all finished up. (The guy got the wrong alternator and it's a good thing he realized it, so it took a while for him to find the right one).  But we were so grateful that Auto Zone was open and that the manager was willing to stay there and help us out.

When we were all done there, it was close to midnight. But Greg and Mark still wanted to keep driving, since we lost a lot of time already. So we drive to Las Vegas and thought we would drive a little longer. We got a half hour out of Vegas and Greg was getting sleepy and we thought since all the kids were already asleep, we would just pull over to a truck stop and sleep in the car. It seemed easier than going to a hotel and carrying all the kids inside the hotel. Well after about an hour of trying to fall asleep in the car, we decided it was too hard, so we drove to find a hotel.  Well the next city was about an hour away. We got to Mesquite, Nevada and found a couple hotels to choose from. Some were loud, casino hotels and luckily, we drove up to one that look really nice. I told Mark that it was probably $200 a night, but he wanted to find out for sure. Since it was 3:30 in the morning, the lady gave us a discount and we only paid $60 for it. SCORE!!! The room we got was a suite with a kitchen. It was super big and super nice!! We got all settled in and when I got into bed, it was 4:00 AM.

I can't believe the day we had and it wouldn't have turned out as good as it did without that prayer we said before we left. And Greg and Holly, even with their 7 kids and the annoyance of being so far behind on time and having to drive us 45 miles back to Wickenburg and then 45 miles back to our car, and then having to stop again to get our alternator fixed, they were AMAZING!! They didn't complain once and made us feel like it was no big deal. We gave them many opportunities to go ahead and we will get this figured out, but Greg would not leave us behind. We owe them BIG TIME!!!

Anyway, so the next morning, we get up and are on the road by 9:30. Our car is doing great and everything looks OK. Somewhere between Mesquite, Nevada and St. George, Utah, we stop at a gas station for a potty break. The break was taking a little longer than normal, but we were just hanging out. Some of our kids switched cars and Mark was checking the car to make sure it was OK. But we got back in our car and kept driving. Not too long after we got back in our car, there was an accident that happened maybe a mile in front of us. Everyone slowed down and since it was an accident that just happened, we told all the kids to keep their heads down and not look outside. We had no idea how bad it was since there weren't any ambulance there yet. We drove by and there was an army truck upside down, another car totaled. I saw a young family, with a father handing over his daughter to the mom. That made me happy that they were OK. But the army truck that was upside down had a body in it. I looked in the window and couldn't tell what it was, but Mark said there were legs hanging out. For sure that person didn't survive. It hit pretty close to home, because for reason, we stopped at that gas station and we took longer than we wanted. We just don't know why we were lollygagging around. Now we know it was because if we left even 2 minutes earlier, we could have been in that accident. We couldn't tell exactly how it happened though. It kind of shook all of us up. And I found out later, that when we were passing by the accident, Holly had gone to the back of the car with the little ones to make sure they didn't peek. Elli was in their car and Holly said that she told the little ones that there was a bad accident and she didn't want them to see it. Elli asked Holly, "Is it my mom? Is she OK?" My sweet Elli was concerned about me and that made me hug and kiss her extra more!!

And then finally, we get to the Provo area and we decide we wanted to get out to get something to eat instead of eating in the car. The freeways in Utah are always under construction. It's kind of annoying. But we were in the far left lane and all of a sudden, this big truck carrying a bunch of big metal tubes comes into our lane. Keep in mind, Mark had to slam on our brakes because he was literally inches from hitting our car or us running into the cement wall that was on the other side of our car. It was pretty scary because this truck didn't even attempt to stop pulling into our lane like he didn't see us. It doesn't sound as scary as it was, but if Mark didn't see him coming into our lane, we would have been in a HUGE accident involving a lot of cars behind us. But Mark drove to the side of this truckers passenger window and did the "what the heck" look and he didn't give a crap. His wife was next to him texting, probably no idea what is even going on. I've decided that truckers in Utah are annoying. They cut us off SOOOO MANY times while we were there. 

But anyway, we got to Bajio and got out of the car to get something to eat. I ordered our family's food and Holly said that while she was ordering her food, the guy behind the counter asked her if we were all from Colorado City.  Hmmmmmmmm, there were 2 guys, me, Holly and her daughter (who was old enough to be wife in Colorado City) and 9 other kids. It made sense with how many of us there was. Even though we had no makeup on and weren't dressed up, I still couldn't believe he asked her that. But it kind of topped off the way our trip to went. We just laughed about it! We were just so excited to finally be there and not driving anymore.

But now that I have that all written down, I just need to upload my pictures and get our Utah trip posted! We had a lot of fun!!