Weekend With Friends Part 1- Bumps on the Road

Since our dear dear friends moved to Cali a month ago our kids, and admittedly myself have been heart sick to see them. Tamra just had her newest baby a couple of weeks ago. We decided to head over to my folks last weekend so we could stop by and see the little bambino. I was happy to discover they are a mere hour from my parent's house ( as the JJ drives).

Unfortunately we got a bit of a late start Friday due to Jordan's music recital, and even more unfortunately we heard the rumble of our tire blowing out a meger 30 miles past Gila Bend. (I remain unconvinced it was not due to the oil changers ineptitude at tire inflation. Either way it's them or their tires crapping out after less than 2 years. Curse you Fletchers!) So we pulled over and got to work getting out the spare and tools and discovered we had no jack. Talk about unprepared, we must have forgotten to replace it at some point. With nothing but sage brush to prop up the car, I began waving our glowing cell phones for aid. Might I say there are a shortage of good Samaritans out there. The only ones left come in the demographic of Mexican men between 40-50 years old . A semi driver stopped first, but could offer no help, and after about 45 min. of flagging, another guy stopped to help and lent us a jack. Even after all that time, we were back on the road before the highway patrol made it to us-- so much for road side assistance. Thankfully our good Samaritan who had also lost a tire on that stretch informed us of an all night tire place in Gila Bend. Sooo... after getting a new tire we were back on the road at Midnight and ended up crawling into our bed at my parents house at 5am-- just in time to see the sunrise. Oh happy day!

All the waiting and late night driving gave us a chance to reflect on the numerous other times we have found ourselves stranded on the side of the road ....There have been many....

--Our first little car left us out of gas several times until we realized the gauge was off and ¼ tank was really empty. It continued to strand us as that margin of error marched from ¼ tank to ½ tank throughout the years of ownership.

--There was the time the transmission went out, when we were driving JJ's Dad's car home from a trip for him. We limped along off the freeway and into a hotel parking lot. When we got off the phone with JJ's parents, we came outside to a charred front of the car surrounded by the police and the fire department. Apparently it spontaneously caught fire while we were calling. Luckily someone near by had an extinguisher and put it out before it burned all of our stuff and/or exploded. Twin Falls, Idaho you will forever live in infamy. (note: it actually ended up being a blessing in disguise for his dad, as insurance companies pay for fires, not broken transmissions)

--Then there has been the trailer on our sailboat-- a consistant source of adventure, starting with the first tire we watched burst into flame in our rear view mirror, come loose and roll along side us as we pulled over, with a final turn in front of us as it ended in a collapse on the side of the road. (I swear I am not making any of this up).

--Our “sailing” trip to San Carlos began with the barrings going out on one of the trailer wheels, 10 miles outside of phoenix (which took an entire day to fix) , ended with two flats on the drive home through Mexico (note: those llanterra tires are not to be trusted) and contained two days in the middle of being stranded out on the bay with a broken motor and not one lick of wind.

There have been others, but these are some of our favorite memories.  As I thought about them, I realized we were able to work through all those moments with some resourcefulness, patience, and the help of Good Samaritans-- oh, and a lot of laughter-- which I guess is the recipe for managing through most of life's bumps on the road.

--It also helps when the destination is well worth the trouble,  in this case, it definitely was...
see Part Two for details....