On The Road

We got on the road around 2:45pm and made one last stop at the storage unit. I hadn't been to the unit yet and was pretty impressed by the packing job. It looked like the room of requirement! We fit everything into a 10x10 unit. Pretty impressive.

I went to pick up lunch while Cam dropped our keys off at the land lord's. We met at a gas station and filled up and then we were on the road.
The truck was pretty packed too. And that stubborn tarp wouldn't cover all the stuff in the back, so while driving it would blow up like a balloon. We pulled off the exit to re pack and tie things down. I had to follow close behind Cam so in case things got sketchy, I could get his attention and have him pull over. I never got the chance to. All of a sudden, Cam went from 75 to 40. Then to 30. Then he stopped. In the fast lane. I dodged him by pulling over onto the shoulder. Cam said there was a semi behind me. I have no idea where the semi went. I assume he got into the other lane in time, but we were passing a semi when the truck stopped, so I can only believe that guardian angels were watching over us. Cam tried everything he could to get the truck off the road. He told me later that he heard a snap and the stick shift started smoking and then the truck just stopped. The back wheels had locked up. We couldn't even push the truck a couple of inches. We were stuck.

Cam called 911 and an officer came to re-direct traffic. I felt much safer. I'm so glad he got there so quickly. One distracted driver and we would have been in a serious accident. For the first time in my life I didn't know whether to run to help my husband or stay and keep my boys safe. My heart, and body, needed to be in two places at once.

They called a tow truck and hauled us back to Nephi.

We spent the next 5 hours in a mechanic yard in Nephi. I walked next door and bought batteries for my breast pump...because we clearly weren't going to be near an outlet before the boys needed to eat again. And so, I pumped at the mechanics. And the phrase "ah, motherhood" kept going through my mind.

Cam talked to the mechanic and he let us know our transmission had blown. The truck was useless. We had just given away the keys to our apartment. Going back to Orem wasn't an option. It was dirty, dusty, and windy so I didn't want to take the boys out of the car. And they started getting restless.

I pulled Gray into the driver's seat with me. Miraculously, Nash was content as could be. (until later...ha.)

He perfected his blue steel face.

And then Cam came back to tell me what was going on. The option we decided on was to tow the truck behind a Uhaul and just get moving. But it was now 6:30 at night. The Uhaul place in Nephi was closed. (Of course.) I felt like we were in some small town from a comedy movie where the same guy runs all the businesses, and is so absolutely unhelpful. So Cam started contacting all the Uhaul places in all the small towns near by. One place only had a 26 foot truck, but had the tow trailer. And another place had a 14 foot truck. But no tow trailer. And both places closed in 30 minutes. And the mechanic said he was going home and wouldn't be around to help us load up the truck onto the Uhaul trailer. Since the truck wouldn't move, we needed his tow truck to pick up our truck and load it. I tracked down another mechanic and we went racing off to the Uhaul place. Cell service was sketchy, so we didn't even know if they would stay open for us. All four of us gave the victory fist when we got to Santaquin and Cam was able to start filling out paperwork. Some wonderful person in Payson drove the tow trailer over to Santaquin to save us some time. I was so happy when I saw this beat up truck drive up with the tow dolly.

We went back to the mechanics to get the truck loaded up. It was quite the sight.It felt so good to actually be moving toward our goal of getting to Arizona. We made it to Beaver at around 11 and got a hotel. The boys were so excited to be out of the car. They just stretched and stretched. (And Nash spit up all over himself as soon as he possibly could. He parties hard.)
The next morning we packed up and headed down to Flagstaff. Cameron and I talked on the phone as much as possible to keep each other awake and entertained. We stopped and stretched our legs and fed the boys a few times and rolled into Flagstaff around dinner time that night. So dang happy to be out of the car for about 24 hours. And to see some very excited aunts, uncles, and grandparents. And eat real food. And have bath time.