Goodbye Arizona I will miss you!

So you think when you get home from a crazy adventure, life would go back to its normal boring bla de bla. Unfortunately thing for me have been anything but bla. I got home on Tuesday; went to lunch with my wonderful old office and attempted to catch up with friends on Wednesday; packed and packed, got my beloved moving van, picked up my mom, packed some more and said sad good byes to friends on Thursday; and then hopped in my giant moving mobile and left on Friday. Not to mention my sad attempt to get some kind of sleep between things to catch up from jet lag…ha.

Packing everything up was good. However, loading my car up onto a dolly was about one of the scariest things ever! Luckily a friendly man (or should I say the neighbor I never met until today) was driving by and helped us out. Driving through phoenix was pretty good until we headed out onto the fun roads to go to Vegas, and if you have driven them before you’d know what I mean. Other than crazy people trying to pass me, everything was just dandy until we started going up hills. That’s when I found out my big tough moving truck was completely gutless. The first hill was fine and maybe the second but then we went up a big hill and as we were putting up it all of a sudden my temperature gage went crazy and something started to smell. So I stopped and smoked started coming out of the top of hood so we did what all women do we just about had a heart attack and called my dad. After some chatting we opened the hood and found that the radiator overflow lid had popped off and it had absolutely no fluid in it so it had over heated. Fortunately for us we had my trusty food storage water in the truck so we loaded it in and it cooled it down. Thank goodness! It then started ok and off we went. The only unfortunate thing was that in order to not over heat again we had to turn off the air conditioner which usually is not a big deal unless your driving from phoenix to Vegas... Luckily that day it was a little cooler maybe like 100-105 instead of 110-120 so I felt blessed. After that ordeal my dad promptly reminded us that my car attached could be used as an escape vehicle so I figured it would probably be better if it was not on empty and filled it with gas. The rest of the way to Vegas was not too bad and even though I about hyperventilated as we were nearing the Hoover dam because I had to drive over it. But it was dark when we got there and luckily I can’t see to well in the dark so I wasn’t quite sure when I drove across it thank goodness, I think?.

We stayed in Vegas that nigh at my Uncle Ben’s house. After we had recovered from the heat, we spent the rest of the night visiting and seeing their new house and 3 kids. The next morning we drove on to Utah. Fortunately the truck had cooled down well so we were able to use the air conditioning as long as it wasn’t going up a hill so the traveling was much more enjoyable. That night we stayed at my cousin Kiera’s house. It was fun to see her and her 2 cute kids and new house. We then woke up bright and early the next morning and drove all the rest of the way home. Gratefully it was pretty uneventful.

It was kinda weird being one of the slow trucks on the road. I held up all sorts of traffic, got passed by the slower semis, competed with those “slow stupid RVs” on the road, and even got flipped off once, it was great! I suppose now I will have a little more sympathy for the “slow” drivers on the road. I was just glad I made it home in one piece. The only bad thing was that I didn’t read all the instruction when loading my car and I pulled it all the way home with the parking break on (yes I know sooo smart..). So when I started it and drove it, it didn’t smell so good. But I am happy to report that I took it into the mechanic today and miraculously no damage was done so thank goodness!! I think the lord was looking out for us and I feel very blessed that everything ended out so good. So now I say goodbye to Arizona and hello to the new adventure of Washingtion. Wish me luck!