An Epic Journey

Okay, so I'm finally going to tell the story of the kids' move to Utah. It's been a few weeks now, so I hope I don't forget any of it. Here goes......

I'll start the story with the day before we start out. It's a Monday and I have to work (I had also worked the day prior (Sunday) to free up the IV tech to work while I'm off), my house has been like Grand Central Station with people in and out. We had family over for meals with the kids so they could spend some time with them before they moved. Plus Doyle had been going back and forth to the kids' house helping move things that they weren't taking with them for one reason or another. Finally at about 9pm on Monday he brings the last load of castaways and unloads them into our garage (to be dealt with at a later date) and Brad follows him in the Uhaul. After baths and showers we all get to bed knowing that the next morning is the dreaded (for us anyway) day!

Day 1 (Tuesday, March 1)
Doyle has to work so we wake up Brad and Chely so he can say goodbye. Most people think that Doyle is a hard ass, but if you truly know him you know that he loves his family and I knew that this was going to be a hard morning for him. It was bad enough that he had to tell Emily, Patrick, and Cameron goodbye the night before, so they could sleep until we were ready to leave. How do you tell your son (and his family) goodbye? Especially when he (and they) have never lived further than 35 miles from you. Let's just say there were plenty of tears that morning. Finally at about 8am we pull out of our driveway. Brad, Chely, Patrick (the co-pilot), and Sophie (the dog) are in the Uhaul in the lead. Myself, Emily (my co-pilot), Cameron, and Reese's (the cat) are following in their Ford Freestyle (it's like a cross-over, three seater vehicle). I'm dreading the long drive ahead and I feel bad that I've left my house in what I think is a mess (what can I say, I'm type A). We are loaded down, I can't see out my rear view mirror because the cat carrier that Chely bought is so big and it is sitting on the stroller which is sitting in the seat. Needless to say I'm a bit nervous, It's not like you drive across country everyday. The plan is that I will take the lead before we hit Springfield and take us pretty much around the city and that I will lead all the way through Kansas City. We are trucking right along and we stop for our first fuel stop in Clinton, MO. We all think that the Uhaul is drinking a bit more gas than the dealer had said it would, but we fill up and move on. Kansas City wasn't too bad, we hit it at a good time in the day and except for Cameron pulling on the cat carrier (which really didn't help my vision out the back), we made it through with no trouble. We have to stop again for gas at St. Joseph, and by now we know that the Uhaul is really sucking the fuel, but what can you do but fill up and push on. I'm following the Uhaul and we decide to stop at Grand Island, NE at a Wal-Mart so Chely can get the oil changed in their rig (she didn't get around to it before we left and it was past time). We had a little time to kill, so I find a smaller, more rigid, cat carrier for Reese's. Had I only know what was coming I could have saved that $30, but who could know? It's dark by the time we get back on I-80 and are headed west again. I didn't know it at the time but Brad and Chely were planning on trying to push through all night and get to Utah non-stop. Those plans didn't quite happen. Somewhere around 9pm on I-80 in Western Nebraska the Uhaul begins to smell hot. Brad pulled off the road and tried (as best you can on the side of the road with trucks whizzing by in the dark) to check things out. Nothing is spewing out and nothing is dripping, so we take off again. Once again they smell the "hot" smell and know that we can't keep going. We finally make it to Ogallala, NE (yes, I didn't know it really existed either, I thought it was a made-up town in Lonesome Dove) and check into a Holiday Inn Express. Chely gets a hold of the Uhaul customer service and they tell her that no one can come out and look at the truck until the morning. Did I mention that by this time it is raining a cold rain? This didn't jive with what they were told when they rented the truck (24/7 service, NOT), but what can we do? It's late, we're all tired and just want to go to bed, except Cameron. He wants to run from one end of the room to the other and chase the cat and dog. Then the phone rings and it's the front desk, someone under us has complained about the noise. After a small fight Chely gets Cameron down and asleep. I was in the other bed with Emily and Patrick who had argued who was going to sleep by me so I ended up in the middle, which was fine until I woke up in the night with a charlie horse and I couldn't even get to it because I was wedged in so tight between the kids. I finally got Patrick to move a bit so I could switch places with him for the rest of the night.

Day 2 (Wednesday, March 2)
Morning comes and once again Cameron is at the running game. Once again the phone rings, this time it is another guest who wants to know if we're having a bowling tournament up there. Chely handled it well, she just said we had a two year old with us and hung up. I get around and take the big kids down for breakfast and in the mean time the mechanic gets there to look at the truck. He decides that since it snowed overnight they need to take the truck to a shop in town to check it out. I felt sorry for this guy that Uhaul sent out, he was an older man who was recovering from a stroke and was walking with a limp out there in that cold. Brad and Chely take the truck to the shop and I stay in the room with the kids and pets. We have an 11am checkout time so I'm hoping that it's nothing serious and they make it back to the room in time to check out. The closer it gets to 11, the more I know that we aren't going to make that check out time. The kids and I walk down to the front desk and explain the situation and are told that we can go for the late check out time which is 1pm. That sounds good to me, I'm sure they'll be done by then. Brad and Chely do make it back before 1, but only to say that the truck can't be fixed and that Uhaul was sending another truck for them, but that means that the truck has to be unloaded and everything loaded into the new one. Seems there is an emergency switch on the transmission that was engaged all the time, no wonder the gas mileage was down to about 4mpg. Hopefully the kids can get some of their gas money reimbursed, anyway the customer service rep said they could try. In the meantime the hotel tells us that they have a weekly guest that stays in the room that we are in, so they ask if we would mind moving to another room so they can get that one ready. We load up everything and move, not knowing how long we will be there. Brad and Chely go to "help" switch out the trucks and I try to keep the kids occupied in a hotel room. I'll just say that by this time, we are all a bit testy!! As 1pm gets closer Chely calls to tell me that no one showed up to help them unload and load the trucks so her and Brad are doing it themselves. Uhaul was "kind" and agreed to give them a $150 credit because they couldn't find anyone to help switch the trucks. One good thing was that the new truck was bigger than the other so they were able to get everything that had been in the Freestyle also in the Uhaul. That was good for my vision out the back of the rig! I think that it was close to 2pm when Brad and Chely returned to the hotel to pick us up. The hotel staff was so nice and wouldn't let the kids pay for another night. If Doyle and I ever make the trip by car we will definitely stay there. So with half of day 2 gone, we are on the road again. Now we are traveling a part of the country that I have never been to before (I spent part of my youth in Nebraska but not this far west), and I'm enjoying seeing this part of the country. I can tell that we are getting close to the mountains by the scenery and somewhere in Wyoming we go under a flashing highway sign that reads: High wind alert-No light trailers. That would prove to be a warning to be heeded!!! At this point I need to mention that I-80 must be the "go to" route for 18 wheelers to go west. I bet there were 8 trucks to every 2 cars/pickups/SUV's, etc on that highway, and they like to fly. We are moving right along and once again Brad and Chely have made the decision (not telling me) that they will try to push through the night since they lost so much time earlier in the day. As daylight goes to dusk I can see the mountains on each side of us and Emily and I are having a good time arguing over if they are really "the mountains", she says yes, I say no. I guess when you go up gradually, you just don't realize how high you are going. Brad ends the argument when he calls to see if we saw the antelope and tells me they are "the mountains". And no, Emily and I never did see any antelope or the mule deer that Brad had spotted. The darker it gets, the more I notice the wind. I'm having a hard time keeping the car where I want it and I'm falling behind the Uhaul. Finally at one point when I'm on a bridge, driving no more than 45mph and fighting the car, a truck goes by so fast that I think I'm going off the bridge, I kinda lose it. I'm crying, Emily's crying, thankfully Cameron is asleep. Emily is trying to call Brad (Chely is driving the Uhaul at this point) and we can't get service (Brad said we were above the towers), we are just a mess! Thankfully Chely had noticed that I wasn't behind them and slowed down allowing me to catch up. I was never so glad to see the back of a Uhaul in my life. I flash my lights at her and she pulls off at the next rest area we come to. I tell them that I just can't drive in that anymore, I'm not sure if the high winds are worse at night, but I know that driving through those passes after dark is not something that I want to do again in my life. If Doyle wants to drive out there to see the kids, he will be driving that leg. At this point they tell me that they wanted to drive through the night but have decided we will pull off at the next town and spend the night. I'm good with that, Brad gets in with me and drives until we reach Rock Springs, Wyoming, where we check into a hotel. Chely got me a little roll-away bed so I could have a bed to myself. Of course when we first got into the room the kids fought over who was going to sleep in it, but in the end they decided to sleep in the big bed and I got the roll-away. After a little time to wind down from the "excitement" of the evening, the kids, animals, and us grown-ups are all settled and we all finally get some sleep.

Day 3 (Thursday, March 3)
We get ready for this day knowing that we will reach our destination today!! We are all road weary and wanting this trip to be done. It's snowing, but not so windy, so I'm ready to tackle those mountain passes again. We stop and fill up both rigs before we start what will be the last leg of the drive. Chely is at the wheel of the Uhaul (she actually drove it most of the way) and I'm once again driving the Freestyle with Emily, Cameron, and the cat in tow. Things are going great, it's amazing how much better things seem in the daytime. The further west we go, the more it is snowing. Once again we go under a road sign that reads: I-80 closed in 35 miles, I have Emily call her Dad and ask if they read the sign, they say yes, but we keep going. Now I know that we went much further than 35 miles so I figure that they just didn't get the sign changed from earlier or something. Then suddenly we are slowing down and finally coming to a stop. As far as I can see in front of us traffic is stopped. We sit there for a few minutes with the engines running, thinking there must have been an accident up ahead that has to be cleaned up. After a few more minutes we both shut off the rigs, I get my cell phone out (thank goodness for smart phones) and find out the I-80 is closed because of the snow. The internet doesn't say how long we'll be sitting so we just wait and wait and wait. At one point Brad, Chely, and Patrick got out and made a snowman next to the Uhaul. Sophie (the dog) got to run in the snow with Chely a couple of times while we waited. All I heard for a couple of hours was how Emily had to go to the bathroom sooooo bad!!! I did too, so I knew just how she felt. One of the truckers told Brad that the line of traffic stopped stretched for more than 35 miles but that we were in the first couple of miles of it. Finally after 5 hours the road is opened up, we needed to stop as soon as we could for a bathroom break, but the first exit that we came to was backed up for about a mile (everyone else needed to stop too) so we passed that exit up. We weren't too far away from the Utah line when we got stopped on I-80 so we went on into Utah before we stopped for one last break. The line in the bathroom was terrible (lots of people passed that first exit). After one last fill-up of the Uhaul and a snack for everyone we are ready to go again. We decide that Chely will lead in the Uhaul and Brad will drive the Freestyle because we will be hitting Salt Lake at rush hour and they kinda both knew where they were going. Once again this decision will prove to be a good one. We are getting close to the city and traffic is really picking up when I had my one shining moment (in Brad's eyes) of the whole trip. I spotted two Moose cows along the side of a mountain right outside of the city. Anyone who knows Brad knows that this was a great find for me, I'm sure it made up for me not being able to drive through those mountains with the wind blowing 50+mph!!! Anyway, back to the drive, we merge onto the freeway and then right in front of Chely a five car pile up happens. Thankfully she got the Uhaul stopped in time and Brad got the Freestyle stopped without rear-ending the Uhaul. I'm not sure my reaction time would have been as quick. After a few minutes we get back into the flow of traffic and we make our way to the Draper exit and into the Adiago Apartment complex, our destination. After everything that had happened we made it!!!

To be continued......