The Trip!

pictures are a pain to post with these - so right now it's just words - becuase i'm not very motivated to sit in this truck stop and post pictures - maybe later - words are good too :-)

there are things i keep remembering about the trip - i wrote most of this blog along the route, but here's a story i forgot to include...

we had just drove past our first time zone change. Dad looked down and noticed (sorta) and said "Hummmm, well the pickup changed but my cell phone still hasn't switched over."

"What?" i said, a bit confused. He repeated. I laughed, then explained. No dad, your cell phone changed but the TRUCK - the 1990 GMC truck needs to be manually changed. Here, let me shut off the music and do that. Yeah, your cell phone...that's the one that changed." Haha, he quickly agreed.

I’ll try to keep these stories short, since there are quite a few of them that I’ve gathered the past few days.

We took off Wednesday, Nov. 4th at 5:45 am and reached Kanab, UT around 2:45 that afternoon. It’s nice to arrive late afternoon so the horses are settled in before dark and such.

In Kanab we met (like met for the first time) the family we’d be staying with for the night. Marty and Ann Hepworth and their 3 children ages 11, 9, and 6. They were a very kind and generous family and we had a great time. That night I went with Ann to her church to watch her teach a pie crust baking class. Which meant that the other ladies all brought a pie they’d backed and we ate them while Ann stood in front and talked. It was great! Meanwhile, my dad headed off with Marty to a town council meeting. Marty was just elected to the town board.\

Day 2 we headed to Gallup, NM and met another family. Navajo decendents Lyle, Fawn, and Jessica Benally invited us into their home and we had another wonderful time. Fawn taught my dad and I how to make Navajo Fry Bread which we later used to make Navajo Tacos. Since I’ve made tortillas a couple of times I had a relatively easy time shaping the bread in a beginners fashion. Dad on the other hand, wanted to skip beginners world and tried tossing the bread between his hands like Fawn was (similar to tossing pizza in the air). Soon, his bread was on the ground.

Later that night, Fawn’s mother (who was full Navajo Indian) stopped by. I loved listening to her speak in her native language and she even taught me how to say a few words. After she left, I convinced Fawn to say them again while I recorded on my camera so I could practice them! AND, Lyle even took my laptop and worked on it throughout the night (since it had given me the blue screen of death).

The next morning we woke up to Fawn making blueberry muffins and BLT sandwiches. She sent us out the door with a bag full of muffins and 4 sandwiches! We felt like royalty!

The next day we took off for Amarillo , TX. A couple of driving mishaps happened that day. The first, and only, interstate onramp we took that day…we also missed. Well, maybe we didn’t miss it, Dad just happened to get on the ramp headed the wrong direction! Pulling a trailer negated the option to turn around so we entered the interstate and hoped there was an exit close by. It ended up being aobut a 10 mile detour at 6:30 am.

Later on down the road Dad also had a hard time finding an off ramp for a gas station while in construction, so we took it a little bit fast. And then when we finally arrived in Amarillo we were told to take the frontage road off of the exit to the hotel. Since we thought it was on the south side we took the south frontage road. BUT as we approached the road I told dad that it had a white line, meaning it was a one way road. (Yellow line = 2 way / white line = 1 way) He disagreed at first but was soon being waved at by passer-bys and turned around. Let’s just say, if it wasn’t his birthday and I wanted to drive the rest of the way, I’d fire his services…but I decided against that.

We stayed at “The Big Texan” which is a hotel/restaurant/stables combined so we settled our horses in and headed to the restaurant. They have a famous ’72 ounce steak’. If you eat the entire steak plus 2 sides in 1 hour or less, it’s FREE! There was one on display when we walked in, and both of us decided against trying to eat (and later pay for) the college football size slab of meat. I did find a buffalo burger on the menu that I tried (didn’t honestly taste much different than beef to me). There was also a choice of an appetizer that include a ‘fried tater hull’ or even rattlesnake!

On the beds in our hotel room was a note accompanied by two mints. The note read “Thanks! You’re worth a mint to us!” Ummmmmm, well maybe it’s a Texan thing, but that note accompanied by two peppermints seems a bit more like an insult than a compliment. :-)
I also saw some cool road signs. Some very original thinking from a town that must’ve produced sulfur called itself Sulfurdale. More excited was “Casa Blanca” (even though I’m not really sure I’ve seen the movie) and “Historic Route 66” (which I did see a funny musical of once).

We headed out around 6:30 the next morning headed for Dallas. I’ll be keeping my horses with a friend south of the big city and then we’ll be visiting my brother, Matt, who lives on the north end. We’ll get in tonight (Saturday) and spend Sunday and Monday in Dallas, taking off EARLY on Tuesday for Pensacola, FL – about a 13 hour drive!

Oh, and we’ve listened to two books on tape. The first, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, is on my recommended reading list from Parelli about success and how it’s viewed. The second was a novel by John Grisham called “The Last Juror”. Close to the beginning of the story I asked dad if he enjoyed listening to it. He said ‘yeah, but I can already see the end’. I allowed him to listen for another hour or more before I asked for his prediction. He was wrong. :-) But that’s the best way to be when it comes to the endings of books/movies!

Tuesday we left Dallas at 5 am – headed towards our new destination of Montgomery, AL. Our connection in Pensacola, FL called the night before and said that there was a hurricane headed straight for them and that we should ‘find’ another route. Thank goodness for Map Quest! It’s easy to change your driving route, but not quite as simple to find a place to put horses up for a night! But she called again the next morning and said that we were clear to come, it ended up being just a ‘tropical storm’ and wasn’t too bad.

About 4 pm that afternoon we tested our lights and realized both our truck and trailer didn’t have any clearance lights! Still a good 2 and a half hours from our destination, we knew we’d need the lights in order to keep going. We found a local Home Depot right off the next exit and found some information on local trailer sale/repair shops. Dad was able to find a blown fuse in the pickup and buy the correct replacement part. Soon we were on the road again.

When we were talking though the time we had left before it got dark, dad brought up the ‘side’ of the time zone we were on. It was 4:30 and had been getting dark around 5:30 pm. Dad argued that as we drove we got closer to the next time zone, so we will have more light in this time zone. I didn’t agree and asked him to explain farther – and he realized as we drove farther EAST, since the sun sets in the WEST we actually lose time.  “I guess I got it backwards” he said. “Just like my math teachers, I ask and once they start explaining – they figure out that I’m right!” :-) OK, not always.

We got into Pensacola about 7:30 that night, and after a couple showers we were soon asleep in a beautiful Victorian style mansion (at least that’s what I think a beautiful Victorian Mansion would look like!) I met Mirka and David Pitts there and we were so happy to have a place to stop for the night!

Left at 6:30 am on Wednesday for our last day of driving! It was straight forward and simple and almost painless. Got the horses settled in nicely, then made it to our house (yes house) that we’d be living in for the next few days.

took a tour of the ranch with dad - broke a few rules as well. Got dad to the airport - got a bit lost getting home - only a 120 mile detour :(

anwyays, that's all for now :-) Check in 2-5 TOMORROW!!!