When our niece Maddie announced that she was serving a mission, Jessica and I both resolved to go to her farewell. We had wanted so badly to support the family, so when the weekend of her report came, we hopped in our trusty 2007 Chrysler impala and crossed the border - headed for Fruitland, Idaho.
We hit roadblock after roadblock all along the way.
For example, 15 minutes into the trip, I realized that I had grabbed John's passport, not mine. Home we went.
Three hours into the trip, when we stopped to rent a car because we figured ours wouldn't make it all the way, we learned that there wasn't a rental car in all the land. Well, atleast not in Great Falls. Forward we went. (We probably shouldn't have continued in our car, but we were determined.)
We LOVED stopping in Helena to see the new temple and we REALLY enjoyed Chic Filet.
Somewhere, near the town of Dillon, well past dark, the check engine light came on and the car started to sound a little bit funny. Fueled by childhood memories of a similar vehicular situation near Dillon, I instructed Jessica to take the first exit she found and we drove straight to a hotel. For that night, we wondered and debated. Do we press on (we were only halfway through our journey) or do we head home? I did not want to risk going further south only to run into worse trouble with the car.
By morning, I had decided that we would close the gap between us and hope and turn around.
That said, we were 20 minutes from Rexburg Idaho, so we did go there and spend a few hours on campus, exploring the nursing floor and getting a sense of the area. It piqued Jessica's interest and put the thought of BYUI back on the table.
As we finished up on campus, we said a prayer and asked for safe travels as we started for home. The car ran great for about 6 hours, the engine light only coming on again as we pulled into the parking lot of a hotel in Great Falls. I knew we'd make it home safely the next day.
We were sad to have missed our chance to support Maddie, but I was sure grateful for the time spent in this dingy old car - with this girl. She's made life fun.
I'm grateful for her.
No comments:
Post a Comment