Living rurally has been delightful... especially when we have no place else to go.
However. more often than we'd like.. we have some place else to go.
Generally.. just to town.. which is in itself a trek.
Periodically, we have to really go places. Doctor appointments, real shopping, and airports are a few of the periodic destinations.
Of course we do our best to take full advantage of every needed excursion and cram as much into a few days on the road.
This last trip was no exception. PLUS.. I now have a new calling that requires distance travel every other week during the spring to fall months. So, I've done my best to coordinate the required travel with other needed periodic trips. Even being as efficient as possible.. it's a lot of driving about. Vehicles are the bane of our existence these days. We have a high efficiency car that gets 40 miles to the gallon... but it only seats 5 and is in for repairs more than not. The other vehicle we have only gets 20 mpg.. but it seats 8 and has cargo space and most importantly, heated seats... BUT.. it isn't able to traverse our dirt road in the winter... so as much as we love it and it's perfect in every other way... we're looking for a new car... Optimally.. 4wd, seat 6-8, HEATED seats!, and awesome mpg since I'm regularly on the road.
But I digress... we haven't found the utopian vehicle yet and we had to make one of our efficiently planned periodic trips.
- We had run out of almost everything in the kitchen... and toilet paper.
- Whittaker had a Dr. appt.
- Duncan was returning from a 5 week trip to Canada to see Grandma and cousins... and he had a grand time.
- Boys clothing was all shrinking....
- We were picking up delightful house guests!
- I had meetings in lesser known, distant parts of the region that were on the way to SLC.
- We had a box full of glass to recycle and there isn't glass recycling in our area of WY.
- We needed to visit people.... Winter is coming ... again... soon.
We left the house on a Sunday morning at 6am. After 3 hours of driving the boys were very patient as they waited for 4 hours of meetings to end. They were rewarded with a fun sack lunch and more driving. I listened as they watched Milo and Otis for the third time that day.
We enjoyed a visit with Uncle Jim, who was a wonderful host.. offering constant beverages and snack options.
We were delighted by Sarah's tales of her recent trip to the Redwood forests in California with Uncle John.
Sarah kindly gave me a much needed haircut and in a surprise moment.. pulled Emerson's tooth! Now he just needs two front teeth for Christmas.
We were off to Channa's next where the boys ate, again! Channa shared tidbits from her recent spanish lessons that would be helpful for Miles and we tucked the boys in and ran a few errands.
A late night and an early morning after a long day of driving and we were off to another long day of driving.
We had an appointment an hour away and a few errands to run before our next destination in Manti. Whittaker's mouth guard was cracked and he needed to be fit for a new one. I thought since most of my errands were generic we could run them in the town where the doctor appointment was. In theory.. yes. However....
Most of the stops weren't open before our appointment.
I'm not familiar with the area and had to look up every location.
The few that we did find that were small satellite versions of the stores we needed and did not have the items we were looking for.
So running around for two hours before the appointment only availed us of an auto parts store and a car wash.
It was at least a fun car wash!
The boys loved watching the car be washed from the windows while they enjoyed the complimentary popcorn and juice and played with the toys in the children's corner.
I enjoyed knowing that inches of Wyoming dust and mud wasn't weighing us down anymore. Also that they vacuumed out the interior and washed the inside of the windows.
The boys enjoyed many car games with so many more things to see than in our little town.
The odd, 'Beep, beep.. red jeep,' or 'slug bug', or 'bingo', or 'wide mouth frog/ tight-lipped' was called from the back seats... and then...
it was as though Whittaker was exploding! "beep. red. um beep , um jeep, um white, um green, um beep jeep... .... BEEP BEEP RAINBOW! JEEPS!..
I turned to look and there it was... 'Beep, Beep.. Jeep Dealership!'
Then we pulled into park at the doctor and ... 'Tight-lipped, bingo, slug bug.. new style!"
What an exciting morning!
With the doctor appointment over we ran our remaining errands that were now open and then ate and fueled the van so we could be off for the last bit of driving for a while.
Two hours later we were in Manti. We spent the rest of the evening... lazily sitting on porch swings, visiting, and taking a short walk to the park. We think we even saw an owl fly over us .... it was fast and we weren't certain.
We didn't have to go anywhere for 36 lovely hours.
Meanwhile... Duncan's travel woes were just beginning!!
As we enjoyed a leisurely visit in sleepy little Manti, we were kept apprised of Duncan and Jill's lack of travel progress..
Eager beavers at the airport ready for a 6 hour trip to Utah.
After a small delay, they finally boarded and were excited for lift off.
After hours of further delays on what was finally determined to be a 'broken airplane', they even taxied out to the runway to attempt jumpstarting the plane but inevitably disembarked and stood in long waiting lines to re-book flights and find connecting flights and arrange for accommodations since they wouldn't be leaving until the next day.
On a search for some nut free sustenance after a long, long, day of delays and sitting around the airport.
Finding beauty in the craziness.
After being fed!
A quick sleep since they now had to be up at 3am to catch the new flight.
Next day attempt at travel!
New game discovered during lengthy layovers!
(what is the connection of the 4 photos?)
Finally... over 24 hours later they made it to Utah. Tired, achy and hot.
So we went straight to shopping... then spent time running around in SLC, taking Elowen to Cello lessons, dropping off Jill and running quick errands before being accommodated for the night so we could travel some more the next morning!
Efficiency in travel at its finest!
