So I went on a little road trip with my mom and my sister, we went to pick up some puggle puppies these puppies to be exact. Aren't they adorable! Thing was we had to drive from Utah to Missouri and back in 2 1/2 days.
The trip started out good we didn't have any problems except a small wrong turn in Lincoln NE, This could be attributed to my mother printing out an itinerary from some off the wall web site and not going to "Map Quest" like I told her. We even got as far as Kansas City with out to much trouble. Once we left KC it was a whole other story! Apparently they need more convicts to make road signs or something because once we got off the interstate and onto state highways they aren't marked, no mile markers no you are on state rt 7 nothing so couple that with the stupid directions and you miss a very important turn! So we use the "Onstar" that came with my mothers car because we are on a very dark unmarked road in the middle of southern Missouri and have no idea how to get where we need to be. The nice Onstar lady gives us a new set of directions and we set out again in good spirits thanking the onstar lady.
That was short lived the road she sent us down was like a roller coaster it went up and down up and down, it had no street lights no street signs and went completely around the "Lake of the Ozarks" it put us 3 hours behind schedule and put us to the woman's house to get the dogs at 1 am (her house it turns out is 4 miles down a dirt road make a rt at the dead end then past the feed lot your there Oh My HECK!)
We find a hotel stay the night and start out the next morning with fresh instructions from the desk clerk on how to get back to KC ( she left out just one small detail a turn onto a highway along the way) so we are going along and my mom and sister who couldn't read a map to save lives(ours) have no idea where we are so I pull over look at the map and find that we are about half the state east of where we need to be. I see a MO Highway patrolman parked off to the side of the road and decide to go ask for help. I get out of the car with my map in my left hand ( It never occurred to me that he wouldn't be able to tell if I had anything Oh like a gun in that hand because of the map) as I approach he unlatches his gun and says "What do you'all need" I then explain we are lost and he chooses not to shoot me but to give me directions. (Go to the stop light, the only stop light in the county and make a left, follow the farm trailers and farmers until you hit RT65)
We are on the right track again. WOO HOO! So we head up 65 to 701 then onto I29 we are making good time and will be in to Utah about 6 hours later than planned but we will still be there on the day we planned. Not to be! when we go into Iowa we are supposed to turn onto RT2 unfortunately it isn't marked very well either so when I see a sign that says Counsel Bluffs 3 miles I know we are lost yet again. Lucky for us we could just turn west to Omaha and get on I-80 that takes us home.
We stopped in Grand Island NE and had dinner and a good laugh at this store
We where about 50 miles outside North Platte NE when the low fuel level came on to tell us we had 1.5 gallons left in the tank, we get between 25 and 20 miles to the gallon. So after much prayer and promises of church attendance we pull into a truck stop and put 12.75 gallons of gas in a 13 gallon tank. SIGH!
At this point we decided it was best to stay in North Platte, we stayed at the 2nd hotel we tried because we had the puppies.
Bright and early the next morning now a full day behind schedule we took off. Things went fairly smoothly until we got about 45 miles outside Rock Springs, WY. We are cruising along at 90 next to a semi and I say that semi sounds awful, we pass the semi still hear the noise, I say maybe its the road and go to change lanes, as I change lanes the tire explodes! It sounded like we where shot. Bits of tire flew everywhere none of them bigger than a dollar bill. My mom and my sister both claim to have been talking to me as I drove the car to the shoulder of the road but I don't remember it. Again we call "Onstar" they will send someone out to check out the car and fix the tire, we wait they are supposed to text message us when they get someone on the way. We wait and wait and wait! finally a truck from the other side of the road turns around we think its the "Onstar" people no its just 3 very nice men that saw 3 women and 2 puppies standing on the side of the road and thought we could use help. They changed the tire and looked at the car and said it looked ok.
This is what was left of the tire!
We had to drive 45 miles an hour because of the stupid donut tire into Rock Springs, we get there and everything is closed! I see a guy pulling in tires at a tire store he explains they closed an hour ago and I sniffle and explain about the blow out and that we are only 2 1/2 hours from home and could he please tell me if anyone else would be open. He agrees to put on a new tire for us (thank you push up bra and scoop neck shirt!)
That's it we got a tire we got food and got home at 10:30 that night.
I think I shall be avoiding road trips with my mom and sister in the future!
