On the road to Idaho 2

On the previous post I left off with us deciding to drive on the rim. So we all got back on our cars and drove for about 50 miles on the rim at 35-40 mph. Those were the longest miles ever. Then we came upon a very small town were everything was closed. So there was no where to get a spare then my brother tells me to pull over next to him and tells me to drive to Ely which is the next closest town which is still about 30 miles away and get gas and try to find a place that sells spares because they are running out of gas. So as you can tell things are just getting worse. So I take off and then I see a gas station up ahead I call Charlie, because apparantly he is the only one with reception, and I tell him that there is a gas station up ahead. They started to drive when I took off so he was not next to my brother so he couldn't tell him. So I decide to turn around and meet them at the gas station. Everyone is happy because we can get gas but still no tire.

While they are pumping gas a man in a horse pulls up and my brother asks him if he knows of a place where he can get a spare. My brother tells him about the tire and driving on the rim. The man tells him that everything is closed because it is a Sunday but that he might have a spare. So he tells a girl that is at the gas station to call his house and tell his wife to bring one of the spare horse trailer tires that they have. So about 10 min later his wife shows up and we are hoping that the tire fits because we don't know how much further we can drive. The rim was low and a metal part below the trailer was starting to rub the ground. Luckily the tire fit. We were relieved because who knows what we would have done. The funny thing is that when I was driving toward Ely I saw the man on his horse on the side of the road and didn't think much of it. Good thing he was there when he was otherwise we would have been stuck.

So once the new tire was on and the truck had gas we drove to Ely. We took another break to put gas in the cars, get water for ourselves and give some to the pets. Then we were off again. We were anxious to get home. Then we stopped again at Wells, NV. Filled up on gas and got some food. Gave water to the cats and dog. This was suppose to be our last stop because it was 8 at night and we were suppose to have been at home by now but we weren't. But notice that I said that this was suppose to be our last stop but it didn't turn out as we planned.

You see one thing that you should know about these desert roads is that there are no lights to guide you. When it gets dark you can't see a thing so you need to drive with your high beams on so that you don't run over or kill anything. But when a car is coming in the opposite direction or is in front of you you need to lower your beams. There is also only two lanes. Each one for opposing traffic so if there is a slow driver then you need to go into opposing traffic to pass them. Not that there is much traffic because there are very few people on the road. So what happens to us is that there are 4 big rigs behind us. We are going about 65-70 mph but apparantly that was too slow because one by one they start to pass us. First they pass Charlie because he is the last car then me and then my brother. But remember it is very dark, so during this process one of the big rigs had to swerve quickly in front of Charlie because another car was coming. This could have been bad. Luckily nothing happened. But then there was this real bad smell of gasoline so this could have meant that one of our cars was leaking gas because you always think the worst in these kind of situations. But it turned out that one of the big rigs that was in front of me was leaking gas so he pulled over to the side. Then we were off again. We made our final stop at Jackpot to make sure that everyone was ok.

After that we were finally on our way to Hailey. During that ride between Jackpot and Hailey the cats were getting irritated. They couldn't deal being in the car any longer. They wanted out. They started scratching at their bags and meowing trying to get out. I was suppose to take a nap because I was exhausted but my cats wouldn't let me. I allowed my brother, Andrew, to drive my car when we stopped at Wells. You didn't think I was driving right. ;-). Well anyways, we made it to Hailey at midnight. We were all exhausted. When we were entering Bellevue my brother called me and told me to call Charlie because he was swerving and he thought he was falling asleep. I called him but his phone was dying so we only talked briefly. Then my brother called me again and I tried calling Charlie but his phone was dead. So I told my brother A3 to stop so that we could make sure that Charlie was awake. So I went over to Charlie and he said that he was awake this whole time that there were moments a while ago when he was getting tired and swerving but that he was ok now. So we went to my sister's house where we are staying at and finally took out the pets and got our blankets and we were going to go to bed. But my cats needed their litter because they had not used the restroom all day. So we had to go to my mom's house, thank goodness she only lives about 3 blocks away, and get their litter, bowls, and food. Then we went back to my sister's house.

So what was suppose to be a 14 hr drive ended up being an 18 hour drive. So we got to Idaho on Aug 1 the day of my birthday. Fadedgirl sent me a text wishing me H-Birthday. Thanks Fadedgirl. Charlie didn't end up remembering till 1 and he still couldn't remember if it was my B-day or J's because apparantly his is on the 2nd. and he confuses them. Oh well. I was just glad to be home.