Our Family Trek part four

Our family trip part four
June 22, 2016 

After a great night's sleep, Mom fed us WONDERFUL waffles with sausage for breakfast. We left after a prayer, hugs, pictures, and sandwich-making.
I had my husband drive around Durango (where I grew up) and showed them my house in town and the one out of town. Boy is it built up out there! Hops all over the place on the corner. The kids weren't all that interested in seeing all my old haunts, but I showed them many hang-outs anyway. They needed to know where I came from too, not just their dad.
We ate burgers and root beer at the A&W in Aztec (I had a chicken sandwich that was really lovely), before heading out to the res. Always construction there. I slept most of the time and read a little. Breathing was easier, but keeping my ankles from swelling into 50 gallon drums wasn't. Way too much sitting.
We had a fairly uneventful trip to Snowflake. There we found out that because of the HUGE Cedar fire, we couldn't go home the way we wanted, and ended up going along a little-used road to Flagstaff and then to Phoenix. First we stopped and bummed around at the Snowflake temple taking pictures.

All was fine until we got 2 miles from home. Suddenly Hubby woke us yelling, “WE'RE OUT OF GAS! JUMP OUT AND PUSH!” So I did...in my sandals. I had to jump out when the car was speeding through the intersection, which I did. I pushed until the car headed straight for the curb. Then it nudged me into a crack and I fell HARD, whacking my leg on the curb like a curb-stomp. I jumped up with B's help and limped on to help push the stupid car in to the gas tanks there at the station on the corner. We got a full tank, but the damage was done. The car wouldn't start again. I was so glad not to have been tfish,he one who let the car run out of gas. That point made me feel a tiny bit better when my husband was short with my pathetic attempts to trouble-shoot.

Finally the kids walked home and got S's car and came to get us. We went home only to find out that the power had gone out in spots all over the neighborhood. I and B trundled around putting things away (B under duress since the house was so hot) and loading the washer and making things ready for bed while The Man and the kids went back for the rest of our junk. And to try once more to start the derelict.

No go.

Just as a friend of ours got there to offer his house to crash in, the power came back on. We went anyway for a root beer and donut and conversation. When we got back, we checked phone messages and found out Cox was going to shut us off for not paying our bill in time. Luckily I'd already mailed it and things were fixed the next morning.

The kind, wonderful things my editor said about me and my writing every time she emailed really made me feel good. She said SUMMERHOUSE made her entire summer and that working with me was a joy.

So we're home. The clocks are all flashing, things are beeping, and I smell like the Pits of Hell, having showered in Dad and Mom's sulfur water. My leg hurts like a Charley Horse is pending every time I move it. Strangely, the bruise never came up. Makes me think it's a bruised femur in there...either that or I no longer have blood. And it's 100 degrees at midnight for crying out loud!!! Why did we come back here? I wish we could move. I think inertia will have us caught in its inexorable grip until one of us kicks the bucket.

The good parts: On our trip we got to see plenty of deer (I proudly spotted several Hubs didn't see...;op), elk, 3 moose, sheep, mtn. Sheep, pigs, (mating) marmots, porcupines (mostly flat-ish), horses, cows, goats, bison, ground and regular squirrels, chipmunks, skunks (also mostly flat-ish), antelopes, donkeys, llamas, fish, orioles, vultures, nesting eagles, pelicans, and seagulls.  I'm sure there were more.

We got to visit 2 temples and see bunches of them. We went through several national parks and saw countless wonderful sights. We got to hike, zip-line, ride trams, see relatives, go to church with parents, visit parents, offer them our Father's Day presents directly to them, and travel thousands of miles. We got to be cool and avoid 3 different fires. It was a fairly good trip. No one lost an eye. We didn't hit any elk or enrage a moose. No family members broke out in gun fights and we didn't lose anybody to frostbite or heat stroke. To my knowledge nobody is planning anybody else's demise..:o)

Possible pictures later. Must make sustenance and find a ride to church for tomorrow.