Our Version of Plans, Trains, and Automobiles (minus the trains)

Today really has not been a good day, and I have decided to vent about it to the world. We had plane tickets departing Salt Lake City at 11:11, and so we decided to leave at 4:30 this morning, and started the car 10-15 minutes before we left the house. For some reason though, the car was not heating up... and we thought that was a little odd, but continued with hopes that maybe the car would eventually heat up along the way.

Once we got on the freeway, the windows were slowly beginning to defrost more, and the roads didn't look as bad as we thought they would be. After a couple minutes on the road, we started to notice a weird sound with Justin's car, and couldn't figure out what it was. Then came another problem. As Justin began to push on the gas, we noticed the car would not accelerate. All of a sudden, the check engine light came on, and the car began to completely shut down. Luckily, Idaho has "turn arounds" in random places (we're not sure what they're called exactly... it's this thing in between the highways where they allow cars to turn onto a street, or even onto the other side of the road). So we pulled onto that and were able to get out of harms way.

We immediately called AAA, and they told us it would be a 45 minute wait because they had called a guy who was already at home, asleep in their bed, and would have to start the car. After about 10-15 minutes or so after our call to AAA, a nice Idahoan came by and offered us a ride, although there was only room for one, and we didn't just want to leave the car in the middle of the road. Justin let me go home, while he waited, so that I could start my car and get gas... that way we'd be able to leave immediately after the tow truck dropped off the car at our apartment and get back as quickly as we could on the road.

Justin sat in the car for almost an hour, with no heater, early in the morning, in the freezing cold, and no tow truck in sight. Being fed up, and unable to feel his toes... he called me and told me to get him. I went as quickly as I could (yet I was only going 5 mph), fishtailing throughout the parking lot, and got stuck in the snow when trying to leave the apartment complex. Another unreliable car!! We decided right then, if we were going to go down, we were going to take a shuttle to Salt Lake. Fortunately, soon after I got stuck, the tow truck came, and I was able to wiggle my way out of the snow pile (in reverse), and went back to park the car at our apartment.

At 6:20am, my Dad and I looked up shuttle times, and were going to try for the 6:35 shuttle, yet there was still no sign of Justin, or how long it was going to take him to get back. We didn't schedule anything, thank goodness, since Justin didn't get back until a quarter til 7am. We were going to miss our 11:11 flight no matter what at this point. After talking with our dad's about what the heck to do, we decided to cancel Justin's flights completely and put him on stand-by for a flight that went to Denver, and then arrived at San Francisco at 8:42pm, while my flight would be pushed back to 5:19pm, and arriving at San Francisco at 6:45 or so.

We scheduled an 11am shuttle that would get us at the SLC airport at 3:40, however, we were going to have to walk to the place where the shuttle would pick us up at, since Just's car was dead, and my car just was not reliable. It was a 25 minute walk, and being that we were in Rexburg, we were freezing! The wind that was blowing was not helpful either, and neither was the snow in the ground. NOT FUN!

The bus showed up 10 minutes late, we made many stops (sometimes 10-20 minutes), and the roads were awful in Idaho... there was even a point where it was stop and go traffic for a long time. What should have taken us an hour to get to a point in Idaho (Pocatello), it took us 2 hours to get there, and no where close to our destination. It was a crowded bus, and a really annoying smoker lady sat behind us... It was just awful.

We didn't reach the airport until about 5:30pm, when we were suppose to have gotten there at 3:40, and we missed our flights completely! Are you beginning to see how awful of a day this turned out to be?!?! We have two cars that are not prepared for Rexburg, Justin waited in the cold for an hour, and to walk in the cold with our luggage to get to our shuttle, had a really annoying, and smelly lady sit behind us, and missed any chance of returning home and visiting our family today!

Alright, with all this complaining, venting, and whining... I have to say we have been blessed in multiple ways throughout our journey.

1. When Justin's car shut down, we were only a 10 minute drive away from home.
2. We were able to pull over in a safe location.
3. I was able to get a ride home to try and attempt to get the other car ready for a trip down to Salt Lake
4. Our parents were willing to help us out in a stressful situation
5. This is most important of all: we were not one of the 5 or 6 cars that we had seen that had turned over in the median and stuck in the snow. Observe:

For whatever reason we faced the problems we did today, I'm sure there was a reason for it, and I'm grateful that we were able to arrive to Salt Lake safely. We have a flight that leaves early tomorrow morning at 6:45, and hopefully nothing awful happens tomorrow. I'm kind of done with having a bad day. Thanks be to our Dads for all their help!

Wish us luck!