What Happens in Mesquite...

Our car occasionally has issues.

Like, this one time we came out of our apartment to go to church...and were late because a flat tire forced us to walk.

Or that other time the headlight burned out (and Emily dropped the brand new bulb on the way out of the shop...yeah...)

But our recent trip to California takes the cake. We had planned a lovely little vacation just before July 4th to go back and visit Will's mission and get a few things worked on for the car (alignment, brake pads).

The first few hours were excellent. Will driving, me reading, and a stop at the St. George Temple.

After a stop in Mesquite for gas we switched drivers: my turn. 15 miles outside of Mesquite I was in the left lane being tailgated by a white SUV so I decided to speed up to finish passing the car in the right lane. But I kept going slower and slower......and slower...... Soon I'm going 10 mph and I finally am able to pull off onto the right shoulder. Let the car rest. Try again. 10 mph. Switch drivers. Will goes 12 mph. Different (but not really). Time to call a tow truck.

Calling the Tow Truck, Insurance Agent, and our various Saviors

The ...beautiful... landscape we were trapped in

Luckily we were sitting on the side of the road in 113 degree heat waiting an hour and a half for a confused tow truck driver. That's the Old Spanish Trail out there. Is that Dominguez and Escalante?!

Sitting in the air-conditioned cab of the tow truck as the car gets loaded

On our way back to lovely, lovely Mesquite

Finally we were dropped off in the Mesquite Walmart parking lot. Friends from Will's mission were heading from Palmdale, CA to Mesquite, NV to pick up the car and tow it home to start working on whatever had gone wrong (that's a ten hour trip people. driving through the night). We spent the next few hours in Mesquite until friends heading to California from Utah, a few hours behind us, arrived, willing to give us a ride.

We were about to load our suitcases into the back of their car when Will decided he wanted to move the car into the direct line of a Walmart security camera. The engine turned over just fine and there was no resistance, so, what the heck. Will took off at over 40 mph in the parking lot (don't try that at home kids). We decided to try driving to Vegas with the other car following behind in case we broke down again.

One stressful hour later, we were checking into our hotel. The car was picked up in Vegas, shaving two hours off of the trip made on our behalf to come pick up the car. Safe and air conditioned and grateful for good friends, we spent Thursday night in Vegas, as originally planned.

 Bidding a not-so-fond farewell to our car outside our hotel

 Theme Song: That's Life, Michael Bublé