I think it may be too soon to write about this, it was so awful. But I fear if I don't I'll forget how awful and a lot of the little details, so here goes reliving it.
My sister Stacy and I planned a trip to Provo, UT. We usually try to get up there every summer to escape the heat. This year we decided to take Stacy's van, affectionately called "Beast". It's a 1995 Ford Econo-line conversion van. You can't get much bigger, or more comfort. With our 5 kids we filled up each seat and on a Monday morning we loaded up the kids and headed off, caravan-ing with our SIL Angela and her kids. We were prepared for a long day of driving. With stops it usually takes us around 11 hours to get there. We were making the climb from Phoenix to Flagstaff and doing ok, but then the van started acting a little funny. It was heating up and if we were climbing a hill, you could floor it and it was like it was in neutral. Weird. We made a few phone calls and pulled over for a bit to let it cool down a bit. We drove the rest of the way to Flag with the heater on and going well under the speed limit. Because the Beast would not and could not go any faster. We stopped to eat and Stacy drove over to Auto Zone to have them look at it since the check engine light was on. But, since a huge ol' storm rolled in and it was hailing, the worker at Autozone opted to not look at it and insisted it was just the climb and the altitude and we should be ok from here on out. Sure.
So off we went thinking we were in the clear. Not too long out of Flagstaff we get to Indian Reservation, and lets be honest, it's hot and ugly up there. It gets a whole lot more hot and ugly when you have to ride with no AC and the heater blasted to keep your van from overheating. The tension was building. Heat does something to we Robinson girls. It really brings out our ugly sides. Thankfully we know this about ourselves and just kept quiet. Even more thankfully, the kids were doing great watching there movies and playing Angry Birds and didn't bother us too much during the leg of the drive.
We're doing ok, not great when we turn on to the 89-A. The Beast didn't like this road. At all. The going was very slow. Very. Slower than what you're thinking. We were taking the hills at, yep, 2o mph. 20! Down hill? We probably got up to 45-50 at our peak. ohhhhhh mannnn. There were a LOT of hills. I will say, 2o mph is a great speed for nature watching and deer spotting. We saw a handful of deer and just prayed a bear wouldn't decide he needed lunch, because we would not have been able to outrun him. We threw in the towel and pulled over again. We let the kids run around, and put some more water in the radiator. After 40 min of break, we got back in the cars and kept on. We made it to Jacob Lake (Beautiful place!!) and pulled off into their little service station where the nicest boys, or young men I guess- I feel old saying that, helped us out so much! They checked to make sure we hadn't blown a head gasket, they showed us that our reserve tank was completely evaporated and refilled it and our radiator with the correct 50/5o mix of water and coolant. They even filled up our tires and well, they were all adorably sweet. If you're ever in the area or need a good camping spot, check out Jacob Lake, it was great. As far as they could tell we were good to go. So off we went again.
We made it to Kanab and ate dinner at a park to let the kids get their last wiggles out. It was now 7pm. We left at 9am and we were only half way!! With kids in pajamas we hit the long road ahead. We trudged ahead determined to make it. The van seemed to be doing ok, but then we got to Highway 20. 25 mph uphill was back! It'd pretty funny and a little embarrassing when you're getting passed by semis and motor homes left and right. Even more fun when there's construction and it's down to 1 lane and you're cruising a long at the front of a 65 mph highway doing 50.
Poor Stacy had driven the entire time, so we swapped in Fillmore. All the kids were sound asleep, since it was 1 am, and so with my Pepsi Throwback and a few jumping jacks I did in the parking lot I was ready to attack the road. That was the LONGEST 2 1/2 hours of my life!!!! I have never been that tired driving. My eyes didn't want to work. They were open, but it was like they couldn't focus completely. I kept raising my chin to see out of my ever-lowering eye lids. Thankfully, Utah is ALWAYS under construction and for the last hour or so I was wide awake trying my darnedest to avoid the giant barricade barrels that the dumb workers put on the INSIDE of the one lane we had to drive in! Ahhhhh!! To make matters worse there was a nice concrete barricade wall instead of a shoulder on the other side. Mind you, this was the first time I'd ever driven the beast. Mind you again, the Beast is LARGE. That was a frightening ordeal. Seeing 1 out of every 5 barrel had been knock over or ran into didn't help things. FINALLY we made it to our exit. SO grateful to be out of the bloody construction, I was just beginning to relax when we turned off the exit to find even MORE construction!!! If there hadn't been 5 sleeping kids in the car I would've screamed. It was ridiculously hilarious. Nevertheless, we made it through and pulled up to our destination at 3 am.
Bless Marissa for being so amazing and accommodating. She had beds made and ready for all 11 of us! Needless to say, we didn't unload the vans till morning and I'm certain we were all asleep by 3:20.
Total driving time: 16 hours
Average Speed of the Beast: somewhere around 40 mph
Never in a million years did we think we could top that.......
My sister Stacy and I planned a trip to Provo, UT. We usually try to get up there every summer to escape the heat. This year we decided to take Stacy's van, affectionately called "Beast". It's a 1995 Ford Econo-line conversion van. You can't get much bigger, or more comfort. With our 5 kids we filled up each seat and on a Monday morning we loaded up the kids and headed off, caravan-ing with our SIL Angela and her kids. We were prepared for a long day of driving. With stops it usually takes us around 11 hours to get there. We were making the climb from Phoenix to Flagstaff and doing ok, but then the van started acting a little funny. It was heating up and if we were climbing a hill, you could floor it and it was like it was in neutral. Weird. We made a few phone calls and pulled over for a bit to let it cool down a bit. We drove the rest of the way to Flag with the heater on and going well under the speed limit. Because the Beast would not and could not go any faster. We stopped to eat and Stacy drove over to Auto Zone to have them look at it since the check engine light was on. But, since a huge ol' storm rolled in and it was hailing, the worker at Autozone opted to not look at it and insisted it was just the climb and the altitude and we should be ok from here on out. Sure.
So off we went thinking we were in the clear. Not too long out of Flagstaff we get to Indian Reservation, and lets be honest, it's hot and ugly up there. It gets a whole lot more hot and ugly when you have to ride with no AC and the heater blasted to keep your van from overheating. The tension was building. Heat does something to we Robinson girls. It really brings out our ugly sides. Thankfully we know this about ourselves and just kept quiet. Even more thankfully, the kids were doing great watching there movies and playing Angry Birds and didn't bother us too much during the leg of the drive.
We're doing ok, not great when we turn on to the 89-A. The Beast didn't like this road. At all. The going was very slow. Very. Slower than what you're thinking. We were taking the hills at, yep, 2o mph. 20! Down hill? We probably got up to 45-50 at our peak. ohhhhhh mannnn. There were a LOT of hills. I will say, 2o mph is a great speed for nature watching and deer spotting. We saw a handful of deer and just prayed a bear wouldn't decide he needed lunch, because we would not have been able to outrun him. We threw in the towel and pulled over again. We let the kids run around, and put some more water in the radiator. After 40 min of break, we got back in the cars and kept on. We made it to Jacob Lake (Beautiful place!!) and pulled off into their little service station where the nicest boys, or young men I guess- I feel old saying that, helped us out so much! They checked to make sure we hadn't blown a head gasket, they showed us that our reserve tank was completely evaporated and refilled it and our radiator with the correct 50/5o mix of water and coolant. They even filled up our tires and well, they were all adorably sweet. If you're ever in the area or need a good camping spot, check out Jacob Lake, it was great. As far as they could tell we were good to go. So off we went again.
We made it to Kanab and ate dinner at a park to let the kids get their last wiggles out. It was now 7pm. We left at 9am and we were only half way!! With kids in pajamas we hit the long road ahead. We trudged ahead determined to make it. The van seemed to be doing ok, but then we got to Highway 20. 25 mph uphill was back! It'd pretty funny and a little embarrassing when you're getting passed by semis and motor homes left and right. Even more fun when there's construction and it's down to 1 lane and you're cruising a long at the front of a 65 mph highway doing 50.
Poor Stacy had driven the entire time, so we swapped in Fillmore. All the kids were sound asleep, since it was 1 am, and so with my Pepsi Throwback and a few jumping jacks I did in the parking lot I was ready to attack the road. That was the LONGEST 2 1/2 hours of my life!!!! I have never been that tired driving. My eyes didn't want to work. They were open, but it was like they couldn't focus completely. I kept raising my chin to see out of my ever-lowering eye lids. Thankfully, Utah is ALWAYS under construction and for the last hour or so I was wide awake trying my darnedest to avoid the giant barricade barrels that the dumb workers put on the INSIDE of the one lane we had to drive in! Ahhhhh!! To make matters worse there was a nice concrete barricade wall instead of a shoulder on the other side. Mind you, this was the first time I'd ever driven the beast. Mind you again, the Beast is LARGE. That was a frightening ordeal. Seeing 1 out of every 5 barrel had been knock over or ran into didn't help things. FINALLY we made it to our exit. SO grateful to be out of the bloody construction, I was just beginning to relax when we turned off the exit to find even MORE construction!!! If there hadn't been 5 sleeping kids in the car I would've screamed. It was ridiculously hilarious. Nevertheless, we made it through and pulled up to our destination at 3 am.
Bless Marissa for being so amazing and accommodating. She had beds made and ready for all 11 of us! Needless to say, we didn't unload the vans till morning and I'm certain we were all asleep by 3:20.
Total driving time: 16 hours
Average Speed of the Beast: somewhere around 40 mph
Never in a million years did we think we could top that.......
3 comments:
You guys are hilarious. The drive alone to Utah really makes my skin crawl. I hate it! Even the towns you mentioned...I am remembering breaking down in Fillmore for like 2 days! Ugh I would have pulled my hair out!
So... where are the cat fights and emotional break downs?!? 20mph with the heater blowing in the desert is straight up torture. I would have cracked.
I just want to thank you for actually recording this event, not that I'm likely to forget it, but still. And HUGE kudos go to you, Brittany, for keeping your cool through this ordeal. It's one thing when it's your own car that isn't working. It's a whole other - incredibly miserable - situation when you happen to be stuck in the broken vehicle. Thank you for being an awesome sister and laughing instead of killing me.
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