elizabeth’s thoughts from the road

Today was one of those days were things just don’t go as planned when you really need them to! We left Moab headed toward Grand Junction, Colorado and were sure it was going to only be a couple hours of driving and then work at the campground for the rest of the day. It did not turn out that way! In Moab, we took off like any other morning from a campground. We had 1/4 to 1/2 tank of gas and Micah did not think about stopping in Moab.

This was a problem because about the time we realized we really needed gas, we were in the middle of 75 miles of nothing but “no services” exits. Damn….
Damn is what was going through my mind as we rolled to a stop on the side of I-70 eastbound. I immediately picked up my phone and called Good Sam Roadside assistance. I signed up just for such occasions (we could have used it for the beach incident too if I would have had my card on me!) I was put on hold for a good 10 minutes while they tried to locate anyone in our area that could bring us gas. As you can imagine, Utah services are a little sparce. They came back and said it would be 1/2 hour. Whoohoo!
Then the tow truck driver called to make sure of our location and we find out he is 100 miles away. Nice. Ok, back on the phone with Good Sam and another hour later, they assure me someone from Mac’s towing is coming.
Micah makes this nice sign for the back of the trailer. Gas?
We tried to be in good spirits. Micah worked on his computer (still in cell and broadband range can you believe it?!) and I ate lunch in the cool trailer as semi’s swayed us when they passed us. Don’t people usually move over when someone is on the side of the road?

When one is sitting on the side of a strange road in a desolate country, one starts to doubt if help is ever coming.
After one hour, a nice man stops and offers us Diesel. Thanks but, that won’t work…
Another 1/2 hour passes and someone with a long trailer stops up the highway and backs down to us pretty quickly and expertly. He says he was just in Moab (a large ATV and dirt biking area) and he has a 50 gallon tank in his trailer! It even had a hose and everything! Micah gets into the truck and finds out that the battery is now dead too…
Damn…
Turns out this guy has a jump start battery pack too. Rock on!

He talks micah into putting the truck in neutral and backing the truck and trailer back off the road some more so he can pull up beside and get the hose in the right place. This worries Micah because of the large slope on the side of the road. The expert trailer driver, we now know him as Steve from Eagle, colorado…assures him that nothing will happen and talks M through the whole process. To a bystander, this seemed easy as pie, Micah says he was really sweating!

Just as they were giving us some gas, up comes Mac towing. Well isn’t that great timing! Good for Good sam anyway! Steve and his wife Lee head up to the next exit to meet us so we can get some cash for the gas they gave us. Mac’s towing gives us the 3 gallons Good Sam pays for. We drive up to the worst exit in the world (contruction was crazy) and meet them AND proceed to fill up our tank completely.

Micah assures me that he will never run out of gas again and that he will be sure to fill up way ahead of time. I like this thought!

Then, we are off to RV ranch in Grand junction…Only I stupidly typed in “RV Ranch, Grand junction, CO” into Microsoft streets and trips and trusted where it was taking me! Dumb, dumb thing…We ended up 8 miles away from where we should have been down a long windy desert road with winding switchbacks and nowhere to turn around. It sucked. M turned Pixel dust around in no time though and we found a better map to the ranch…

So, after 3 hours of unexpected fun, we are where expeced. It is warm, I would say 75 or so, and beautiful.

We thank our good Samaritan friends, Steve and Lee, and plan to visit their friends campground tomorrow night…
We thank good Sam (even though a little slow)
We thank the tow truck guy from Mac’s
and we thanked each other for not getting upset at each other and realizing our mistakes and hope to not repeat them!

Moab (MO-ab) is a nice place. Very outdoorsy oriented. Lots of renting of ATV’s, Dirt bikes, Jeeps and riding of mountain bikes. Great, great trip to Arches National Park. It was absolutely beautiful and so fun! Then there was a great evening with my new husband at the micro brewery in town, the Moab Brewery. We tried a few brews, had a super dinner and got a souvenir pilsner glass. Did you really think I wouldn’t?
The campground was super full but it was nice. We decided to not turn on the heat for the first time…Mistake as M froze but didn’t want to get up.

We plan to get into Denver in a couple days. Micah is working every day now so we are planning short driving times to work around his timeline. He goes back to Dallas next week for a week. I will stay in Denver with my aunt Connie.

We stopped off at Hire’s Big H for dinner last night. They are known for their hamburgers, root beer and Fry sauce. Yes, fry sauce. Fry sauce, if you have not heard, is sort of a mix of ketchup and mayonaise. The Utah people swear by the stuff. The waitress could not believe we were trying it for the first time. It was pretty good but I think I still prefer ketchup with my fries. It was better on the burger. I might even say this burger was better than the In-N-Out burger I had the other day..
The Root beer float was awesome! The ice cream was so soft and fuffy! Very different but very good!
Hires Big H, a Salt Lake city institution!

We also saw a Salt Lake City billboard sign that said “Escape Poligamy-Call this number” Ha. I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture though.

We are headed towards Arches National park today on our way to Denver. Weather is still cool but it is really sunny and nice!

Ever heard of Winnemucca, Nevada? No? I had not either until yesterday. Sounds like it would be a town of 100 people set out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but surprisingly, I found out that was not true!
It was actually quite a large town with a many casinos bringing in the tourists. It was sprawling and seemed quite busy as we rolled in at 7:30pm. We stayed on the edge of town in a nice little RV park with nice, friendly owners. We left them some Jelly Bellys for being so nice and letting us arrive late. Turns out our drive from San Francisco with the Jelly Belly stop got us in right after they were to close for the night.

We had done a little research on the restaurants around Winnemucca and came across what is called a “Basque dinner house”. There were several of these in Winnemucca as well as around greater Nevada. This intrigued me to the point I had to look up the meaning:Basque Dinner explantion

It was pretty cool. After John’s recommendation of Ormachea’s Basque dinner house in town, we headed off. It was fun to try it and experience the local fare. We got the “sample” menu and dined on soup, salad, baked Chicken, meatballs, pork loin, spanish rice, beans (similar to baked but not so sweet) and french fries. I thought the fries were a weird addition but they were good so…whatever, I ate them.
It was a good meal. I have to say it wasn’t the best food I ever had but the restaurant was cozy and everyone was quite nice. Micah and I listened to a table next to us discuss God and creationism and how the Arc (as in Noah) was quite possibly the first ship ever built.
What?! Oh well…we had a good chuckle and ate some more!

Nevada is beautiful with the wide open spaces and mountains. It is weird being in all this expanse yet still be on Broadband speeds!

This morning I toasted us some bagels in our little oven broiler. I lit the flame and put them in no problem. I smelled something funny but didn’t know what it was and just opened the vent. We ate our bagels and planned our route. So about a 1/2 hour later, I suddenly realize what that stink was. That would be the teapot that I keep in the oven for traveling melting all the plastic into the oven. NICE! Micah helped me scrape off the plastic we could. It could still use a good cleaning but I will deal with that in Salt Lake city…..I plan to bake some cookies tonight and I don’t want them to taste plasticy!

Ebby is still scratching like mad. We have bathed her in medicated shampoo and given her benedryl but nothing seems to help. Poor dear. I keep finding hairballs all around the trailer.

We finally got rid of the lovely centerpieces from the wedding. They hung in there as long as they could! They were so lovely and such a nice memory, I didn’t want them to leave! And the last piece of wedding cake finally got tossed too. I had been snacking on it for days and finally decided 6 days was too long! It sure was good cake though! I now have fudge and jelly beans to work on!

We headed out of San Fran today headed for Winnemucca in Nevada. I love going to food factory tours and we planned a trip to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, California! Whoohoo!
It was super cool but not completely unlike the other candy factory tour we had been on. It was colorful…that is for sure! We ended up on a tour with half a school bus full of kindergartners and their parental escorts. We even got to wear paper hats!
The biggest treasure from the tour was the purchased 2 lb bags of “Belly Flops”. These are irregular beans sold for a discounted price. Awesome! Buy two bags, get one free!

Micah has been snacking on them for the last 100 miles and I fear he is going to make himself sick!
My favorite flavors: Juicy pear and strawberry daquri
Least liked bean flavors: Cinnamon and licorice

We will be pulling into Winnemucca around 7 where we hope to relax after a long day of driving through some mountainous terrain (Donner’s pass in California). We picked this as a good stopping point on our way to Denver that has good coverage for the air card. We hear there is a free shuttle to the casino! Another Whoohoo!

Still drinking that wedding Budweiser…Will I ever see my Shiner, Leinie’s or Widmer in my ice box again? I’m betting not for another week! ha!

It’s a cool 60 degrees here but that is pretty on par with what we have had…Thank goodness for the still working Panel ray in Pixel dust.

Today we travelled from Pismo beach to San Francisco. We really wanted to stop by the Monterrey bay Aquarium on the way but we just didn’t get to it. Our friendly stranger on the beach last night suggested it and we really did think it sounded great. Time, distance, dogs and parking diverted us. We got into San Fran about 2pm. We are staying in the only RV park actually in San Francisco. It is a parking lot one with no grass to it at all. I don’t care for it or the chain link and razor wire surrounding it! But…the reason we are here was to be close to the city in order to go out to dinner and see some sites.

We did a driving tour of the city (and it’s traffic), did some tourist things, ate some dinner and came back to our home on wheels for another wedding leftover beer. The restaurant we chose was a little touristy but the food was great. It was called the Crab house and it was on Pier 39. We got some crab and chowder and the garlic fries! YUMMY!
Saw the Haight-Ashbury district, the Golden gate bridge and traveled some trecherous hills! Thank goodness we left the trailer at the park!

Today for lunch was my first In-N-Out burger experience! It was pretty good, I must say! I like that it is limited and they specialize in just the burgers and fries! Not a fast joint though… But I think I like that too. Sometimes you gotta wait for goodness.

We traveled through Gilroy, CA today. Gilroy is the Garlic capital of the world. Whoowhee what a title! We got some garlic and marveled at the size of elephant garlic, picked out a garlic spice blend and headed out. I did pick up a little candy on the way out. It was from a local candy place in Berkeley called Judy’s. MARVALOUS! It was a Caramallow. I swear, the caramel was 1/2″ thick! Be sure to see the picture I took of it!
If you ever get a chance…try this thing!

I am missing out on the new LOST, and two weeks of the Bachelor and Desperate housewives….Sigh…I am certain I will get caught up one of these days. It is weird living without a TV but quite liberating! I haven’t watched any TV really since we left 2 weeks ago…My brothers can tell you, for our family, this is unheard of! HA!

There are a few wedding pictures up courtesy of Stephanie and Marian…I am sure still more will be up in the days to come! I am still hearing what a great time everyone had! I am so glad! We did too!

Have you ever had a moment where time slows down so dramatically that in 10 seconds of time, it seems like you have an hour to think about how you got there and what to do about it?
A little regret, a little fear, a little “I told you so” goes through your mind?

Well, dear readers…Tonight micah and I left the trailer in the RV park and took the truck out for a little drive at sunset. We drove down through some quaint little towns north of Pismo beach. I thought we might walk on the beach, maybe get an ice cream and take some photos. It was going to be a quiet, simple evening. Micah, however, had some other plans in mind for us. My dear husband (I think in a split second decision really) thought it might be fun to drive Otis out on the beach. This is where our story of when time stood still starts…

I think my words were something along the lines of “What are you doing!?” and “dear lord, no!” when he went down the steep ramp onto the powdery white sand…And it was only about 10 feet into it that we came to a slow, sinking stop…

Forward, backwards…dig dig dig…”I can get us out of this”….Forward backwards….find a rock…dig, dig, dig…

For about an hour, I sat in the cab of the truck, drinking my ginger ale and munching on a dark chocolate mint Dagoba bar I had stashed in there the day before (thanks Jennifer). I was calm. I was not going to get my ice cream but I was calm…What could one do? My thoughts were…”Seriously…he thought this was a good idea? Bless his heart!”

By the time Micah came up with plan B, the passenger rear wheel was spinning on its own and we couldn’t get anywhere. Micah, after a valiant effort, realized he was defeated. He had seen a car pull in down the beach (they stayed on the pavement) and micah went to ask him to call a tow truck. Micah came back to the truck telling me that the man that called the tow truck was over there with an ax and that he was a little nervous.
Turns out they were a very nice California couple who had started an “Indian fire” on the beach (cut the wood with the ax) and they invited us to come on down when we got pulled out. We did join them for a few minutes to thank them again and let them know our website address. I had a graceful exit of two trips up the tall beach stairs but we are now safe and sound back in the trailer.

Please look at the pictures…the Video is a little long for Flickr but when you see us next, you can see it! Micah will blog about his side of the story soon too… It was our little honeymoon adventure to remember…

Today was a quiet day of catching up and trying to feel at ease. As you can imagine, traveling the country after planning and having a destination wedding, leaving your home and job and moving into a trailer…one feels a little lost and stressed. Today we fixed things around the trailer, tried to relax, did some laundry, tended to the dogs (Ebby had a scratching problem due to me forgetting to give her her Advantage…fleas are bad in California I have been told…I feel like such a bad mom!), made sure our financial affairs were in order…things like this. We also went downtown to a little restaurant called The Splash Cafe. It is known for it’s clam chowder. I wondered to myself thinking that was an east coast specialty but they claimed to be the best around. It was quite good and they served it in a nice little breadbowl. Yummy!

Our nice little trailer park on the beach is a little chilly but beautiful. We are about to go down there and walk again. Micah had not set foot in the Pacific until this morning. There was a full intact sand dollar about every 3 feet on the beach. It was so exciting! After micah picked up about 10 of them, he decided to be selective and only take a few.

Right now, we are having a drink (left over from the wedding) and watching the sun get lower on the horizon. California really is nice, no wonder it is so expensive to live here!

I am still reeling from the wedding and wedding weekend. Again, it was absolutely the most perfect day! Everything went exactly as planned and it seemed everyone had a great time. Micah and I had a blast and will look back on it as the most special day ever! I am SO glad we planned the wedding as we did and I am so glad that we went through with everything. About 6 months before the wedding we had second thoughts but it was too late…But again…I am so glad that we went through with it. It was perfect weather, perfect friends and family, perfect dress, perfect place and such a fun time had by all!
I will update the Flickr wedding folder with pictures soon. Please check in the next couple days…

Love from Pismo!

This morning we had the first visitors in the trailer and I served them undercooked pancakes. I am still not great on this gas stove and had no idea that the centers were still oozing batter until they each had eaten 4 of them and discretely left the doughy centers off the sides of their plates. Ha! They didn’t even want to let me know that my technique needed some work! Micah’s brother Todd and sister in law Ana joined us for a evening of camping and then breakfast in the trailer. They said they slept alright in the tent but I wasn’t too sure I was believing them!

We headed out towards LA around noon and dealt with the some lovely traffic! I diligently looked for that damn Hollywood sign but to no avail. Oh well…We saw some beautiful scenery with rolling hills, wineries, the Pacific coast and eventually a lovely little RV park in Pismo Beach, California. It is a chilly 50 degrees or so but the sunset was stunning! We even saw a sea lion right up close!
Micah and I had a romantic walk and dinner through town. We are planning an early morning of shelling, beach walking and laundry!

I finally saw a road runner today! I was quite excited! I was beginning to think it was a snipe hunt!