Then we got hit with the largest snow storm we've had this close to Christmas in oh,
I'm guessing ten years? I couldn't tell you, I'm no meteorologist.
Most of the major roads on our route closed the night before we were to set out. I know, bad karma. Or bad for my karma. Or just bad for my car. I know it's a stretch folks, bear with me.
Well, by Sunday night, some of the roads were confirmed reopened, so we decided to take a trip, any trip. We claimed it was just to get out of the house, but I think by that point we had put so much effort into planning the original trip that it was a matter of pride. (And really, who wants to admit they spent their whole break on the couch watching Stargate - thank you Brent and Lori, Dallin and Jen)
Our new reduced plan would lead us along some of the original route, last 2 or 3 days, and in conjunction with my love of temple photography, allow us to visit 4 temples for both day and night shots at each location. I know what your thinking, 4 temples in 3 days? That's crazy talk! But wait, there's more! These 4 would be all 4 of the Temples in IDAHO, so it's not like they were in the same VALLEY even! This plan really appealed to me, as I had only visited Twin Falls before the groundbreaking, had only visited Rexburg during its construction, had only poor quality pictures from my early days of Photography at Boise, and had never, in all my traveling, managed to time things right to get night shots at Idaho Falls.
Day 1 of our estimated 2 day plan would take us 4 hours to Idaho Falls, then 30 minutes on to Rexburg, Then later that night, from Rexburg back to Idaho Falls. And If everything went that Easy, I would not be blogging about it in such a darkly alluding manner.
We made it to Idaho Falls just fine.
At this point the the only functioning keyfob I have for my car quit working. For milliseconds that may or may not have felt like an eternity I had no idea how we were going to get into the car. Then I realised the key still worked. Thank heaven for Analog technology. Retro is cool. Anyway, I'm not superstitious (knock on wood) so I did not see this as the Omen of Gloom that it obviously was. We drove on. We made it to Rexburg.
And I was able to get plenty of day shots. We went to dinner and came back in time for dusk and night pictures.
That is where it ceased being fun for the night. We were not even out of the parking lot before it became obvious something was not right. So, at the bottom of the hill, under the light of a temple, I get out and find that one of the tires has gone completely flat. 15 minutes into the tire change, the cheap little jack that the car came with SPLIT IN TWO. Right at the scissors joints. (Yes, I was helping at this point too...and helped even more by not chucking the jack through the car window in frustration.)
For this kind of Quality we are bailing out the Big Three Auto makers. I'm lucky the car didn't come down on my foot.
So in the dark (and the BITTEREST frigid wind that I have ever felt) we manage to flag down a passing motorist (Thank you, whoever you are) and borrow her jack. (This after I said, "No, we don't need help" to about 3 other cars...) She was even kind enough to turn her van around and light up the process. Keep in mind that at this time of year in Rexburg, the roads don't exactly have shoulders. Traffic on this mildly busy road was down to one lane till we got the donut on. Oh, the Donut. Not ten minutes later, the car is having problems again. We pull over and find that our wonderful little donut. which was in perfect condition just 2 streets ago, now looks like THIS:
We ended up getting towed to a motel across the street from a tire store in the spraawling metropolis of Rigby Idaho. (Which is world renonwned for the birthplace of the television, as our towing man stated to give the situation a silver lining...um, nope; still never want to be in Rigby again.)
This concluded day one. This will also conclude post one. As they probably say in Rigby, "Tune in tomorrow..."
