Once on the road to Yellowstone we pass the friendly ranger station where they were so kind to take $25 of our US dollars (foreshadowing alert). After traveling a few miles we both decided a pit stop was in order and stopped at this now infamous gas station and turned off the engine.
As you may have noticed the objective of why we stopped is clearly visible in this picture. After accomplishing my goal I went inside to get a muffin. When I came out Kori was ready for her turn and I watched the baby. See, see how well I watch the baby...
Now when Kori had returned we thought it prudent to continue our journey to the more fascinating sites of the park. So I turn on the engine... or attempt to. Click, click, click, click, click. The dashboard lights are flickering and the dials are spinning. Some would say it was ghosts, but it is midday and we are in a national park (I'm sure that means something). So we have the local service station (1/2 mile down the road) guy come by and he tries to jump the van. No luck. Then the other guy at the service station comes. He also tries to jump the van. All that happens is that the clicking is faster and more prevalent. The dials also seem more lively (maybe we were powering the ghost). So our genius mechanic pulls out his best tool for working on cars, the hammer. Mr. Hammer Mechanic beats on the battery, beats on the starter and probably beats on other parts of the car that have nothing to do with the problem. Well needless to say he is unable to start the car. Our option? Call a tow-truck in Jackson and wait until Monday to get it repaired. Once we track down a tow service we find out is going to be 2 and a half hours before they can arrive. Lucky us. So we take this opportunity to hike a mile down to Colter Bay on Jackson Lake. Down in Colter Bay we discover that there is a Visitor Center, an Indian Museum and a boat launch. See photos, see them all, mwuahahahahaha.
Once back at the gas station we grabbed a couple sandwiches, ate in the sun and talked to the manager. Everyone at the gas station was very nice. We waited and waited. Oh and took pictures.
And decided to rename plants and animals that we saw.
This one is Purpulous Droopingous Floweronic (not a good picture, it is wiley like the yeti).
Decayous Treeifer
Don'tic Eatoun
Mossous on Rockus
Mossus on Treeifer
Scarinious the Wifeifer Bugus on windshield.
So after waiting a bit longer our tow-truck arrived. Jonk (explaination to come later) asked us what was wrong and decided to jump us with his truck. MIRACLE, it started. We were shocked and after turning it off and trying to start it without a jump our hopes were dashed. It didn't start. The problem after some quick armchair diagnostics is that the computer has gone haywire. We were able to start it by using the extra battery that a tow-truck has, while other cars do not have that extra battery thus not giving enough juice to bypass the computer. Jonk also told us that staying in Jackson would not be worth our while. It is too expensive, and the repair shops are not that great. So he said, don't turn off the engine and drive somewhere else. On the 40 minute drive back to Jackson we decided our best option would be to get to Provo. Our only hitch is that I left my car at a co-workers house in Salt Lake.
We also decided to see if we could get a raincheck or refund on our park admission. We stopped there briefly and I ran over to the station only to be denied with a smile.
We passed our geometicrically baffling ranch on the way.
(Triangle X Dude Ranch)
Something afoot at the 1 Hour Photo.
Grass on the roof is the new pink.
After a slight problem in Jackson, which I won't talk about, that cost us $75, we were on our way. We noticed on the receipt at this time that the name our Tow-Truck driver put down was Jonk. We both said 'Jack', but as most of you already figured out it was 'Jon K', but he will be Jonk to us. A tattooed slightly overweight fellow (non-swede) who was really nice to get us going.
We were doing great. Though the drive back to SLC was not the shortest in the world it did pass uneventfully until we were past Evanston. Soon we came across an interesting sign. I-80 West bound is closed all weekend and we were to be detoured on I-84. No problem, an extra 11 miles. How bad could that be. They didn't mention that there was not 1 but 2 pockets of construction on I-84. Go UDOT, you really know how to make thing better. So the first pocket of construction was not bad, 15 miles of one lane traffic was okay because we kept moving. After we passed Morgan, though, we came to a complete stop a mile away from the next construction zone. Well without the engine pumping away the car was more reliant on the battery to power itself. I kept popping the car in neutral and revving the engine, but one time I was too late and the car died. And it was dead. Dead dead. We pushed it to the side of the road and called another tow service. We also called the Heywoods, our saviors. It was dusk when we got stuck and in no time we were without any light except the constant traffic lighting our trial. Bruce and his father came to pick us up and arrived within 5 minutes of the tow-service. After dropping off the Van at a service station at the mouth of the canyon, Bruce drove us to a gas station. We had not stopped since Jackson and were in dire need of a stop. We picked up the car and sent the bishop home, unfortunately he was going to have to wake up early the next day. It was 11:30 PM.
At this point we realized the last place we had eaten was at Colter station. So we stopped at Wendy's.
I said "Number 1 w/ cheese with a Diet Coke, er Pepsi, no wait Coke."
They said. "What Size?"
I said "Medium. I also want a ... Number... um... 6 with a Dr. Pepper"
They said. "What Size?"
I said, "Um... Medium also."
They said. "Okay. That will be 7.35" That should have been a clue considering Kori's meal was 4 bucks and mine was 5.50.
We paid the money, got our drinks (plural) and got a bag of food and took off. At this point we had bad headaches and had been on the road for 15 hours. Kori looked in the bag and was dismayed to find 1 burger and 1 fry. We almost went back, but we decided to eat them and see if we were still hungry when we got off the freeway near our house. We did end up stopping at Del Taco where they were able to get our order right and got home around 12:15.
Day 3: Oh wait there is no Day 3 of this vacation.
So now we are going to have to take care of the van on Monday and pick up the kids Tuesday. Wish us luck, as we obviously need some.
Blake
Here is Grandma and the girls, Chloe, Emma, Rachel, Hannah, and Jessica.
Elijah got remote control cars for his birthday, he loves them.
