Here we are, all ready to go. After a hard, hot day packing and loading, we went all the way to Brigham City and crashed. Kind of literally! Trying to get up a hill into a Howard Johnson’s, the RV (which Stan was driving) struck the pavement with the bottom of the trailer hitch and, after plowing a 6 foot long furrow, was stuck hard. Thank heaven for a couple of friendly cops and AAA! After getting pulled off, we went back to the freeway and spent the night at Days Inn, finally getting a good shower and into bed around midnight. Around 2am, the power went off throughout the hotel which, of course, shut down the air conditioning and woke us up. We opened the window to get some fresh air and went right back to sleep. Sometime in the night, the power came back on, but we slept in until 8 something and then got back on the road.

The next day, we made it as far as Deer Lodge, Montana, and spent the night in a truck stop among dozens of 18-wheelers. The next day, there was some more drama with Mary getting in a position with the U-Haul where she couldn’t make the turn onto a narrow highway. She was helped out by a friendly passer-by who got her to move back and forth while keeping her from falling into a deep ditch on the other side of the road, and finally got her headed in the right direction.

We finally pulled into Bonners Ferry and arrived at our storage shed there about 5pm Pacific Daylight Time, to be met by Stan’s son and family and 6 to 8 ward members who had turned out to help us unload. We are so grateful to those on both ends of the trip, and in between, who helped us along the way!

More on the next post!