WE - Hauled it!

(Disclaimer!! Alan says this is way tooooo long....Anyone who does not want to read it I won't be offended, but it was an adventure.)

So we did it, we crossed the Rockys, the Great plains of Kansas and survived the trafffic in Kentucky. First of all, a BIG THANKS to all of those who helped us on our way. The trip took us exactly one week, we could have made it in less time but we spent time with Alan's cousins in Kentucky and visited Church History sites.

Monday -Day 1 We packed up our apartment, suprisingly filling more of the U-haul than I expected to. We were packed and ready to go by 1pm thanks to all the ward members that came to help, but we weren't on the road until nearly 5 pm. Why??? Well we were just stuggleling leaving our cozy little town of Rexburg and it took awhile to cut the apron strings..... NO. We planned to pull the Nissan behind the U-Haul on just a 2 wheel dolly (your not really supposed to do that because of 4WD) We were just going to drop the drive shaft and then tow it. Alan said it would be easy. It wasn't so easy, 13 years of dirt and rust can really make it difficult to get the bolts off. Anyways, after a lot of elbow grease and not having the right tools (because they accidentally got packed) we took it to a shop and they did it real quick and easy with power tools for just 10 bucks.

Day 2 - The Rockys - We didn't get as early of a start on the day as we would have liked, we left around 10 am. Let me tell you if you are ever board and have nothing to do and you would like a little adventure in your life just take a U-haul, tow an SUV behind it and stap a 5 month old into the seat next to you and drive through the Rockys florring it at 35 mph or is that gpm (gallons per mile). We were supposed to make it to Colorado Springs and stay the night with Alan's cousin Melody, but by 11 pm we were beat and still had 1.5 -2 hour drive ahead of us. We ended up getting a hotel just north of Denver. Saddly the people in the room next to us were partying until nearly 2 am when I finally called the front desk and asked them to do something about the noise.

Day 3- We were able to meet up with Melody and the kids in Denver and had lunch with them before hitting the road again. We just drove and drove and drove across the plains of Kansas, I can't imagine walking that as a pioneer. Not much of anything to look at but we would rather drive that all day then do the Rockys again. It wasn't too bad, we listend to The Work and the Glory on CD and it really helped pass the time. We Stopped for the night in Hays, Kansas. Now if your ever in Hays, Kansas don't go to the Ramada Inn. They advertised a nice price thats the only reason we went, but by the time they added everything up it was more than we would have liked. Then we get to our room and there is no AC, yeah you read it right in the middle of the hot, humid summer they gave us a room with NO AC. The phone kept ringing every 10-15 minutes with no one on the other end and since they didn't provide breakfast we had to get up early and leave in a hurry because I was getting a headache from the lack of food and too much heat. Which resulted in us leaving our pillows there. Our nice allergy free expensive pillows. Don't talk to Alan about it, there is still a sore spot.

Day 4- The easy day. We drove to Independance, Missouri and went to the visitors center and Liberty Jail. It was amazing, to see the all the replicas. Cabins that the early saints lived in some times as many as 10 families in a small one room cabin. The print shop that printed the first copies of The Book of Mormon that had been burned down by mobsters. And Liberty Jail, rebuilt in the exact location to the same size, just with the side cut out so that you can see into it. I am so glad that we took the time to stop and visit the church history sites along the way there was such a power spirit there to be felt. We were able to stay at a friend of friends house in Liberty and it was nice after our horrible hotel experienses.

Day 5- Another long haul. We finally made it to the Cotton's place in Lousiville Kentucky at midnight. We drove through 4 states on this day; Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. As soon as we crossed the Mississippi River trees started popping up it was amazing. We arrived late Friday night and left Monday morning. We had a great time visiting family and crashing in on the Cotton family reunion. Hailey is about a month older than Dane. Aren't they just so cute!

Last Day - We left Louisville and had been on the road for an hour when traffic stopped. We were parked for 3.5 hours on the freeway. Due to constuction the freeway was merging down to one lane, and there was a 3 semi-truck accident it was pretty bad. Helicopters came in and it took a long time to clean up. We finally made it home that night around 11pm.