The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day OR How 4 hours turned into 11.

Hey all.. I wanted to share with you my crazy adventure.

Ainsley and I had decided to spend Halloween with my mom, since we hadn't seen her in a while and so she could have both her grandkids to go trick or treating with. The car had been making a funny noise, so Thursday morning, the day we left, I took it in for an oil change and check up. Everything looked fine.. so we headed out of town.

Everything was going great, for once I left exactly when I said I wanted to. (Those of you who know this about me, realize how amazing that is.) Just as planned, less than an hour into the ride Ains dropped quietly off to sleep. About a half an hour after that, just when we had made our way far enough into the canyon that we were closer to the other end than the beginning... the car starts shaking.. badly. I slow down and it stops.. I think, maybe it was the road.. I speed up... it starts shaking again. I pulled off to the side of the road, get out and check the tires, there are no flats.. I check my phone, no signal, and by this time Ainsley has woken up and is not in a great mood, having only gotten a half an hour nap, when she usually gets two hours. I decide there's nothing to do except keep going until I come to some sort of civilization or at least get phone service.

So I pull back out onto the road, and quickly realize that anytime I got over 20mph the car starts shaking again. I put on my hazards and start the longest trip through the canyon of my life. On top of driving so slowly, I am frequently having to pull over to let angry people around me. I finally get out of the canyon and realize I have cell service, call Tom, he says check the lugnets.. they are all tight. A nice man stops and tries to help me.. but he can't see anything wrong either. So we decide the only thing to do is to continue driving 20 mph until I can find some car place to figure out why it felt like an earthquake was going on everytime I tried driving a legal limit.

I finally get to a Big O in Price at 4:45pm.. which means it took me almost 4 hours to drive what should've only taken 2. They take an hour to look at my car, and tell me just minutes before they close that what is wrong is that a bolt holding my rear axels together has almost completely come loose. If I had driven much more over the 20mph the shaking would've knocked it completely loose causing the wheels to buckle and shoot the axels into the undercarriage of my car.. probably killing both of us! AH!!

Anyway, it's a simple fix, just tightening the bolt and a realignment for the car.. but they were about to close when they figured this out. My mother had jumped in the car to come get us when we reached Price, but she was still hours away. I had packed the car with everything Ains and I would need for 5 days, and to drive there and back comfortably.. I now have to remove all of this so that we have it when my mom finally gets there.. I get a brainstorm and borrow a shopping cart from the Albertsons next door, and push it over to my car and fill it with all our luggage, blankets, pillows, toys, snacks, videos, car dvd player and misc. things we needed,.. and push the cart now full of our stuff out into the parking lot... and I realize, I have no idea where to go.

I first go into Albertsons, hoping to sit in the little table and chair area they usually have near the deli... this store does not have one.. after pushing the cart and dragging my suitcase along up and down a few aisles feeling like a complete idiot.. we leave Albertsons.. I look across this large parking lot, and at the opposite end was a Kmart.. I think, 'Hey, they usually have a Little Ceasars cafe thing to sit and eat' (because it's now after 6, and Ains and I are hungry).. so we walk across this large parking lot, dragging the large suitcase along as well.. and get to Kmart. They do have a little cafe, however, it is closed and barricaded off. Discouraged I walk back out of Kmart. I saddly scan this large shopping area, and see the only fast food place, a Taco Time, halfway back across the parking lot.

We trudge back across to that, and drag this heavily laden shopping cart, looking like total homeless bag ladies, into this small Taco Time (which unfortunately did not have a play place.. that would've come in handy). I order some food and push our cart as out of the way as I can. Ainsley climbs onto the table and starts dancing in circles.. but that's really a different story. I ended up pulling my laptop and a dvd out of the cart and put on Sesame Street for her. We spend about an hour and a half getting very odd looks from all the Taco patrons, waiting for my mom. She finally arrives, saves us, takes us all to Wal-Mart, cuz she couldn't pass up the chance to go while she was there, lol. And then we head back.. we get to Monticello at just before midnight.. and that is how a 4 hour trip took 11 hours.

if you made it this far.. thanks for listening to my terrible horrible no good very bad day.