Road trip

I do this thing sometimes where I'll get invited to go somewhere, and I'll decline the invitation, and then at the last possible moment change my mind and show up. That's kind of what happened this weekend. Jared was blessing the baby in church this weekend and I thought about going, but decided to go visit them some other time. Late Thursday afternoon I changed my mind. Meredith was the only one I could rope into driving to Utah on a Friday night, and returning on Sunday. Her husband stayed behind to make money, and we attempted to leave Friday, late afternoon. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say I wouldn't recommend that anyone ever rent from Thrifty car rental, and especially not if Tony is working the counter. We ended up getting on the road around 6pm, and then stupidly made a wrong turn, and got routed onto a toll road going the wrong way, some words were exchanged, but we blamed that on Tony for trying our patience, and leaving us feeling frazzled. By 6:30pm we were back on track. We made pretty good time from there on out. (Although, for anyone who might consider purchasing a Dodge Caliber...just don't.) Meredith can't stay awake behind the wheel for extended periods of time, although she did manage about an hour on this trip, so I got to doze off a little while she was driving, and then took an hour nap in Meadow, Utah. We got home a little after 6am.

Saturday I went shooting with Cousin Glen. It was freezing cold outside, and at one point my fingers got so numb that I was having a hard time releasing the empty clip. Totally worth it though. I haven't been shooting in ages, and I had sort of forgotten how much I love it. I need to practice more, I spent a lot of time shooting the dirt around the target. I was going to leave my Browning in Utah, so I could go again next time I fly home, but I forgot and brought it back. So I may be forced to buy a rifle next time.

Sunday was the blessing. I got to meet little Thor, but he was sleeping most of the time, and squirming around fussing when he wasn't sleeping. I got this cute little picture of Paige and I. Okay, so maybe it's not so cute, but it is a picture of the two of us. And then this one where Meredith and Coen crowded in.

We left immediately after the blessing to drive back. I tried to let Meredith drive, but I got pretty bored. At one point I even found myself involved in some long distance flirtations with some stranger wearing a muscle shirt and driving a red Tercel. By the time we got to Beaver I was asking Meredith to please pull over and let me drive. We pulled over and I got out of the car still wearing my dress, with my black, sparkly fishnets, and my BYU slippers. I was headed around to the back of the car to find some street clothes to change into, but I didn't even make it that far before I saw the man in the parked car next to us openly pointing at me and talking to his wife. They sat in their car and stared at me the whole time I was back there getting my clothes out. When I walked into the little convenience store, I paused in the doorway for a second trying to spot the bathrooms. When Meredith and I glanced back I kid you not, every person in that store was standing there staring at me. Open, unabashed stares. I think it must have been the fishnets, maybe that combined with the slippers. I'm not really sure, but it was pretty weird. I can't remember the last time a group of people stared at me like that.

The trip home was relatively uneventful. Aside from gas at the flying J in Vegas: and then we felt like maybe it was time we pullover and get an up close and personal look at the world's largest thermometer in Baker. It is enormous, you should all stop next time you're in the area. I did manage to again make a spectacle of myself there. A couple came out of the little gift shop while I was laying flat on my stomach in the parking lot trying to get as much of the thermometer as possible in one of the shots of Meredith. The wife pointed at me, and the two of them didn't even try to muffle their laughter. Although the husband did volunteer to take a picture of the two of us. When I offered to take a picture of them (she had her camera out), she laughed at me again and declined my generous offer.We got home around midnight I guess. Unfortunately I drank a bunch of Mt. Dew and it's after 2am, it's just now starting wear off. These are the benefits of not being a routine caffeine drinker. When I do decide to get some into my system, it keeps me wide awake for hours.