WE'RE HOME!

Danielle, me and my mom

It was an adventure!  We took the motorhome to Arizona for Danielle's baby shower.  We have not used the motorhome since January.  It's been a very reliable vehicle with few problems.  However, our adventure began less than an hour and a half into the trip, when a hose burst from the radiator and we lost all our coolant.  It was in the low 90's at this point.  We are in the middle of nowhere with the next town or truck stop about 40 miles away.  We stop, cool down, stop and try to see where we are losing water, add more water, finally find the leak and it's not easy to get to but we use electrical tape to tape the hose(which took 30 min. maybe), we get 10 miles and it blows again, more tape, we drive 30 miles, blows again, fill up with water, drive 6 miles, we are over heating, we have 15 miles to go, it took us 4 hours to drive 80 miles.  Dwight was so patient and a good navigator through this whole time.  He kept us all calm.  Needless to say, we get to a truck stop and the little gal in the convenience store offers to call a local mechanic who comes right over.  He is able to cut a portion of the hose and reattach it in less than an hour.  $75 later and we are finally on the road.  We stop for gas, more water, a bite to eat at Burger King(where we are attacked by little flying bugs) and buy a hose,some clamps, more tape and some coolant.  We are prepared!!!  We make it to Phoenix at 11:30pm.  12 hours after we started!!!  It should have only taken us 5 hours.  What a day!

The shower was a lot of fun and Danielle is a beautiful mom-to-be.  We got to reconnect with long-time friends; Holle, Cynthia(who named her daughter, Danielle after my Danielle), Tricia-one of my best-friends and her daughter, Kristin-Danielle's best friend in the elementary years and family; Nate's mom(she rode along with us on our great motorhome adventure)Nate's grandma, Nate's aunt Maria, cousins, Kacie and Kristin, Danielle's cousin's fiance, Tonya, my sister Dawn, my mom, my dad's wife Jean, my sister-in-law Kathleen, my nieces, Angela, Brie and Cassidy.  The highlight was a poopy diaper game!  The faces were priceless as they were smelling the diapers to determine what kind of candy bar the baby most likely ate to leave that little mess in the diaper.  The cake was so cute.  Thanks to Vanlatte Cakes.  Danielle got a lot of cute things and many needed items. 

We had a great night hanging around the house watching the USC football game and eating pizza from Nello's.  The next morning, we headed out to Nate's uncle's house in Mesa to pick up his mom who stayed out there with her mom, for some breakfast and to visit.  Again, Dwight and Nate enjoyed watching some football.  Then it was back to my brother, Tim's house to see him and the girls and my mom.  It's so sad to say goodbye.  The weekend went by so quick compared to our trip over.

We are heading home.  All is going smooth when, boom!!!  We have a flat tire about an hour and a half into our drive.  Again out in the middle of nowhere because the drive from Arizona to California on the I10 is all desert.  We were able to drive 40-45 mph and got into the next town only to find out there were NO tire repair places open.  Thank goodness for cell phones and remote coverage.  We started calling for tire repair companies and found one that answered their phone only to ask a guy if he wanted to change a tire on an RV and we hear him say in the background "NO" and we were then told that they would be open the following morning at 5am.   We were finally able to locate a tow truck company with a mechanic who would change the tire for us.  $120 for the tire change!!  We drive the additional 25 miles to save $$ for them to come to us and who knows how long that would have taken.  So 7 hours later we arrived home safe and sound!!! A memorable weekend and as Danielle said, a story to tell baby Mason one day of the Motorhome adventure to his first baby shower!