drive, drive, drive.

It took a lot to get here in Provo. I was initially planning on leaving Thursday evening with Leslie and Erin but due to a few thing it didn't work out (also to Mum's delight). So I packed and packed and left the next afternoon to Fairfield. Once in Fairfield I helped the Martineaus scrub and paint all of their walls in their new house. (It looks gorgeous now, by the way! It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to cheer up a room.) Marie and I were planning on leaving Sunday morning at 10:20. Right after Louise's talk in sacrament meeting BUT we were having so much fun painting we decided we wanted to stay and extra day to help finish everything. Which we did. And we left Fairfield this morning at 6. Our drive was going very nicely. Marie's new car was running well and smoothly. No complaints. As we were entering Utah, Marie was telling me about her experience coming home and the great difficulties her car was giving her then; how it would break down, hours later randomly start up, break down again ten miles down the road. Just as she's explaining the important part we heard a small sound and then the car starting pulling to the side. Marie was afraid the steering went out and we slowed down and pulled over. Crossing my fingers I suggested that it was just a tire or something easy to deal with. I jumped out of the car and ran to the front to check. My side was ok. There is was. A flat tire on the front driver's side. Nice. Neither Marie or I had ever changed a tire before so we each called our mother's for moral support, found the part in the owner's manual that gives instructions to do it, and got to work. Mum told us that since the car is front-wheel drive we needed to put the spare in the back and move a good, normal tire up front. Yikes! That means double the work. It was a little rough at first but we figured it out and now Marie and I are masters at changing tires! In the beginning we decided to pop the hood and have it up so that maybe somebody would feel sorry for us and stop to see if they could help. No such luck. After we had it all figured out we decided to close it because it made us look even more foolish. Yes, so Marie changed the back tire, I changed the front, and our hands were filthy. Just as we finished packing everything back into the car a truck pulled over and a man asked us if we needed any assistance. Yes, twenty minutes ago. He had hand wipes, though, that he let us use. That was probably even more helpful than if he had changed our tire for us! We thanked him and got on our way again. 100 miles to Salt Lake City and then another 40 to Provo. All at 50 mph. It took a lifetime and we got lots of funny looks but we made it. Not as early as we were hoping but in one piece. To help pass time I pulled out my guitar and played. I don't know if she was just being polite but Marie said she enjoyed it and didn't mind. Well, let's see how many more adventures I can find before I make it up to Rexburg!