THE NOT SO GREAT PART OF THE TRIP.......

Sooooo.....I said I would post the ridiculous part of our trip.....SERIOUSLY, we had the dumbest of luck. If it could go wrong it did. Well....almost. The car didn't have to be towed, that was a VERY good thing and no one was injured (except the part where I almost murdered Tyler.....really, I did!) And in fairness....not all of the stuff was actually "something wrong" but it was stupid and annoying! I apologize in advance for the lengthy post but this is my journal of sorts and I'm only writing about this fiasco once!

So, lets start off with....I am a time freak. I HATE being off schedule and I HATE being late and don't much appreciate anyone else who is late.....it's rude! So problem #1 just got me off to a bad start! Anyway...

Problem #1 TRAFFIC

We left the house and got to the Pioneer Crossing to see it backed up. I mean WAY backed up. It took us an hour to get about 3 miles. We finally got off and took the Frontage rd. By then we had to eat and of course we had to argue as to where to eat. Keep in mind, we aren't even out of Utah county and it's already 6:30. We left at 4! SERIOUSLY....I was annoyed!

Problem #2 HEADLIGHTS

We leave Orem and get all the way to Provo (about 2 miles for you that live out of state) and realize Kim has a headlight out. We go to the nearest Checker to get a new one and find out....NO CHECKER. It is now a Radio Shack. YIKES. As Dave is looking up where the next closest auto parts store is, Kim decides to pull a Fonzie and hit the headlight......WaLa, it comes back on. Problem solved...we decide to just tighten some stuff and be on our way.

problem #3 THE STUPID GPS

the thing is supposed to make the trip easier, faster, don't get yourself lost...right? Well, technically, we didn't get lost but the darn thing has to take us in the most round-about, crazy way possible to the condo. We even went through some apartment parking lots! When it's 11 PM, that is REALLY annoying! It's a good thing Dave turned the voice off.....I think I would hit the thing if I had to listen to "turn left here" no....."rerouting"......"turn right in 50 feet"...etc!

After 7 hours we finally make it to St George for the night. That should have been a 4 hour drive at most!

Drive day two....

Problem #4 SEATBELTS

So I have to preface this by saying Tyler had been told to put his sealtbelt on about a zillion times! He just doesn't do it when he is in the back.....says he "forgets". Well I'm pretty sure he wont forget again! We get to the "do you have any fruit or plants in your car" checkpoint. Now lets just talk about that for a second.....it's about the dumbest checkpoint there is. Why in the world would you actually tell them you have fruit? It's not like they search the car.....UNLESS you say yes. Then I guess they search the entire car.....cuz you could be lying about "how much" you really have and all. See... one would not want to get in too much trouble so they will say they only have 1 orange when actually they have 10 so the "fruit cops" have to pull everything out and make sure you really don't have more. (can you hear the annoyance I have with this particular check point?) Well we roll through and the lady on the right barely gets your little question out and waves us by but Dave happens to turn to the left and there is a cop stopping us. He asks where we are going....."Disneyland" He smirks and says "well it appears that your child isn't restrained....how old are your kids?" Dave and I both flip our heads around and look at Tyler. We are asked why he is not in belt and he says "Uh, I guess I forgot" The cop then asks how old our children are again and for our licence, registration....you know the drill. I start bawling. No one in the car dares say a word to me.....they realize I have just reached my breaking point with this darn drive! We wait for him to come back.....hoping for a warning but knowing it is taking too long for that. He comes to the window and asks Tyler's age again.....didn't we just answer that TWICE??? Dave gets the ticket and we drive on in silence. That is until we get to Baker......

Problem #5 TAIL LIGHTS and WIPERS

See, before the "child endangerment" ticket....I look up and realize we have no left blinker or brake light. Try driving through LA traffic without being able to signal.....NOT. We have to find an auto parts store.....again...refer to problem #2.....and replace these things. That is where I officially blew up. Kim had to actually take me behind the car and remind me that I was acting like a fool and to chill out. It actually worked for a few minutes but then I got mad and blew up at Dave. (I kind have a temper from time to time.....my sister's aren't allowed to comment on this statement!) We sat in the parking lot and argued for 30 minutes.....ya that was fun! Apparently Kim thought she had solved the problem and told Ty he needed to thank her and his response was"if you think for one minute that your little talk calmed my mom down.....YOU'RE WRONG"! I actually had to laugh at that......I was pretty ticked! I really should spend more time describing this scene to you but I am still a bit ticked about it so I will just move on! Oh and Kim's car needed new wipers. At least we got to deal with two problems in one stop!

Problem #6 FORGETTING THE IMPORTANT STUFF

We are pretty tired of driving by now and just want to get to the condo but we discovered that we didn't have the WII sensor. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal.....just don't play. But the kids were getting WII games that night and we HAD to have a sensor. So we try to find a Walmart. I realized that Target is the store of choice in Cali but after a few wrong turns and missed exits....we finally found one. That was an experience. We were there on Christmas Eve in LA....we were probably the only white folk in the store. I wouldn't let Lys out of my site. Even when I turned my head just long enough to get the sensor out of the locked cabinet....she had some guy ask her if she was a "balla" (that is LA talk for do you play basketball) and then go relay the information to his son. (lys tells is much better than that though) We did get the LAST sensor though....whew!

Problem #7 DINNER

We get to the room and were SO ready to eat. We carefully planned our trip and brought along food to cook in the condo....the problem was this room only had a small microwave, not a full kitchen like to thought. Taco salad was not going to work. I panicked at first....it was 7 PM on Christmas Eve.....I was sure nothing would be open. It certainly isn't at home. BUT, alas....this is Anaheim......the Christmas destination of the west so of course places were open. New plan....pizza! I thought the kids would be horrified at the not so "Christmasy" dinner but they were just fine with it! Crisis averted!

BREAK IN THE "ADVENTURE" FOR 2 DAYS OF DISNEYLAND FUN!!!!
then the drive home..........here we go again!

Problem #8 TRAFFIC....again!

OK....so apparently it is NOT a good idea to drive home the Monday after Christmas weekend! We decided the night before to go ahead and stop in Vegas rather then drive all the way home in one day. That would allow us to sleep in a bit on Monday so we would be rested for the trip. It's a dang good thing we did! The traffic was horrendous! I am talking bumper to bumper all the way from LA. There were times we were going 25 on the highway. I have never seen it like that. I get really really car sick so after about an hour I told Dave to pull off, I was going to drive. Now you know I must have felt awful because I wouldn't "choose" to drive in that mess at all.....let alone in California......but I was going to start throwing up if I didn't. I was sure the traffic would let up soon.....NOT! A few little highlights, if you want to call them that, on this leg of trip.......we got a good laugh as we passed the "do you have fruit in your car" checkpoint. Ty doesn't yet see the humor in it since he now has a ticket to pay! We also learned that the 10 commandments are posted on the side of the freeway. No really, I'm serious! They are signs.....like those political ones that say vote for so and so. We were going so dang slow that we had time to read them, think about it, and talk about it before we got to the next one. I can't help but wonder who's idea it was to put those there anyway! Somewhere between Victorville and Baker we finally make it to a rest stop to use the bathroom. Lys and I were dying. Well apparently....SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE......

Problem #9 THE REST STOP

I have never seen anything like it....really! Everyone was pulling off. This rest stop was in the middle of no where....which mean there was no where else to go potty! The cars are backed up the entire length of the off ramp trying to park. When you finally do get to the parking lot you see the line to the women's bathroom all the way to the curb. It was a 45 min wait! The men, now that was interesting....they decided to forget the line and just pee in the lawn along the fence. How would it be??? It's a good thing it was dark! Ashlee and Brandon are in the car playing on the computer while they waited and we didn't realize this would drain our car battery. (they had them plugged in since their batteries had long since died) We are ready to go and.......OOPS....the van won't start. I feel the panic rising in my chest. Kim and Darren had left and the jumper cables were not in the car. (why exactly was that??? We have two sets and they are always under the back seat but not today...ugh) I tell myself it's OK.....after all, there are HUNDREDS of people around. Well, either no one had cable or everyone was just too rude to help! It took maybe 15 min to find someone to jump us. The car starts, crisis averted and we are on our way again. Still two hours to go and it's 5 PM. By now it's getting cold so I turn the heater on.....NO HEAT! Oh, not only don't we have heat but the air conditioner is stuck on. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I think I laughed but Dave may say different! It wasn't "too" bad to Vegas but the trip from Vegas home was SO SO cold! Thank you Darren for letting me ride with Kim so I wasn't so cold. But poor Dave is now sick with the flu/ cold like stuff. Probably from driving in an ice cube! You are all gonna ask what happened.....we don't know. We tried everything...change fuses, relays, etc. Disconnect the battery. Bang on a few thing....yell at the car.....nothing worked. We are now taking it in for what I suspect will be a very costly electrical repair. NICE!

We finally make it to Vegas......NINE HOURS LATER! I am sick of the drive, sick of the cold and sick of fast food and guess what......Emily and I start planning the next trip with the entire Toombs family. No matter how bad the travel was....and it was bad.....Disney is just the place to be!

THE END