Really on the Road

Well, the day has come. Ron and Irene set out for Bonneville on Monday. Derrick, Grady and I are flying out tomorrow night. It has been an adventure so far. On Sunday afternoon we discovered that someone broke into our trailer and stole the air compressor, generator, air conditioner and impact wrench.

Much of Sunday and Monday was spent trying to replace these items. The weather reports for Utah are in the mid 90's and Derrick thought ahead, fitting a portable air conditioner to the work trailer so we can tune out of the heat. Well when I tried to find the same model I was out of luck. Home Depot is the only place that carries them and they have been out for months. They said the season is over, they are stocking heaters now. It's 95 degrees in Chicago today. This is why I will never be a business person. Anyhow, the guys had to configure a special port for the new air conditioner, but they got it all squared away and my parents got on the road that night.

All was well until Tuesday night. They stopped for Gas in North Platte Utah and my mom heard a horrible sound coming from the engine of the motorhome. The fan had come loose and destroyed the serpentine belt. Thankfully they were not too far from a Caterpillar dealer. The motorhome is being fixed as we speak, but they estimated it to be a 15 hour job. In the meantime, my parents decided to take in the sights.

What's in North Platte you ask? Well the world's largest switching station, of course. Union Pacific's Ed H. Bailey Switching Yard is where the east and west train lines meet. It sees 10,000 cars a day on nearly 2850 acres. That's the size of 3250 football fields! And there's a corn maize. I know you are all planning your 2011 vacations as we speak.

A huge extra special thanks to the guys at the North Platte Catapillar dealer who worked tirelessly to get my parents back on the road. The really went out of their way to try and get them to Bonneville on time to meet us.

More updates to come, both here and on facebook.

-Wendy