Day 1 - Ya'all come back now hear

Greetings from deep in the heart of Texas...

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ya'all ready for some stories.... Go get a cup of something, sit down and hang on...
its gonna be a crazy ride...

Why does the craziest shit happen to me? Where in hell do I begin?

Ahhhh yes... Saturday night...

You buckled in? Cuz here we go...

Saturday night we decided to leave because Kieffer had a practice at the National Monday morning...
Its a 20 hour drive.... so we hurried out the door at 8pm Saturday night... Gram Pam was at the house to watch the doggies... and they were happy... she also gave me some chocolate covered coffee beans from Starbucks... Can you say... WIRED me up!!! I was so happy because I can't drink energy drinks they make me sleepy... but let me tell you those chocolate covered coffee beans... oh boy... I was ready to drive ALL NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! Weeeeeeeeeee.... LOL

As we started to leave, the mapquest told us to back track to the 10 freeway 30 miles... downhill... then start heading to Texas and go up Chiraco Summit... I told Sam that was stupid... lets just go out by 29 Palms and then by Rice road to the 10 freeway, we will bypass Chiraco Summit... he agreed... it was a little sketchy because its a two lane road, out in the middle of NO WHERE... so if we broke down we would be screwed for long time!!!
Well we made it to the 10 freeway, no problems... Whoo hoo... about 2 hours into the trip... Sam decided he was tired and turned the driving over to me... which he NEVER does... so after about an hour he was happy enough with my driving the truck & trailer, he got in the back seat to go to sleep... [Its a crew cab]
So there I am... driving between Blythe, CA and Phoenix, AZ cruising along... BINGING on coffee beans... listening to my coasttocoast radio show... driving through the miles of nothing-ness at 1am in the morning... about an hour outside of Phoenix... I hear a WHAM... thunkity, thunk, thunkity thunk... yup... a tire blew on the trailer! Slowly... I drive to the next off ramp... to a one horse town called Tonopah... When I say the tire blew... I mean it Blew up! Sam said "Call AAA and see if they can have a tow truck come take the rim off and then we will take it into town in the morning and get another tire mounted... because the trailer is a dually... we don't have a spare..." I said "ok" WELL GUESS WHAT? Don't tell AAA you don't have a spare because they WONT come take a rim off!!! WTH? So Sam says "Well lets try to get some sleep and lets deal with it in the morning"...

Now let me explain the sleeping arrangements with all of you... Kieffer is snuggled into his bunk in the trailer... but Sam and I cant go sleep in our bed because there are 4 race bikes and a golf cart in our area of the trailer! So, I get the front seat of the truck and Sam has the backseat... so there I am... a wired up on coffee beans mess, trying to get some sleep, while two seatbelt things are digging into my back.... I laid there playing my "It could be worse game"

"Ok... this situation totally sucks but it could be worse.... it could have happened on that 29 Palms highway out in the middle of no where... that would be worse! It could have happened on the 10 freeway in the middle of no where... ok that would be worse... semi's flying by all night!!.... it could have made the trailer sway and tip over... that would be worse..."

At 4am, I am still lying awake trying to talk to myself... "Kendra... life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it... I know... but I could be in New Mexico by now... Kendra you need to calm down...everything happens for a reason... I know but THIS SUCKS!!! Kendra... go to sleep... I WISH I COULD... GD COFFEE BEANS!!!"

Finally I fell asleep but woke up when the sun came up... Sam went into the Shell station and got the number of an emergency tire guy...

thank you... thank you... thank you...

He had to wait for the tire store to open to pick up the size tires we needed...Sam had decided to change both tires on that side of the trailer

[Now if Arizona changed their clocks like the rest of the civilized world... we wouldn't have had to wait for an hour right?]

So we headed over to the only other place of business in Tonopah...
"The Family Restaurant" for breakfast... [This place is NOT a family restaurant, its a long forgotten truck stop maybe!]

Ok remember Flo from Mel's diner? "Kiss my grits"... that is who the waitress reminds me of... she has a name tag on... It says... I swear to God,I can't make this shit up!

Her name tag says "Love Bug" so I said "Is that your real name?" "Uh huh, I have a sister named Lady, a brother named Jitter, a brother named Doodle, and I even have a cousin named Stink... I had sadistic parents..." and she wanders off... It took me a minute to get the names... its the blonde in me... "Oh I get it... Doodle Bug, Lady Bug... etc..." Kieffer laughed at how long it took me to get that... We find out she was kidding... Her name is really "Cher"...

WHATEVER...

I guess in a one horse town like that you gotta get your kicks somehow...

As we are eating, I am daydreaming out the window... looking at the trailer... when I realize something... "Uh... Sam... is that a spare tire under the trailer?" he looks and say "Oh my God!" and then I did something Kieffer will never let me forget... I let the "F" word fly out of my mouth...I said "Awwwww FUCK" Kieffer says "MOM! We are in a FAMILY restaurant!"

"Sure it is Kieffer... where are all the families then?"

So long story... a little bit longer... there was a reason I didn't see the spare tire sooner... it was because all the tires on the trailer had sun rot and ALL of them had to be replaced...

By 10am on Sunday morning we were on the road again...

We had less than 24 hours to get to Lake Whitney Texas...

See EVERYTHING does happen for a reason!

Even in a little town called Tonopah with Love Bug waitressing...

Oh brother... shaking my head...





Stay tuned for a bunch more stories...