{Spring Break 2015}

 Day 2: We get up and leave Flagstaff comfortably early with the hopes that we will make it to Albuquerque, New Mexico sometime that afternoon.  We all laughed when we saw a campground within 3 minutes of our hotel, we were so close! As we leave I tell the boys that we are going to try to stick to the road a little more today so that we can make it to Albuquerque sooner rather than later, but soon I find something interesting and we are off the beaten path.  I saw a sign for Meteor Crater about 25 miles east of Flagstaff.  

Within 5 minutes of turning off I-40 my car starts to make some strange noises.  I stop the car and at first when the car isn't in drive the noise stops, but once I start driving again the noise starts again.  Once I get to the Meteor Crater I get on the phone and start making some phone calls...no one has any suggestions.  There was even an onlooker that stopped to listen and he thought it might be my radiator making that noise.  We didn't even look at the crater, it would have been $50 for all of us to go to the observation deck, we just got back on the road.  We I got back to I-40 I had a choice to make, I could head back to Flagstaff, I knew how far away that was and that there would be people there to fix my car.  Or, I could head east toward New Mexico.  After a family prayer we headed East.  After taking a stop at a roadside rest stop and another prayer, I had direction.  There were people emptying the trash and I knew they would tell me what to do.  Both were from the area and told me to head to Winslow, about 15 miles away.  I knew I could make it 15 miles! 

James made all kinds of games with tires while we were waiting.

When we got there...it was a ghost town.  Everything was closed and I was so grateful I had listened to those promptings to reach out for help.  We pulled up to O'Haco Tire & Auto to get some answers and they were able to get us right in.  An hour later we were on the road again with a piece of the a/c sitting in the front seat and instructions not to use the a/c until I can replace the entire unit.  According to the technician it was normal wear and tare and a piece of the a/c had just fallen off and was rubbing up against a belt in the engine.  He said as long as I don't use the a/c I should be fine to drive as much as I wanted...so I did.

 It was a lot easier to stick on the road with the impending doom of my entire engine on my mind.  We were so happy to see Rich and Katie and headed to the park to get all that built up energy let go.  The Mariposa Basin Park was just perfect.  The boys got to feed the geese and play in the play area and I got to talk to adults.

Thankfully we had plenty of bread in the car to share.