My trip...so far....

WOW what a trip it has been...the first 18 hours were just insane. On Tuesday Perkins took me to the airport and we arrived 3 hours early. This is the beginning of my waiting for the entire day. My first flight took off at 12:30 from San Francisco to La La Land. Arrive at 1:50 and leave LAX to Denver at 4pm. I arrive in Denver 30 min early around 7pm. My flight left from Denver left at 9:24. I arrived in Bismarck at 11:30pm. I turned on my phone and checked facebook. Lacey has it updated that it says she hit a raccoon. uh oh! I got nervous that something was wrong.

I called Lacey to let her know we had arrived. She said you have got to be kidding me you are here already? She was stuck about 40 min from the airport at the rest area. She said she hit the raccoon and now her car was over heating. My parents left the house to come pick up Lacey and then get me. Lacey had come to get me so my parents could sleep since mom gets up at 4am every day.


I get my suitcase and Lacey said it would be about an hour until they arrived. This is very typical I have NEVER been picked up in 4 1/2 years on time. I always have to wait or there is some type of ruckus each time I arrive.

Everyone left the airport except me and one other guy. We were both waiting for our rides. Security comes up to me and asked when my ride would be arriving. I said in about 30-40 minutes. He said well I am locking up in 10 minutes. I said the airport? He said yes, we are closing. WHAT?!?!?!? who locks the airport? He wanted to know where my ride was coming from...I told him Beulah. He said well they won't be able to get here because it's flooded, so you better take a taxi some place. What a rude dude! Well finally after 10-15 minutes I got a taxi and went to the nearest 24 restaurant. I go strolling in with my suitcase. I waited there for about 30 minutes.

My parents and Lacey arrived to pick me up. We drove home and stop to see the car on the way. My dad thought the radiator hose was just broke and he would come pick it up the next day. Oh boy here is where the rest of the story gets insane.

On Wednesday mom calls to tell us to be ready by noon to go meet dad & the police at the rest area. In North Dakota if you hit an animal you have to call the county police to have a sticker place on your car. Lacey ended up having to call the State Police! The state police said to call them only if there was more than $1,000 worth of damage.

Dad calls and tells us to leave the house...this is at 11:30am. Lacey and I threw on clothes. I put a little make up on and threw my hair in a ponytail. We had to go to town to get gas in the spare car. We called dad once we were almost at the rest area. He did not sound very happy and hung up on Lacey. I called dad back and he said he was having issues with the trailer.

We arrived at the rest area to wait. Dad calls us to say he is on his way and it would be about 30 minutes. Lacey and I were starving at this point, so we decided to go to the next town 10 minutes away to get something for lunch. We also wanted to get dad some food so he would be in a good mood :)

Well as we are driving and I looked at the gages and the car is OVER HEATING!!!!!! I told Lacey to pull over and I cranked on the heat. I called dad and said I don't even know what to say at this point, but we are stranded in New Salem with the car over heating. He kind of laughed and said you have got to be kidding me. He said don't move and I will be right there.

The sheriff pulls up behind us with his lights on. Lacey gets all upset and I told her I would talk to the cop. I let him know our dad was on the way to help us and our car was over heating. He was super nice and said ok I just wanted to make sure you girls were ok.

My dad arrives and he put water in the car. We parked it at nearest gas station and jumped in with dad to go pick up Lacey's car. By this time it's 1pm. Dad got the trailer all ready and started to drive the car on the trailer. Well with the weight the ramps started to come up and hit the bottom of the car. Lacey gets a great idea. How about she drives the car onto the trailer and dad would stand on the ramps. My stomach was KILLING me thinking of this and what could go wrong.

Well it worked....Dad jumped off the ramps just in time for Lacey to pull the car the rest of the way on. Dad strapped the car down and we took off to get the other car. Dad put more water in the car and we had to watch the heat gage. Off the road we went.

Thank God that everything was going according to plan. We drove to Hazen to drop off the car at the mechanics. I told mom to meet us ASAP to take me home. I didn't want to see anyone this grubby!

Turns out Lacey entire radiator and condenser...something else is wrong too, but I don't know all these car terms. One raccoon caused such a ruckus for 18 hours.