A broken car, a short night, and a train ride

First of all, let me start out by saying that I had a wonderful weekend. On Friday after getting home, I went and played soccer with some pretty awesome friends. Then, I woke up Saturday morning with my brother Stephen telling me to get up so we could go play in a futsol tournament at BYU-I. That was so much fun, even if we didn't get that far in the tournament. We played two games to determine our seeding in the tourney (we lost one, and then won one), and then after getting our seed, we played our first game and won! It was pretty exciting seeing that the team was thrown together the night before.There were some amazing players on the team, so I didn't feel like I did a lot, but it was great to be a part of. We lost our next game to the team that won it all, and we only lost by one! So that was pretty neat. The rest of Saturday was pretty chill, and on Sunday my brother and I went to our home ward to listen to a farewell of a good friend of ours. After church and an amazing dinner (homemade lasagna really hits the spot) we (Stephen, my roommate, and I) headed out. This is where stuff gets interesting.

So Stephen and I talked most of the time while Kacy napped in the back.

(Stephen in all his cool-ness. Aka, he has some sweet shades)

After passing Pocatello, our conversation kind of died. I decided to do some stuff on my laptop and Kacy... I have no idea what she was doing. Anyway, the farther we headed down the road, the worse the roads got. Stephen went to pass someone, and of course slush was kicked up all over the place from crossing over the dotted line, and a few minutes later Stephen noticed our once three-quarter full tank was now at empty. After Stephen vocalized this, we all kinda looked at each other and were like Oh crap. We debated for a bit, wondering whether to try and make it to Tremonton (we were just over the border), but the needle continued to drop lower. We pulled off the freeway into a middle of no where (literally, I don't think there was even a name for it) and Stephen hopped out to check under the car. At this point, the smell of gas was pretty strong, so we knew it wasn't just the gauge that was broken. We drove back on the freeway and were only going around 40 mph due to the road conditions, so we knew there was no way we would make it to Tremonton. We had to find a gas station as soon as possible. And we did. In Plymouth, Utah. We had just gone under the over pass on our way to the Sinclair just off the I-15 and the car just stopped. Great. So we attempted to push it. This was pretty much how it went:

For some reason, I found it quite hilarious. Either the fact that we were so close to the gas station and there was no way we were going to make it, or because Stephen wanted to wring my neck. Both were pretty comical. 

Any way, we eventually gave up because we kept losing our footing, and man it was cold. And snowing, which definitely didn't help. Stephen ran to the gas station and was able to borrow a 2 gallon gas container from a nice trucker guy, and we got enough gas in there to get it started and to the gas station. While Stephen called Mom, who was doing her duty and being extremely worried, I filled up the tank with about 4 more gallons. We were hoping to attempt to gas station hop our way back to Provo, but we soon found out that wasn't going to work. Stephen started the car and checked underneath and look what surprise we found!

I don't know if you can tell, but that is a very large puddle of gas. Bad news: Beula popped an artery. More bad news: no one around was a cardiologist, so we resorted to trying to find a ride back to Provo. Luckily, we had a cousin who lived in Logan who was oh-so-kind to come and pick us up. Meanwhile, we had to wait inside the gas station for about two hours. Let the waiting begin.

So that's my roommate. You see those shoes? Ya those are Stephen's. Kacy only had some flats and Stephen who had like three pairs of shoes (he's such a girl... haha) lent her his. They look pretty funny, but hey they worked. And I think Kacy became kinda partial to them. Second thing about this picture. What she's doing... she's looking at her phone, which is plugged into the wall by that pop machine. And the process to find that outlet, at least for me, was a little embarrassing. So we looked around Subway thinking that they would have an outlet that we could plug our phones into. Nope. Nothing that we could see at least. And then I got this brilliant idea to look behind that big cupboard thing and, wouldn't you know it, there was an outlet behind there. The problem was plugging it in. This definitely wasn't one of my finest moments, but I tried to squeeze behind that pop cupboard and plug it in. I was to determined to get that thing in the wall because I was so close. And the result was me almost getting my head stuck back there while my legs were flailing trying to get traction on the ground. This was when a wonderful employee came by and noticed my distress and allowed Kacy to use an outlet in the office. I got unstuck and to my distaste, Stephen had video taped all of that. Well that's just great. I guess if you really wanna see it, you can ask him. But we found an outlet a little later. Right on top of the cupboard. My attempt was in vain, but hey, I guess I provided for some good entertainment! :)

 It was starting to get pretty late, and the condition of the roads was pretty bad, so after making some calls we arranged to stay at my other cousin's house near Ogden. My first cousin finally got there and we headed out. At this point, I need to express my gratitude for my cousins. They were really wonderful to get us out of that bind and go out of their way to taxi us, feed us, and house us. We would still be at a little gas station in the middle of no where if it wasn't for them. 

That night we decided to take the Frontrunner from Salt Lake where my cousin-in-law worked to Orem where my cousin could pick us up. That would mean getting up at 5:30 in the morning. Ew. Definitely not a morning person. Anyway, after having a fun night with the cousins, we went to bed. We hitched a ride to Salt Lake, which took longer than expected because of the road conditions, and were dropped off at the UTA station. 

At this point I felt like a homeless person. We had our bags thrown on the bench, and we were all huddled around this tall, lamp-post-heater thing. It was like sitting around, having a causal conversation around a fire in a garbage can. Yup, definitely felt homeless. Anywho, we waited around for almost an hour (because our train was delayed. Of course.) and finally boarded around 8:20. The trip took about an hour because of all the stops on the way. Thankfully, we got picked up around 9:20 by another oh-so-wonderful cousin and were dropped off at our apartments. I then had to leave for class 40 minutes later, and, well, here I am! This over here --> is some cool drawing that was drawn on the glass of the canopy thingy. I thought it was pretty great and should be shared haha :)

Well, that was my adventure. I'm really tired, and kinda sore but hey, it could have been waaaay worse. And the experience really wasn't that bad. I never got anxious or worried; to be honest, I was pretty calm the entire time. Sometimes even laughing :) I feel so blessed. Really. The car could have stopped while on the freeway, and that would have been a whole different predicament. And the gas leak could have been elsewhere and started a fire, and I might not be here right now. So I am extremely grateful for the safety and protection God has granted me. I have amazing friends and family who love me, and were there every step of the way. And to look at the bright side, I got to ride a really fast train :)