My Adventure in Oregon

My friend Carlene and I were supposed to drive down to Utah on Thursday.  She was going back to school at BYU and I was going to spend a week with my brother before leaving for Ecuador.  I spent the night at Carlene's Wednesday night so that we could take off early Thursday morning.  We woke up at 5 in the morning and left about 5:45.  Everything went smoothly until we hit Durkee, Oregon.  As we were driving up a fairly steep grade, the car overheated.  We exited off the freeway to let it cool.  We waited for about an hour before going on.  About a half hour later, it overheated again towards Farewell Bend which is in Huntington, Oregon.  We pulled over on the side of the freeway and this nice army man stopped and looked at our car.  He told us of a truck repair place not too far away so we waited for the car to cool again and were able to make it to the truck repair place without incident.  However, neither Carlene or I felt comfortable with the mechanic.  (He actually gave us the creeps and neither of us felt good about talking to him.)  So we called AAA to send a tow truck to pick us up.

The driver of the tow truck, Mike, took us to a car repair shop in Ontario, Oregon.  He was really nice and even offered to drive us to a hotel if we needed to stay the night there.  Kevin, the mechanic we talked to was a really nice guy and made sure that we were taken care of.  Actually, all of the mechanics there were very nice.  They looked at the car and found that the radiator was clogged and that we needed another one.  However, the place from where they would get the radiator was closed for the day as it was already 6 pm.  Kevin took us to a hotel for us to stay the night.

The next day, they put the new radiator in the car and we were on our way.  We went about 20 miles outside of Ontario and our car overheated again.  We had to call another tow truck to take us back to Ontario.  The mechanics couldn't figure out what was wrong at first until they found fluid leaking from underneath the car and they were able to find out that the water pump was busted.

I called my dad's cousin Bryce who lives in Boise to come and pick us up.  We stayed with him last night and were able to rent a car to drive to Salt Lake where my brother came and picked us up.

Through all of this, I have to admit that there were times where I did freak out and thought that I would be stranded in Oregon forever but I was pretty proud of the fact that for the most part I stayed relatively calm and rational.  I think it was all the nice people that helped us through this.  I wish that I could do something for everyone who was involved in this situation but I know that's not possible so, even though the majority of them will never read this, I wanted to put my thank you in writing:

• the many cars that stopped to see if we were ok the first time we overheated and we were too stubborn and proud to admit we needed help
• the army guy that stopped the second time and told us about the truck repair shop and who helped us put enough coolant and water in the car to make it there
• Mike, the tow truck driver who was so nice and personable and who offered to drive us to a hotel
• the second tow truck driver who came and rescued us on the side of the freeway on I-84
• the elderly couple who gave us a ride from the hotel back to the car repair shop when we had to check out of the hotel
• Bryce who came from Boise to pick us up and to his family for letting us stay the night at their house
• Carlene's dad for getting in touch with the bishopric in the Ontario area to send someone to meet us at the repair shop and for being willing to drive all the way to pick us up and take us the rest of the way to Provo
• the Conner's for coming and keeping us company at the car repair shop and for taking the car to their house and keeping it until Scott and Eric can decide what to do with it
• Eric and Scott who gave us advice and kept calling for updates and to see if we were ok
• Cheryl for worrying so much that she called Mom and Dad who then called me
• Mom and Dad for providing comfort even though they were in Austria and couldn't do much
• and lastly, Kevin, John, and Pat for working on the car and being so nice.  They worked so hard and even stayed late both Thursday and Friday to work on the car.  Especially Kevin who gave us a ride to the hotel and who called me Friday when he found out we were stuck on the side of the road again.  And for working so hard to make sure that we would be safe and wouldn't get stranded again.

I am so grateful for these wonderful people and for all the other wonderful people in my life.  I know that they will receive the blessings of heaven for their service.