it has begun. the start was a bit touch and go at first. but we made it. that's really all that matters at this point. we had to make two stops on our way out of town. smiths for chips, gas, firewood, and ice...the essentials. and alliance (aka "shitty") property management to drop off my rent and 3, yes i said THREE, maintenance request forms. i've already called them but we like to keep things formal. see this blog.wait. where was i? i got off track. happens a lot lately. anyway. we're at smith's. jaymee's gassin' up and i come out of the store with the wood, ice, etc to notice a VERY flat tire on the element. damn it. jaymee got so mad she kicked her shoes off at the car. we filled up the tire and headed down the block to the les schwab. those boys fixed 'er right up. and for free. man. we are cool. and people know it. they reward us for it.
then we were off. only to be punished yet again. in lehi we came upon a plethora of vehicles without a plethora of speed. bad combination. but we waited. we tried to be patient about it. jaymee did the fist pump to neighboring cars. you know. the signal that most 8 year olds give to truckers. yeah. she was just doing that to your every day motorists. one smoker dude gave her a smile. no honk. but a smile. brightened her day just the same. we eventually made it to the head of the issue. a brokedown pick up in the center lane. bad form dude. i don't know what i expected him to do. but something. at least.then it was off to kranky franks. we didn't take a single picture this time. but we stopped. you didn't think we wouldn't. did you? if so, you underestimate us. the man of the house was working again. we asked about his wife. again. we haven't seen her since the very first time we stopped. we were looking for the liquor store that time. kinda how we found the place. i think she was appalled by our "unruliness". the look on her face said "how can grown women act in such a way?" but by the time we had eaten our wieners, taken pictures, and left i think she realized that we are grown only in body, not spirit. we bid sir kranky frank farewell and asked him to give his wife our best.
then. less than an hour later. there we were. minding our own business. driving down the freeway at a healthy 85mph when the convulsions began. i thought jaymee was going into epileptic shock. not to worry. she was fine. overcome with uncontrollable joy and excitement. but fine. she was checking facebook on her phone. she found this:
Kranky Franks--Springville, Utah Just wanted to tell the ladies from Ogden. We are always so excited to have you come in and eat--Thanks for coming by. I hope the next time I am there so you don't think of me as the Kranky old lady. Hahahahaha Enjoy southern Utah ladies.
at this moment the road trip officially began. we took the traditional "this road trip begins NOW" picture. we were laughing. happy. spilling boxes of whoppers. yeah. we were in adventure mode. we were honored to have been given such a shout out by our dearest mrs. kranky frank. i hope we get to see her next time.after these joyful moments of laughter we made crazy fast time on the freeway (no mommy, i wasn't speeding....that much). we got to bryce canyon national park promptly at 7pm. only to find that a rodeo was starting in the city of bryce AND the campgrounds were both full in the park. damn it. i really wanted to go to that darned rodeo. oh well. we live in utah. there's plenty more hick where that came from. we called ahead to escalante. our back-up plan. they had a campsite just for us. "get here when you do. if we're not in the shop, set up your camp and we'll settle up in the morning. camp where you want. there's towels in the shower house. make yourself right at home." steve was good to us from the start.
there we were. leaving bryce only 10 minutes after our arrival. there wasn't much for us there considering the circumstances. we'll be back sunday. on our way out of the park we saw a family by the park sign taking the token tourist photo. there were three kids. all perched in their chosen places atop the sign. mom was taking the photo as dad looked on. barely slowing i pulled over to do a 180 degree turn in direction. "mom and dad need to be in the picture too. they need someone to take it and we're just the people to do it." i explained to jaymee. she agreed. when we pulled in they explained that someone before us had taken the full family photo. but since we had gone to the trouble of turning around just for them they posed for just one more. made us feel good. as the family left another arrived. they had a dog that they lovingly referred to as "poopy". still not sure if that was really his/her name or not. we'll go with it. they took some great photos for us. we honked at them when we passed them pulled over later down the highway. we make friends everywhere. people love us. we ARE cool.we got to escalante. the campground was all we hoped for. and more. steve entertained us in the store while the lady next door got our pizza cooked. we invited him out to our tent site for a beer. he told us he just might take us up on that one. i love this guy. turns out he owns the joint. maybe tomorrow he'll sit around the campfire and sing kumbaya with us. you never know.
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