Life Is A Highway...

I love our Honda Odyssey, have I mentioned that before? Seriously, it is so nice and comfortable. This morning as we packed every square inch of it with things we have acquired (from camping, weddings, birthdays etc) I still knew that it would be a relatively comfortable trip to Cali. As we pulled out of my parents neighborhood Kennedy parts the piles of stuff she is buried under in the back and asks, "Is that thing on top going to slide off?" Thinking she was worrying needlessly about the topper I started to answer her when Nathan slowed the van and pulled over saying to himself, "Geez you've got to be kidding me..." I was surprised when he thanked Kenna for reminding him and got out of the car to strap the topper down. Yeah, that wouldn't have been good.

Anyway, there we were a few hours later somewhere -or rather nowhere- in Nevada. I was driving while Nathan (jet lagged from his trip back from Taiwan yesterday) rested. We were cruising along on the gently rolling hills of the asphalt ocean that is I-80. I was singing my heart out to my favorite tunes on my iPod feeling like, dang I sound good- even though I can't hear my own voice with the buds filling my ears with perfectly pitched professionals. It was 103 degrees outside but what did I care? we were comfortable in our well air conditioned slice of heaven-in-motion. My little utopia was suddenly given a reality check when the gas light decided to rear it's ugly head.

This shouldn't be a huge deal, but last week we had new tires and wheels put on the van -for all you nonmechanical people out there yes, those are two different things- which is a whole different drama in and of itself. But since the switch a few quirky things had been happening. I noticed that the one time the gas light had come on the digital read out said Range: 44 miles which was totally normal. Then in a matter of about 10 miles it told me that the Range was 0 miles...not normal. It is usually perfectly accurate and thankfully has a generous buffer after we hit Range:0 miles. But in light of what happened last time we were worried. Nathan and I watched nervously as the digital miles before the big "E" dropped like el-bees off the Biggest Loser, and we were down to zero in about 10 minutes. Not good.

About twenty minutes later my worst (immediate) fear was realized when the gas ran out. I hit the flashers and aimed for a big gravel spot off the shoulder. Now all of a sudden the 103 degree weather was serious and we rolled down the windows and put the sun shade up in the windshield which worked all right. I had visions of Nathan hitchhiking into the nearest town -which was a mere 8 miles away- but in a matter of minutes Nathan had found a towing company who brought out some gas. It was the cleanest tow truck either of us had ever seen and the gentleman was super friendly and did his best to make us feel less stupid. He said that it was a long stretch and a gas station about midway that had been open for 50 years had burned down and so people who think they can fill up there get a not so nice surprise. He also said our tires could totally mess with the system so it tells us we have more gas then we really do.

Anyway, it was an expensive fill up but quite a little adventure seeing as it was a first for both Nathan and I. Good times. You know you are jealous, and if you aren't by now then I will just throw in that after we filled up we were back on the freeway all of 5 minutes before traffic came to a complete standstill due to an accident somewhere up ahead. We waited an hour before things started to move. So yeah, those are just a few "adventures" from our day. I am sure there will be more to come soon. Here is a pic of "Belle" on her thrown she made, with her dog "Rootbeer" resting in her lap, before the mean witch made them get their pj's on and go to bed.