Meanwhile... back at the ranch

Ok there are totally pictures, but I'm at my parents house and my usb hook up is at home, but I can't sleep so I figure I can write about the annual family outing to the ranch. As always the ranch never disappoints.

I came down to my parents house on Thursday night because I am currently not able to drive and heck, I'm not working for at least another 3 weeks so I'm pretty open on this where will I be and when will I be there -- provided I can find a ride. So mostly I sit at home.... But not this weekend, this weekend I sat in a cabin with family members roaming in and out. My mom had her list of things for my to do, and since it takes me a while to do anything these days, I spent most of Friday morning trying to round up stuff so we could leave quickly once those working folks showed up. Mid morning I get a call from my mother asking me how active I was planning on being at the ranch... ummm... I'm not. Great! Because my mom had just left a Dr. appointment and had been ordered to stay off her leg until some time in the future when the cellulitis wasn't causing her good leg to swell up worse than her bad leg. So I had my book picked out, I had a friend to talk to... my plans were set. Now if Lindsey and I could figure out how to pack all that crap in the pack of her car we'd be on our way... right after Tom mows the lawn...

Tom, Jecca, Bret and I took the CNG Cavelier, thanks to price control, natural gas is pretty inexpensive .86/gallon = 4.86/tank. We put some gasoline in the other tank as well, just to make sure we didn't run out.

Now, we've been to the ranch many times, but I haven't been in a couple years and the last time I drove was back in college... so my memory of the specifics on getting there are sketchy at best, no worries my father procured a map and a highlighter, which were able to get us as far as Glendale, so all we have to do is follow the dirt road for.... I think its more than 30 miles, but someone correct me if I am wrong. And make sure that we didn't take the road to Alton, which is a town that I'm not sure on the pronunciation because the A could be long or short and does it follow the same colloquial guidelines as Layton. I'm just not sure and niether were my parents. Anyway, with all this talk of Alton I knew I had to make sure to remember the unpronouncable town. So when we came to a sign around midnight that pointed to Alton and Kanab I sent my brother down the path to Alton. While on this road we were flagged down by a family who was driving on a flat in a suburban... away from Alton... who had a spare tire but no tire iron. Our tire iron didn't fit and we couldn't drive them Kanab. When we saw the lights of the majestic town I cursed under my breath (Bret was in the car) and had my brother turn around, blew right past the family in the suburban at 20 mph (any faster would have shook the car apart). I should mention that Tom had wanted to go the Kanab way in the first place.

Forty minutes after turning to Alton, we were back on the road to Kanab, and the car had switched from natural gas to unleaded gas and we rolled into the Ranch house around 1:00. We passed our parents, who were coming to look for us on the way in so all the important players are in place.

Mom asked us to honk our horn to wake someone up in the cabin. Tom refused so Mom did it anyway. Janie woke up and let us know we were in the right place. We're all pretty tired so we were going to unload the essentials, crash, and take care of the rest of it in the morning. Now we need to return to the fact that my mom has this infected leg that she was supposed to keep up and off of for days... and we all know she drove all the way down, so she's hurting pretty bad, and the leg isn't looking to good, and its about 2 in the morning.

"When these powers combine......" my mom tends to make decisions based on adrenaline. She needs to go home... now. So Tom and Bret unload the car we drove, let my dad know it was low on gas, and sent our parents on there way back to good ol' SLC, a 6 hour drive. He would be coming back because we needed the car to get everyone home, and the Ranch is Dad's most favorite place he's not going to miss it. Janie asked why we didn't wake her dad up and have him look at it... well met.

Now in case you are wondering, there isn't any cell phone service at the ranch or in the vacinity. It was around noon on Saturday when Ashley and Cody rolled in that we got the rest of the story....

Our parents run out of gas about 8 miles outside Glendale and had spent the night in the car. In the morning my dad decided the only thing he could do was hike out and get help, fortunately he had only walked about 3 miles before he ran into someone who was more helpful than his offspring were the previous night. The man not only had gas, but he also know how to fix the fuel line which had broken and poured gas on the dirt below (Cody and I agree that this mechanical failure is the only reason Tom is still alive today). I think my parents made it home without further incident. but my dad still had to drive back. He made it in around 6:00 am Sunday morning, just in time for fishing!

As a follow up, Mom's leg is doing much better. More stories to come.