Provo- Rexburg- Boise- Camas- Salem- Lincoln City

Here we are with our second vehicle (Dodge Caravan) which will hopefully last 5,000 miles. Sadly we spent most of our time in Provo chasing down cars and getting ready for the remaining part of our trip as well as our move to Uruguay. At least we had Sunday together with Megan and John. We look forward to our return in a few weeks to spend a more "leisurely" time with them.

On Monday while our car was being cleaned Bonnie and Megan started the set up of Megans new "office", her classroom where she will soon begin her teaching career. A lot of interior decorating, but even I must admit it made a big difference and had a more "pleasant" and "organized" feel to the room when they were done.

We had the car checked out by a Dodge dealer and picked it up Tuesday afternoon. After running around for a few last minute errands, we loaded it up and dropped by the previous owner's home to return his license plates. From there we left to get on the freeway- and then the next adventure began.

Although the van had been working just fine up to that moment, upon re-entering the freeway that day, it would not shift into overdrive. Then it began to overheat and then, deja vu, it began to smoke because there was oil leaking badly and being blown onto the hot exhaust. We got off the freeway and thanks to the new GPS found a transmission shop less than half a mile away. To make a long story short, we made many calls, had a very earnest prayer and upon returning to the freeway everything functioned the way it was supposed to.

We stopped in West Jordan to see the "house the Wetherbee's built" and met the current owners. It was fun to see the mature trees we had planted 30 years ago. We had some of the cherries. Sadly the almond trees had finally given up the ghost.

We made the rest of the trip to Rexburg without incident. , where we had a front crankshaft seal and a water pump replaced. Another blessing to be able to get right in and have it fixed the next morning and for a very reasonable rate. Reed, the mechanic/owner was a man of few words and when I thanked him for getting us right in all he had to say was, "Been there. Didn't like it".

We left for Twin Falls, ID that night and camped there so we could visit Shoshone falls (taller than Niagra falls).

We drove by the new Twin Falls temple, so we stopped and snapped our pictures in our nice Sunday Temple clothes before heading on to Boise where we had lunch and a terrific visit with Hope & Larry Fredrickson, friends of mine from Salem as a youth.

We made it to friends Dave & DeAnn Lee in Camas, WA (Portland, Or/Vancouver, WA area). Dave and I went out and killed a bunch of paper with his arsenal. As I suspected it is much harder to be very consistent when my vision makes the gun sights all blurry! I really enjoyed Dave's model 1911 .45 side arm. I may have to look for the Argentine version when we get to South America. We also enjoyed a nice boat ride where Bonnie got to ski and I got to pull a ham string trying to get out of the water. Alas, the ravages of age!

After church on Sunday we visited Sarah, her mother, Marcia, and Sarah's daughter Krysalynne, who was a little shy but is very rambunctious and will likely be very athletic. Beautiful blue eyes and a delightful laugh and smile.

We visited some other old Salem friends of mine, and had a very pleasant time with Dee and Janet Carlson as we caught up on kids and such.

We have finally arrived at Bonnie's parent's and visited several beaches and even waded into the near freezing water of the Oregon portion of the Pacific ocean. Definitely windy and cool. 60 degree weather when it is warm and 50's over night. Bonnie's sister, Shawna got in yesterday, Tuesday, with her daughter, Briana. Bonnie's brother, Steve, should arrive in a few hours with his family of four daughters. In the meantime, we are enjoying tasty Oregon blueberries and cherries as well as a wonderful local ice cream- Tillamook ice cream.

5 days since we left and about 5 weeks of adventure!

We enjoyed the July 4th BBQ at Chris & Kristie's place with all the grandkids (Kaori, Kyla, & Jordyn). We took off from Franktown Wednesday morning after a I got an hour of sleep from finishing packing the car. And it was a fine packing job if I say so myself! Lots of Tawnya, Megan, and Mindy stuff from the old house to drop off at their places.

Sadly, several miles past Rifle, CO (the ONLY city with that name in the USA, we learned!) another car pulled up alongside us to let us know we were smoking. When I pulled off and looked under the engine there was very badly burned (black) transmission fluid pouring out so fast, I had to quickly move out of way of the puddle that was already reaching the front of the car (yes there are still some things I can do quickly).

We got towed back to Rifle to a mechanic's shop that was able to get us right in. All the other places told us it would be several days before they would be able to get us in. Possibly even as long as next Monday, so we were grateful to find this shop owned by a Ford "die-hard".

He took a look at it when we got there and diagnosed the front seal as needing replacement (which requires removing the entire transmission while cradling the engine in place since the motor mounts are removed in the transmission removal process. In other words, hundreds of dollars for labor to replace an $18 seal. He also warned us replacing the seal wouldn't fix whatever had caused the pressure to build up. It could last a day or could last for the life of the vehicle. Rebuilding the transmission would have been three times as costly. I was leaning towards the rebuilding because of the badly burned state of the fluid (even the mechanic, Billy, said he'd never seen such badly burnt fluid), however, when we dropped the tranny pan it was clean as a whistle, not a piece of metal to be found anywhere, so I decided to just have the seal replaced and to not allow the tranny to do a lot of down and up shifting as we went up mountains. Use overdrive for the flats only.

Billy told us the keys were in his truck and to take and use it since we were pretty well stranded and he couldn't leave us that way, especially with the hotels clear on the other side of town and the river (which turned out to be only about three miles!). We got the last room at La Quinta and got a lot of help from the front clerk (Megan) with a discounted rate and extra time before check-out.

In fact, we kept meeting nice and pleasant people, from the tow truck driver (Al) to Billy & Randy (the mechanics), and then Megan at the hotel.

We picked the car up the next afternoon and headed out of town around 5:00. At the Utah border we had to stop and check things out because the "Check Engine" light had come on.

About 115 miles from Rifle, near Cisco, UT, the transmission went out completely. No matter where you moved the shifter (other than park) nothing would happen other than the engine revving when you stepped on the gas. No leaking fluid, though, so the seal is still good! I guess it did last the life of the vehicle after all!

Another tow into Green River by Leon Clark a former professional basketball player from San Diego state who had returned "home".

Leon's hobby is a 615 horsepower jet boat for the Green River and he invited us to go out with him if we ever passed through town again. Little did he know, we should be doing exactly that the first part of August. Maybe we will have to take him up on his offer!

I can't tell everyone how wonderful and helpful the GPS I got for father's day has been. We were able to pull up mechanic shops, tow places, hotels, restaurants, gas stations or whatever!

I absolutely love it and I think Bonnie likes it even more!

While waiting for the tow truck we called several hotels in Green River and there was one person (Keith Brady) who was so helpful because of our situation he even told us our towing company was on the other end of town and there was a hotel right across the street, so we wouldn't have to pay extra for towing our car clear to the opposite end of town. After calling that hotel, we decided Keith had been so nice we would stay at his place, the Robber's Roost.

He and his wife, Kristi, were very kind and helpful, even to the point of allowing us to leave our car in their parking lot rather than towing it to Provo. I had posted it on Craig's list and had already received several inquiries.

Bonnie's brother, Steve, came to our rescue, driving the six hour round trip from Provo and loading all our stuff into his pick-up and dropping us off at Megan and John's place and coming back the next morning to unload Tawnya's stuff at her and Kyle's storage unit, which had been closed at the time of our arrival.

We bought a 98 Dodge Caravan yesterday (Saturday) which we are having cleaned tomorrow and hope to hit the road to Rexburg Tuesday to see Austin and Mindy. Oddly it is the same color and same inside as the 99 Plymouth Voyager we sold last Saturday at our moving sale!

Homeless!

We are now completely moved out of our home "in the forest" and another family is living there. We are absolutely enjoying the company of Dian Horton, with whom we are staying until we hit the road on Wednesday (if everything goes according to plan) for Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Virginia, and then D.C. We had a chance to say good-bye to ward members who were still in town for the holiday at Sacrament meeting this morning. Lots of wonderful people we are going to miss. We left after sacrament for the three hour drive to visit with Michael. He could sure use more mail than he is getting. He seems a little withdrawn- the way one gets when one is left on the outside and doesn't know what is going on. His address is: Michael Wetherbee #143763 11560 Road FF75 Las Animas, CO 81054 We stopped and visited Katie and she seemed to be in good spirits. Her birthday is the 14th and she gets out the 28th. She thinks she may stay with her old friend, Sue. The Bishop and RS President have been visiting her. She was going to church before she went in, and is planning on continuing to do so after she gets out. We then went to Kristie & Chris' home where Lancelot had spent the day. We gave him his fix (insulin), checked his glucose (157) and fed him. Then we had to leave him behind. Very, very hard to do. We are grateful that Kristie, Chris, & Adam are willing to take care of him, but it is very sad to be without him. I can already tell I am going to have some reason to go by tomorrow while running errands! Thanks everyone who helped with the GPS unit. It is so fun and handy. Like having the perfect tool for the job at hand. It even got us to Kristie's in a faster and different way than we would have gone or even knew about. I absolutely love it! It's after 1:00 am and I have an 8:00 am test, so that's all , folks!