Thursday, July 22, 2010

So long Colorado...we love you!

Hello again from the road! It has been 11 days since we landed in Dolores, Colorado and we enjoyed every minute of it. Today we headed out for Williams, Arizona and plan on staying four nights there. It is on old Route 66 and near the “Secret Road to Grand Canyon” aka 64 North. We figure we will spend some time in the Grand Canyon again this year because, well, you can never get enough of it! After our stay there, we will be making tracks towards southern California for a week. We can’t wait to see some great friends in the area.

Our last day with our friend, Diane, was amazing. She took us into Aspen and now I understand why those who either visit there regularly or live there, love it so much. What a fun and beautiful place. We went to an historic church to listen to a music recital put on by the Aspen Music Festival and School and the combination of the beauty of the church and the amazing talent of these young students was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Wow! Four different students played violin and piano and their ages ranged from 14-19…they blew all of us away! From Mozart to Chopin, they rocked the house…or church I should say.

After that, we just walked around Aspen visiting art galleries and little stores. The homes in Aspen are so not what I expected. For the amount of money people who live there make, their homes are tasteful and quaint; not the huge monstrosities we are used to seeing in South Florida, and all of them had perfect flower gardens beautifully maintained. Ahhh…it was wonderful!

We did manage to get some issues fixed on Sarai while we were there, however, the one we specifically took the car in for could not be fixed by anyone (story later), but we did discover that the radiator was about to go, so we replaced it. Thank goodness we took it in and the problem was located before we were out in the middle of somewhere and unable to get to a mechanic.

The fuel smell that floods the entire car when driving in higher elevations was really getting to be a problem, however, three different mechanics (one via phone, one just looking under the hood, and the other actually putting the car up), could not locate the problem. Which, in a way is good because that means nothing major is wrong like a fuel leak or something like that, but it is also bad because that means we can’t “fix” the problem. I was seriously bummed, because the smell really affects me and ruins the beautiful drive in the mountains. HOWEVER…and this is a true story, we did seem to fix the problem.

While sitting in the church listening to the music recital and loving every moment of it, a thought from nowhere (well, actually, from God) popped into my head…it said, “Burp the car.” I nearly laughed out loud! Burp the car??? What does that mean?? Well, then a vision of the many water bottles we have in the car while driving around appeared to me and how they would either expand or constrict while driving up and down the mountains. So it seemed to me that maybe the gas tank was doing this.

Yes, all you mechanics out there thought and said the same thing James did when I told him about my “thought” that tanks are pressurized themselves and if there is a problem there, the seal around the tank would keep the fumes from escaping. But, since James has been married to me for 5.5 years, he knows first hand that sometimes these crazy “thoughts” have some merit to them, so he humored me and said that we would try it the next time the problem presented itself.

Well, yesterday while taking poor Sarai on a road trip we had NO BUSINESS taking her on (a dirt road with serious switchbacks and holes), she started smelling up the place something fierce and James looked at me and said, “Well, should we burp her?” I said, “Go for it…couldn’t hurt to try.” He pulled over, turned off the car, got out and went to the back to remove the gas cap. Instantly the smell of gas intensified about 10 times and James said he could hear the air rushing out. He waited until the sound stopped, replaced the cap, got in the car, started it and off we went…WITH NO SMELLY FUMES!! It worked!!! Believe me, I am as shocked and stunned as everyone else and I simply can’t take the credit for it, as I believe God truly put the thought “Burp the car” into my head. So, Sarai is a bit gassy and needs burping from time to time. Oh well. We don’t care, we are just thrilled we seemed to have a remedy to the problem. I will be even more excited the next time it happens and we are able to fix it the same way. I will keep you posted.

Went to bed last night and woke up this morning to lots and lots of rain. Apparently, while we were in Carbondale, it rained so much in Dolores there was a mud slide on the main road, Highway 145…pretty common for these parts, but it kinda freaked me out. We almost stayed one more night tonight to see if the rain would pass, but decided to push on and get moving. I’m so glad we did. I actually enjoy the driving parts of this adventure; seeing different towns, places and people. I am writing this from the road and we are currently in northeast Arizona and the land is so vast and big!! I love it. We drove through here two years ago and as James just pointed out, it was sunny then, as compared to rainy and overcast now, so the landscape looks totally different. The colors of the mountains instead of being vibrant rust, brown and tan in the sun, seem to have a wonderful muted affect to them. It is really spectacular to have been able to see it both ways.

A shout out to David, my nephew, who turned 23 yesterday…unfortunately, I was unable to call him because we had no cell phone and no internet, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVID!!! We love him so much and are so proud of him! Happy Birthday also to Charlie Rossignol and Keith Allen…two very dear friends from Islamorada also celebrating their birthdays this week! We pray you all have a very blessed and wonderful year!

Wow…that’s a lot for today! Didn’t realize I had written so much. Thank you all, again, for sharing the experience of our travels with us. It really means a lot and feels as if you are all right here…well, kinda. We love you all and miss you very, very, very much. We can’t believe this Saturday will be ONE MONTH! Be safe, keep happy and God bless you all!

1 comment:

  1. Be Safe and happy and May God Bless you too ! I love you Jen !!

    ReplyDelete