One month after we left on vacation

Ok. Ok. I know, I still haven't posted anything about our trip to So Cal.

And to think that we started the vacation on May 9 - one month ago.

So, maybe I will do this in a couple of parts.

Day 1 - May 9

We got on the road in SLC around noon and after a short stop in Pleasant Grove to drop off my car with my bro-in-law, TJ, we were on the road. The first big surprise is that Wendy told me that she would start the trip in the drivers seat.

I better explain that I almost exclusively do the driving on the long trips (so I won't back seat drive) so this was a welcome surprise. Although I kept giving suggestions, Wendy drove the 300 miles to St. George like a pro and it was relaxing for me. (looking back, I should have kept my comments to myself!)

We stopped at a crowded Costco in St. George where we met up with my brother Jim and family. Quickly ate a taco at Del Taco since the In-N-Out burger was packed at 4:00, traded kids for the next part of the drive and we were off.

Everything went well until well until we were just south of Las Vegas when our car started making a sound you don't want to hear.

Flat tire

The right front tire to be exact. Jim and his family was right behind us and pulled over to help. Working together, we had the tire changed in about 5 minutes, but it wasn't a full sized tire and I wasn't about to drive into the desert on a Friday night on a spare tire.

So, here we are, 6:30 on a Friday night outside of Vegas looking for somewhere to get the tire fixed. We sent Jim and Candace on their way (they were trying to make it to Newport Beach that night) and limped back to Las Vegas.

Wendy made a few phone calls to look for a Wal-Mart, Costco or somewhere with a tire center while I searched for a Service Station. I got directions to one area, only to find that the tire stores had closed at 6:00, but found an Auto Zone that directed me to a Pep Boys.

Around 7:15 we pull into a Pep Boys, talked to the manager of the tire center and had them look at the tire. While talking to the guy, he mentioned his brother coaches Football with Ron McBride at Weber State and played for Mac at the U of U. The guys there were really good to work with, checked out the tire and said it could be fixed and had us back on the road by 8:00 and about $15 in repairs.

We decided to drive 30 miles south to Primm, NV and stay overnight at Buffalo Bills. We had called ahead from Las Vegas and had a room for $59.

They were nice enough to get a room for us on the first floor, but it was in the back tower and the very last room on that floor. You should have seen our kids eyes as we walked through the Casino, past the bar and all the way down to the room.

Of course, we had to take everything from the car as we hadn't prepared to stay overnight.

We got situated in the room, flushed the first cricket down the toilet and went to sleep.

I said first cricket, as we found 3 more in the room throughout the night. Fun night. Didn't sleep so well.

So, the next morning, I figured out we could park in a hidden back lot that was about 50 feet from our room. Packed the kids up, checked out (Wendy mentioned the crickets and the hotel gave us 50% off on the room), had a quick McDonald's breakfast and hit the road to Newport Beach. We made it around noon on Saturday for the fun to start for the week.

coming soon... more trip report and photos.