Our Adventure Down to Tucson

.... okay, I'm trying to finally update.

Well, every year we go down to AZ for Christmas, and it seems like almost every year we drive, we have an adventure. 3 years ago - all the kids (all four) had the flu driving back home. And it was a very bad flu where all four of them couldn't even keep water down and it was coming out both ends. - & cleaning up barf with baby wipes doesn't really work really well - & to be in such a confined space, where you can't really open the windows long to air out because it is too cold, needless to say it was just awful. We felt terrible for the kids as they all sat with barf bowls in front of their faces the whole trip.... and well we were driving straight from Tucson to Camas - which is about 25 - 26 hours without any breaks... so needless to say, that was a very LONG drive.

2 years ago, we drove through Utah & stayed the night with Jolene - instead of trying to drive straight through California - this way we could see Cameron (who was just coming home from the hospital) too. No problems that year.

Well last year, our van's transmission went out in Southern Oregon near the border of California and that was quite an adventure trying to get back to Portland - finding a u-haul truck to haul us back, dropping the broken van off at the mechanics, finding & picking up rental car, repacking lighter for air plane, dropping off our extra stuff, dropping off the u-haul, and driving back down to Eugene, Oregon to hopefully catch the plane for all six of us on stand by. -and all of this was done about 12am - 1am and all this switching exchanging cars, etc in Portland was done in about an hours time or we would have missed the flight in Eugene (full details in last year's post)... what an adventure.

So this year we have a brand new (used but not so old) Honda - so we thought we wouldn't have any hitches or adventures.... not so.

First of all, it snowed like crazy for 2 weeks before Christmas. So we had about 2 feet or so of snow. We packed up the car on Christmas day. Don even put chains on the Honda so we could get out early in the morning. We woke up early (5 am - & I'm not a morning person at all) and finished packing up the Honda (which was in the garage). We load the kids in the car and get ready to go & the battery of the car is dead (from packing & leaving the doors open while packing).... Great!

So Don goes to get his Pathfinder which is totally buried in the snow outside (it's been sitting outside for 2 weeks as he has been using the Honda since I didn't want to drive in the snow at all). So he digs out his car & drives it down the driveway.... well, apparently there was a leak in the brake fluid in the Pathfinder - and now he has no brakes at all. I don't really recommend driving on a snowy, icy road with no brakes. So he can only drive straight & not around and turn up (150 degrees) to go into our garage where the Honda is....

So we try pushing the Honda through the two feet or so of snow with chains in Neutral. It doesn't budge at all. So Don says, we will just have to dig the driveway out. Okay so we start digging.... (& we don't have snow shovels or a blower) and about 1 foot of the snow is really packed down & icy from driving on it a few days before. So we dig for a while & then push the Honda in Neutral. Then dig & push, dig & push, dig & push, and dig &.... wait the Honda won't go into Neutral any more!!! and we are still too far away from the Pathfinder to connect up to the battery cables.

Now, I think this is really useless maybe we should just leave the 27th as everything is going awry. But, Don being the MacGyver that he is takes the battery out of the Pathfinder & hooks it up to the Honda - to see if it has enough juice in it to charge the Honda without being on. Nope, doesn't work. So then he switches the battery out, and puts the Pathfinder battery in the Honda & charges the car up that way & then switches the batteries while both cars are running & puts the correct battery back in each car & then we quickly lock up everything & go. Yay!! We're off and it is only 8 am... not bad, we only lost 2 hours.

The Honda ran great all the way down to AZ. While we were resting at a rest stop in California for a few hours, our car managed to get a flat. (I think we drove over a nail) We wake up at 3 am after sleeping (or trying to sleep is more like it) for a couple of hours and get ready to go & Don realizes we have a flat. So he goes out in the pitch dark with a flash light in the 20 degree weather & changes the tire. I open the window (brrrrr it's freezing out there) & call out to him if he needs me to come out & help him. He says no, he's fine stay inside the car & be warm (whew) what a sweet husband. Anyways, we (Don) change the tire & manage to drive the rest of the way (8 - 9 hours) on our doughnut tire, (not really recommended) - but we made it there all safe & sound.

We stopped at Ryan & Dana's place on the way down & saw their cute house in Surprise. It's a nice little town, it's kind-of a ways out - but because there are a bunch of neighborhoods around it doesn't feel as out in the boonies as our house. We visit with them for a while, then we head down to Tucson.

I can't remember what time we actually pulled into Tucson, probably about 3 ish.... These long 26-27+ hour drives are murder. By the time you get there you legs & back have so many cramps from sitting for so long & your just deathly tired. The kids played games on our i-phones & watched movies on the i-phones (what a wonderful invention those i-phones are) & played road games & slept - so I don't think they minded the long drive at all.

Well.... that was our adventurous trip down, Hopefully, next year we will be in Texas so we won't have to make the LONG drive again.