Trip to Hades

Okay, so way back in October I told my last companion Jenny that I'd be at her wedding. At the time she wasn't dating anyone so I figured I'd have a lot of time. Not so. She met someone and married him in 3 months. So it was my luck to have to live up to my word and go to Cali for the wedding. Emily who also served with Jenny was going also so we decided to drive together. I invited my brother to go along also since the wedding was in his mission and he could go and visit some people from the mish. Also Hermana Pam Grau is here visiting her sister in Salt Lake. She's from Paraguay and she decided to come also. The only real car option was to take Percy. Emily's car and my red car were not going to make it. Getting my car registered and insured was a big pain in the you know where. We left later than planned but finally headed out to California.
What a long boring drive. An hour before we left we found out that the place we were going to stay was no longer going to work. To say I was irritated would be an understatement. So we spent the next few hours trying to figure out where we were going to stay. Kevin said he could stop by some members and they'd let us stay but I wasn't going to knock on someone's door at 1 in the morning and ask if we could stay. After another let down we finally found out no one was staying with Jenny and called her. We ended up sleeping on her floor. Sad thing is she forgot to turn on the heater and we didn't have a lot of blankets. It was hard, cold, and to say the least, miserable.
Next morning we stay to get ready while my brother goes to visit some people. He calls me 10 minutes before he's suppose to be back to get us and tells me he's going to be late because he put a hole in my tire. When he finally gets there we load everything in the car and head to Sacramento on the spare tire. We got Emily and Pam to the temple with 10 minutes to spare. I didn't go to the sealing because 1. I wasn't invited and 2. I had to go buy a new tire. So 82 dollars later we're back at the temple. So part of our great plan for this trip was to go to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. the last tour is at 4. We are at the temple for pictures and it's taking FOREVER. I mean really. Take the pictures with the friends and people who need to leave, make the family wait. But no, I thought we'd never get out and that we'd definitely NOT make it to the factory, but we made a big enough fuss they took some pictures and we were on our way. I'll admit it I was a brat, but come on I drove 10 hours one way! So we make it to the Jelly Belly factory at 5 to 4. Hallelujah! it was so fun and the free bag of beans at the end was delicious.
After that I really wanted to go down to San Fran since we were so close but sadly we had to go back to the reception. The reception had delicious food. Best reception food ever. Then we were off to visit more of Kevin's people from the mission and find somewhere to stay. Poor Kevin, everyone had moved! It was so sad. We went to 4 houses that had For Sale signs. He did get to see one old investigator and one family from the ward. Lucky for us they were home because that's where we ended up staying. Their house was heated, she had lots of blankets and we didn't even have to sleep on the floor! AND they made us smoothies in the morning and she sent us out with granola bars and clementines. Bless them!
Now it was back on the road for another 10 hour drive. Kevin was such a good sport the whole time. He drove most of it and listened to us speak in Spanish most of the time. The big joke the whole weekend was that Pam should marry him. We made it home and Kevin was set to go driving my old red car home. Little did I know the back driver's side tire had a big bulge in it and that's why it had been shaking. I was so worried and tired I was just crying and crying in the parking lot. Kevin looked at me and said "Cathy, it's just a tire." Like I don't know that! I prayed so hard for him to just make it home safe, and that if the tire was going to blow that it did it at least on the Idaho side of the Malad pass and the closer to home the better. My dad sent me a text this morning saying Kevin got home at 3 a.m. The tire blew in Idaho Falls and the spare didn't fit. How stupid is that? Who puts a spare tire in a car that it doesn't fit? Anyway, my dad had to drive to IF and they put the spare from one of our other cars on my car and they made it home. What an ordeal. I was dead tired today and hope I recover soon. Blek. At least Percy could take us through Hades and back like a true Hero.