On Thursday, August 10th we pulled out of Colorado Springs with a 22 foot Penske truck, pulling a trailer with our 4Runner, followed by the Honda on the road. It was very sad to leave our home, but we were excited for the new adventures in a new home. On Sunday, August 6th we had an open house where we were able to say goodbye to all our friends.
If it weren't for our friends Steve, Barb, Taylor, and Julie, we would never have been able to pack and clean the house. Steve and Barb remained all day on Wednesday and we were out of the house by 5:30pm. We stayed at Dennis and Carol Korth's house for our last night in Colorado.
The beginning of the trip was very slow as the heavy Penske truck struggled over the Colorado Rockies. Finally we hit a steady 65 mph. The speed didn't last long as one of the rear tires on the trailer holding the Runner lost its tread. Scott would never have known if I hadn't seen it happen. Thank the Lord I saw it happen! We pulled over 30miles East of Grand Junction, CO. We were on the side of Hwy 70 for 3 1/2 hours before the tire was fixed and we could move on. Since the brake line on the trailer had been damaged we needed to get a new trailer. We carefully pulled the trailer into Grand Junction and switched out for a new trailer in the 105 degree heat. By 7pm (12 hours after we left Colorado Springs) we sat down for dinner. Since we should have been nearly to Vegas by that time we decided to push ahead another 1 1/2 hours to Green River Utah where we stayed the night. The next morning we pushed off once again. Things seemed to be going really well.... and then.... at about 2pm (the same time it happended the day before) we actually blew ANOTHER tire on the trailer. I had noticed the tire wobbling, but we were driving through a narrow and steep canyon and I was unable to warn Scott. I called him immediatly when we got out of the canyon and told him he should pull over at the next pull off. The next pull off wasn't soon enough because the tire blew. This time Scott heard the tire blow (it was LOUD and scary!) We were in Arizona, just before the Nevada boarder, and we had a pretty decent place to pull over on the side of the road. This time we only had to wait a short time before help came. We were back up and running in an hour and a half. By 10pm we landed in Barstow, CA. FINALLY we had reached our destination state!! Saturday morning we headed off again, up through Bakersfield, then up north on Hwy 99 to Jen's parent's house in Calaveras county. By 5:30pm we finally pulled into their driveway, totally exhausted, but happy to be "home". We will be heading down to "move into" our trailer tomorrow... so we will write more then...