All Across America!

August 6-13 Matthew and I went on the craziest adventure!!! We had planned a trip to go visit his brother's family in Wisconsin, then Matt's dad bought a natural gas car from New York City, so we added a few days to our trip to pick it up and drive it back.
We picked up the car and it seemed like a great car...
While in New York we walked and drove downtown, saw the empire state building and rode the subway for the first time. We didn't stay long in the city because we wanted to see Palmyra. We soon discovered the car wouldn't go over 65 MPH and sometimes going uphill we would get down to 35 MPH!!! It took 3 hours longer than expected, but we were able to experience the Sacred Grove and the outside of some of the other sites.
The guy we bought the car from said he filled up with natural gas and regular gas. We were getting low on gas, (we thought we were on natural gas) so we filled up with regular gas just in case we were running on regular gas. As we tried to pump gas we discovered the tank to be full, so we were set to go. Or so we thought.
30 miles later we found ourselves stranded. We ran out of natural gas and couldn't figure out how to switch it over to regular gas. A tow, many hours and dollars later we were told we ran out of regular gas and the natural gas wasn't even set up to work!
We set out for Cleveland - another grueling long drive with how slow the car would go. We picked up Matthew's parents in Cleveland. We visited my second home - my mission - Kirtland!!! It felt so good to be there again. We went to the Kirtland temple. They have a new visitors' center. I was very impressed with their new one. What a I loved the most was they show you a movie, they open the curtains to a huge window looking onto the temple! It was beautiful!
We went to the Kirtland sites. How I love Kirtland! The memories came rushing back as we took a tour. I must say, it's so different being on a tour than giving a tour! It was great. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the John Johnson home because of how slow the car was. And of course, a trip to Kirtland wouldn't be complete without going to RJ's and Kokomo's!

The next day we journeyed on to Wisconsin to see the Henages. We were greeted by Hannah (6) and Richard (3) who anxiously waited all day for us to arrive. They were SO excited to see us! The next few days were filled with fun with the kids as we played games, went on walks, went to the zoo, read stories, listened to Hannah's stories, went swimming and so much more. The car received a new fuel pump and filter. One day as I was getting ready Richard whispered to his mom "Mommy, she is beautiful!" It was adorable! When the time came for us to leave Hannah and Richard went around giving all of us hug after hug. Richard was shy around me and didn't give me a hug till the very end - that was cute too. As Hannah was going to bed she said "Mommy, when I try to go to sleep I think about goblins, and when I don't think about that I think of Matthew and Melanie leaving and it makes me sad." What a cute and fun family! I enjoyed getting to know them and we loved spending time with them.
The long trek home began. We left at 11:30 pm and made it home in Provo at 11:30 the next evening. We had another tow on the way home which again delayed us. This time the emergency fuel pump switch had got bumped and the car shut down. All they had to do was flip the switch back on and off we went. Needless to say, by the time we got home, we were all sick of the car!!! Poppa Henage said "I never want to get in that car again!" Hee hee
It was definitely an adventure for all of us! We had such a good time and were so glad we were able to go!