I turned 31 today and I have to say that this was a very memorable birthday. We left Las Vegas in the morning on our way to Fresno. We were lucky to get a decent hotel, especially considering that we're traveling with Dale's 97 year old grandma. Due to her age and difficulty walking, we got a nice large room on the bottom floor, equiped with a handicapped bathroom. It's been so fun to travel with Great Grandma Christensen. She has so many interesting stories and is just a lot of fun to be around. When we offered for her to drive with us to Fresno, she hardly hesitated and immediately said, "yes, that would be so fun to take a road trip!" Great Grandma Chris loves road trips, but has been unable to take very many as she's getting older. Dale and I were anxious for her to come because it allowed us to have a lot of one-on-one time with her, which has not happened for the past few years. We had to be careful that she gets out of the car enough in order to avoid blood clots in her legs.
The best memory of the trip is driving through Mojave at 75 mph (by the way, I was driving) and hearing the luggage rack pop on the roof. Something didn't feel right, which was verified after another car motioned that we should pull over. So, I pulled over and sure enough the car top carrier popped open and would not close. As we learned in Ohio, duct tape solves many problems, so I pulled out my tape and scissors and started taping away. The problem was that it was 114 degrees in the desert (no lie), so the tape wouldn't hold. It melted! We found a hardware store and bought the sturdiest duct tape known to man and put our car top carrier back together. We drove on and after 15 minutes of driving through Tehachapi pass, the carrier popped open again. So, we did what anyone else would have done . . . we ditched the car top carrier off of a very steep ravine and moved everything that was in the carrier, into the cab of our Toyota Camry. Keep in mind, Great Grandma and Dale are up front, and Laurel and I are in the back. There really wasn't much room left, but we really had no choice, unless we wanted to discard our belongings off of the ravine. I have to say, there was something fun and cleansing about ditching that car top carrier off of that ravine in the middle of the desert. We had a great laugh and drove away with bags in laps. I will never forget this birthday as long as I live!
We arrived in Fresno around 9 pm in the evening and Dale's family had a wonderful cake for me. You can see how delicious the cake looks - it tasted even better than it looked! There I am, so relieved to be out of that cramped car. Here's to another year!
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