The Road to and from The Reunion

The Road to Bryce

Steve was unable to join us for the Perkins Reunion, he was busy off fighting fires.  Instead of trying to make the long trip with just Allyson and I we rode with my parents.  We took Hwy 50 (the loneliest highway) across Nevada, and we took our time.  Traveling with a 2 year old makes for extra stops (while I am not 2 I appreciated the extra stops too).  

We left early Wednesday morning planning to rendezvous with Marshall and Beth (who left almost 2 hours after us) and James, Jimmy and Tiara in Austin, NV.

Allyson serenading us.  She was a great traveler, snacks, books, toys and a few DVD's kept her entertained.  The best was when Tiara or Jimmy would ride with us and keep her entertained, she loves her cousins.

We made it to Austin in the late afternoon (4:00 I think) Marshall and Beth were waiting there for us.  We met them up at Stokes Castle.

Allyson enjoying being out of the car.  She wanted to go in the castle but I told her we couldn't since we didn't have the keys. 

Such a random building that was hardly used.  It was pretty interesting to see.

The view looking west from Stoke's Castle.  We drove through a lot of wide open space in Nevada.

We had quite a bit of time to kill waiting for James so we toured Austin.  

The highway runs right through town and every shop, bar, and business had lots of chairs and benches out front to sit in.  We helped ourselves to the chairs in front of the Owl Club.  We also spent some time in the Austin Library (a very tiny library) where Allyson played with toys and we perused the local yearbooks.  It was pretty fun to learn about the town from the Librarian who had grown up there and recently returned.  It is a very small remote town for sure.

That night Marshall and Beth, James and his kids were adventerous and camped in the desert at some natural hot springs.  We ventured to the next town (Eureka, NV) to stay in a very nice hotel.

Thursday morning taking a break in Ely, NV at the park and duck pond.

Getting silly the longer she was in her car seat.

The rest of the drive to Bryce was uneventful and pretty easy.  It is just really far!  We were very happy to get to Bryce.

The Road Home

We headed for home late in the morning Sunday caravaning with my brothers again.  Unfortunately we didn't quite make it to Beaver, UT before James started to have car problems.  The men tried their best to do what they could and we continued on the drive.

Here is where James' car died.  It was done.  He had limped it along about 40 miles from the Utah/Nevada state line.  Thankfully we just barely had cell service (there wasn't much before or after this spot for a long time) and he was able to get a tow truck to come pick him up.  Unfortunately the tow truck was coming from Fillmore, UT a couple hours away.  

The Rodeo gave is last gasp trying to make this summit.

We all tried to keep occupied and cool, it was really warm in the sun.  We were so glad when the clouds came.  We were on a very lonley road, we hadn't even made it to Hwy 50 yet, we were on Utah hwy 21.  I think we saw 10 cars pass us in the 2+ hours we waiting.  There was one good samaritan who stopped to ask if he could help.  

We all cheered when we saw the tow truck pull up.  They loaded up James' car and they rode in the tow truck to Ely, NV.  My parents towed the teardrop trailer and we headed out again.  We were so glad when we finally made it to Ely.  Even though it wasn't a fun situation to be in it was better that we were all together and we could all pitch in to help.

Monday morning James and Marshall worked on finding a place to store the car and trying to find a car rental.  No such luck on the rental.  The closest rental was in Fallon, NV.  He divided his stuff and divided people between my parent's car and Marshall's car and we headed out.  While a bit more cozy it wasn't that bad. Tiara was able to entertain Allyson and I got to read while we snuggled in the back seat of the Trailblazer.  

After James picked up the rental car (from the Naval Air Base no less) in Fallon we stopped for dinner.  Allyson was so happy to discover the Dairy Queen had a play place, with a ball pit! She had a bast, and had the whole place to herself.  I could hardly get her to eat, all she wanted to do was play.

We continued on with James leaving in Reno to head up to Oregon.  We still had a long way to go to get home.  In fact Allyson and I weren't even headed home. Steve was meeting us in Marysville so we could head to Oroville for his Grandpa's funeral on Tuesday.  

This trip had a lot of driving and a lot of "adventures" I am pretty sure we will all remember this trip for a long time.  Thankfully we made the best of it and still had fun together.