I Believe In Miracles

2 posts in one day? You got that right!
I'm not a fan of reading, or writing long blog posts. Sooo, I just decided to split it into 2.

Denver, ohhh Denver. This has been quite the trip so far. Boy do I have a story for you...

About three days ago my awesome bishop posted that he had two seventh row tickets to the NCAA tournament game in Denver. That meant two things: 1. I would get to watch my beloved Cougs play once again 2. My roomie Carrie lives near Denver..... SOLD. Luckily she spoke up for the tickets first and from that point on I was determined to go. Follow the basketball team that doesn't even know I exist another 1,000 miles? Why not...

I needed no reassurance on the awesomeness of the trip, Carrie on the other hand had the mental battle back and forth whether to go. Long long long story short, we ended up heading from Provo at 6:30 am on our way to good ol' Colorado.

Around 11:00 am or so we were making great time and stopped to pose in front of the Colorado boarder sign. We were giddy, happy girls who had been sitting in a car for four hours already. After the picture Carrie put the car in drive, umm the car didn't drive. And not only did it not drive, it rolled backwards. We were stranded exactly four hours from Provo and from Carrie's house. Well we said a prayer... let the miracles begin

Miracle #1 The car started moving the try after the prayer. Really, one of the most amazing things ever. The car somehow got us the next 10 miles to a gas station.

Miracle #2 Judah. Our miracle came in the form of a guy named Judah. Right when we were exiting the freeway the car stopped once again. After sitting there for a second, having no idea what to do, Judah appeared. He pretty much bush whacked up this hill to help push our car to the gas station. Judah happens to be a car guy, and quickly assessed that the transmission of the car was leaking essential fluid (ATF fluid to be exact, I learned many things on this trip). Sooo, he filled up the car and said that the steady leak should be slow enough to get us to Denver if we didn't stop and just hurried. Ohh if only Judah was right about this...

Miracle #3 We didn't get this guys name, but we fondly refer to him as mystery mechanic gold chain dude, but he was the bearer of bad news. He saw that the fluid was not a "steady leak" from the car, but I'd call it more of a gushing, dumping, white water rapid like flow. So gold chain man told us that we would be going NOWHERE in this car.

Miracle #4 Carrie and I were a mess. I don't think there was anything to do except laugh, and boy did we do a lot of that. So picture this. 2 girls, one useless car, middle of Fruita Colorado, 4 hours away from Denver, and about 5 hours until game time. WHAT DO WE DO?! Well, Carrie called a million different mechanics and tow places that either didn't exist anymore, or couldn't look at the car until next week. So that lead us to Monte's Mechanics in Grand Junction. First thing that happened, we realized Monte's was ran and owned by Mormons. That was pretty cool because we ended up hanging out with them for the next 5 hours...

Monte told us that the car transmission was useless and could not be fixed until next week. They tried so hard to find people in their ward that were going to the game as well to give us a ride, sadly no such luck. But they were so nice and didn't mind us just hanging out there until we knew what to do. So Carrie was on the phone constantly with family, her sister (whose car it was), and anyone else that could possibly get us un-stranded.

Miracle #5 Carries mom just happened to know of a family in their stake that was in Grand Junction and heading back to Carrie's neighborhood tonight. Talk about a miracle right?! We made contact with them and figured out that we were at least getting to Denver! Happiest news ever. The only problem, they were not planning on leaving until 5 or so....so that means no game. I was over it upon the realization that at least I wouldn't be stranded anymore.

So we met up with this family who was very nice and accepting and so generous. They had two cars to drive back so Carrie ended up in one, and I was in the other. The whole time I was getting updates about the game through the shoddy service. Better than nothing though!

Miracle #6 We ended up driving in one of the worst snow storms I've ever been in, easily. Luckily we were both in trucks, but that did not mean much when cars were sliding all over the place going up and down the huge mountains. As we were driving I saw a few cars slide into others, one car tipped up on its side, and the worst part...I saw a semi going the other direction spin out of control hit the mountain, spin into the barrier, flip around then wedge between the mountain and the barrier. There were no cars getting past that for a while! But the barrier between the lanes completely saved the semi from flipping into our car. I know 100% that we would have been hit by it if the barrier wasn't there. One of the girls in the car and I were the only ones to see it, I don't think our heart beats slowed down for a while.

Miracle #7 We safely arrived at Carrie's house around 12:30 am. This drive was meant to last 8 hours, but instead lasted 16. Both Carrie and I were relieved to be here, but both felt as though we were at peace the whole time. So many things went wrong and yet, I never felt I was in danger. It was a pretty cool experience now that I look back on it. I knew that I was being watched over the entire time. I am sad that we missed the game, but we are here and safe. That is all I could ask for.

As for the rest of the trip, I'm hoping it's a lot less monumental. Luckily we get to see the team play on Saturday so that will be fun. GO COUGS! But I think I've participated in my fair share of miracles for the weekend, so I'm hoping for a boring, relaxing, homework, and basketball filled weekend.

Life is good, I'm unbelievably grateful for all the people that helped us out yesterday. Let's just say we have got a lot of thank you cards to write!