Pittsburgh 10-18-06

Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Pittsburgh 10-18-06
Well we made it !! We are now in Pittsburgh. We arived here at around 8 pm last night. WHAT a day it was yesterday!!... for one we drove all night the other day. so we stayed in a hotel on sunday then starting Monday we drove all day and drove till 4am on Monday that is when all the trouble started!.... 4am we needed gas in the cars adn well we pulled off the high way thinking there was a gas station cause TomTom said there was.. there wasn't!..... well we pulled into a place for turning around. Laura and i turned around, and Deb was in the process of turning around when she buzzed our walky. we asked what was wrong and she said the van had something wrong with it.. well it did!.. we parked right there and of course yesterday and the day before it was pouring down rain!!!!.. we pulled next to a light post and poped the hood.. we couldn't see anyting right awya but then I saw the bet on the ground.... so ya the belt feel off the van engine. it was 4am and nothing was open... so we slept right there then iat 7am a cop came up to my window and asked what we were doing there... I told him but he apparently didn't understand me.. half an hour later he came back and went to moms window in the van instead of mine. he asked again what we were doing in this parking lot momm told him our van was bbroken down and we were waiting for a busniess to open so we could use the phone book. anyway the cop helped us and lead s to a manchanic shop.. at first the guy said he couldn't get to us till later but he eneded up getting to us right away and fixed the belt right away. whoo hooo 20 dollars later. we were on the road by 10 am...the break down happened in IN. well we got to OH about 98 miles later and the van dieds again!!.... man!!! we were on the interstate 70 .. so LARGE simitrucks drive it all the time. and lots of them!!!.. I've never seen so many trucks in my life. well we pulled over on the side of the hwy. we put our flashers on and waited for the van to cool down again. after that we drove the side of the road till we got to an exit. we went to a gas station ( a trucker one) ahhhhhhhhh... well we called dad again he said that we needed oto have the van towed this time.. soooo thats what endedn up happning. The van was loaded up onto a flat bed tow truck then we followed the guy in my car... the bellt was replaces along with a pully and some wiring ... the car was basicaly on fire cause the flashers melted the wiring. We were back on the road by 4pm. we decided not to make any stops in OH. we drover from the machanic shop stright to Pittsburgh ,PA. what a trip!!.. we have driven over 5,000 miles we passed that mark yesterday! well its about time to leave this hotel adn look for a house. Love to All Dream Sweet I'll keep ya updated when I can. ~Ann~
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Saturday, October 14, 2006
I'm at a Hotel in Gillette, WY 10-14-06
Haha I've actually got a few min to write something longer than last time. We left for the lower 48 on Oct 8th at 7:30am. I was supposed to be earlier BUT... Just as we finished loading everything we were pulling out f the garages and noticed I had a head light out. Thankfully when I replaced my headlights about 2 months ago I did both and kept the old good one anyway. So I replaces it , weird thing is!! Is that Dad replaced mom's the night before he left for Fairbanks. the day before we left her headlight went out.. so in the matter of house both our lights went out. Weird huh!.. well after I changed the light, I pulled outa the garage Again!! then noticed that one of my windows had been put down during our whole ordeal . well... Hannah Whee * deb's cat* got out adn ran upstairs. then MY cat April Rain jumped out!!.. gurr it took us a good ten min to cathc our very scared cats! gurrr! after making sure everthing was ready we headed out! Finally!!!.. the trrip was smooth to the border of Canada.. the lady at the border was mean!!.. anyway!.. my cat started getting sick around then!! gurr I knew she had not been feeling very well the last couple days!... so ya she started puking and ya know havng the squirts!.. NOT FUN when you are in a CAR!!!!! gurrrr she made it into the litter box but stepped in part of it after wards then she flicked her paws!!!! as you can guess the litter and poop went everywhere!!! ya and the smell was un-explainable!... we made pretty good time in Canada. We drove through the Yukon quickly, BC took more time and we had to finall pull over and rest since non of us were fit to drive. From BC we drove to Alberta, and got to drive throught the Rocky MT's. it was really pretty!! Got lots of pictures!. Then we drove all night again, we had to pull over in the morning for two hours. we drove all day and finally made it to MT, USA. it was a great feeling!! we got to MT at around 9 pm and then headed to the Venables * our really good friends who used to live in AK* we didn't get there till after 2am. that is after Deb and I almost died from Aprils next episode of bm *bowl movement*... AHHHHH It was so horrible my eyes watered and it was picth black out side with lots of deer adn tons of other wild life around. well the smell was so bad I had to pull over and and dive outa the car.. we couldn't stop laughing!!! we dind't even had time to tell mom adn Laura we were pulling over!. problem was that we were on a hill and there WAS NO pull over spot so I just stayed on the shoulder of the road cause there was a drop off who knows how far.. it was dark so I couldn't tell anything and it didn't help that I was dry heaving andtring my hardest not to barf. !! cause if I started I would not have been able to stop!.. we aired tha car out and sprayed it with LOTS of smelly stuff!... whoa~! thta helped so now we are back on the road it was HARD not hitting all the deer and other creatures that jumped out in front of us!!.. it wasn't supposed to take 3 hours to get to Teiri's BUT ther was MILES and MILES of construction!!!.. 35 mph the whole way!!! ... it was horrible caue it was SOOOOOOO dark and never knew what was comming up. scary! we stayed up till 5 am talking... that was early Wed morning. Wednesday day we stayed home and din't do much. I did pre groom all of teri's sch dogs. 7 of them. then On thursday I got up early with Ayla and Maggie... I spent the rest of the day bathing and finishing the dog's Laura helped me dry them. whoa what a chore!... it is hard to home groom... Thankfully I had everything with me and it was easy to get to. after I finished grooming we all headed to town. Teri and I went to Pet Smart adb I bought a bark color for Echoa and then mom, Laura and Debbie went to Costco and bught more food. Ayla got off on friday and Teri, Maggie and Ayla al followed us to Yellowstone WY. who hoo!.. Deb, Maggie, and Ayla drove Teris car and then mom and teri roade together in the van and Laura and I had my car. it was interesting to have three cars!!.. fun all the same before we went to Yellowstone we went into Idaho and ate lunch then drove to WY. we went into the West gate and were planing on comming out of the east BUT it closed at 8 and we stood around to long waiting for the dumb Old faithful to go off!.. gurr if finally went off and we left.. we all said our goodbyes to the Venables and parted ways. we tried to figure out the fastes way outa the part and decided to go out the northern gate and head back up north away from where wee needed to go... well it was 9:30 pm before we were able to make it outa the park! we stayed in a hotel last night and got up late and left through Yellowstopn park thinking we could go through the east gate now.. well the road were we were taking to it is closed for winter!! we dind't relize that and TomTom 700 our navagational system that Lauras dad is letting us barrow for the trip was taking a closed road cause of course it dind't know that! and we were to ump to actually check the rout!..our luck! we didn't have to back track to far cause we kinda cought it before the road was blocked.
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