A New Experience

Eagle Point Resort, Beaver, UT

It has been several days since I have last given an update, and those days have been quite full of adventure!  We left San Diego on Monday, headed for Richfield, UT.  We ended up stopping in Las Vegas for the night.  A church there allowed us to park the trailer on our way through. (We did not "invest" our love offering while there!)  Paul and I were looking for the trailer hookups in the dark, and could not find any.  I did find an unlocked door, though, and looked in the building.  When the door shut, an alarm went off!  Yikes!  Within 10 minutes, the security man was there.  We explained what we were doing, but he said that our statement had to be verified with someone from the church.  He couldn't get in touch with anyone ( they were probably all out on dates since it was Valentine's Day), so we had to pack up and leave.  As we were headed out of town, the assistant called us, and told us we could come back - it had all been cleared.  This was a tremendous blessing, especially since our children were sick and needed to go to bed.

The next day, we headed out again toward Richfield.  It was a drive of about 3-4 hours form Las Vegas.  We were about 60 miles north of the city when a car passed us, honking furiously.  We knew something was wrong, so we pulled over to the side of the road.  One of our trailer bearings had seized, and the wheel was locked up.  There was smoke everywhere, and we could not drive any further.  The wheel was on the driver's side, and Paul attempted to remove the wheel, but in order to do so, he had to lie down in the oncoming 70 mph traffic.  I told him I would rather not cash in on the life insurance policy just yet, and we began calling for help.  AAA told us they couldn't find anyone with a truck big enough to tow our trailer.  We called several service places, but the numbers were no longer in service.  I called a friend and got the number for the NV highway patrol, and after 30 minutes, they showed up.  They shifted traffic so that Paul could work on the wheel, but he could not remove the wheel.  We did some more calling, and finally found a mobile service that could help us.  We ended up having to chain up the  axle and drive to the next town to the repair shop.  By this time, we had been sitting on the roadside for several hours, and we were quite glad to be going anywhere.  The parts had to be ordered and shipped, so we had to stay in a nearby hotel while the trailer was repaired.  In the meantime, all the kids and Paul became sick with cough and high fevers.  Four of the six bearings on the trailer had to be replaced, but the shop did a tremendous job and completed it the day the parts arrived (that in itself is amazing)!

We headed out to Richfield once again, and I prayed fervently that we would make it all the way this time!  We pulled into town under one of the most beautiful moonrises I have ever seen.  The sky was a pale amythest and the moon looked like a giant, luminescent pearl hovering over the snow-covered peaks of the mountains.  It was such a tribute to the Creator!

Friday we went skiing with the pastor and his wife.  Neither Paul nor I had ever been skiing, nor had the pastor, although his wife had been once before.  I was quite nervous, but excited as well.  We headed onto the slopes with an instructor and great trepidation.  The first ten minutes were pretty good, but once we headed onto the beginner slope, things went downhill fast - literally!  It was amazing how uncoordinated we all were, wiping out all over the hill.  I spent more time on the ground than on my feet, I think!  Paul wasn't feeling well at all, and although he cut some pretty smooth moves, he was frustrated over his lack of control.  We agreed that it would have been more fun if we had spent more time skiing and less time falling.  Maybe next time we will do better!  I considered it a successful trip in that we all came home in one piece.  I have been quite sore for the last couple days - evidence of my inexperience on skis.

The meeting in Richfield started yesterday, and we had several visitors throughout the day.  Please pray that the Lord would open the hearts of the hearers, and that we would see some people saved this week.