The (Mis)Adventures of Spring Break 2014 Part 1

I tell you what: Spring Break was an interesting experience this year.  First of all, it sort of snuck up on us.  We didn't officially decide what we were doing until like the week before, but we went to see my brother and his family in Texas.  We looked at plane tickets, but they were too expensive.  Looking back now, we might have flown.  It probably would have cost the same haha.

We actually got out of town more quickly I think than we ever have before.  I got done with class at 3 (normally I have a class at 3, but our professor pretty much told us on Wednesday that he didn't expect many of us to be there), and we were heading out of town by 4.  We had about 7 hours to drive to get to Gallup.  We took back roads, which was mostly fun.  However, this was the night our misadventures began.  Let's just say the speed limits on back roads through Arizona are rather slower than those on Utah freeways, and reservation cops don't like it when you surpass those limits...

Surprisingly, both of us were able to get past this one fairly quickly.  We were obviously a little irritated at ourselves, but at that point we couldn't change it, so life goes on.  We actually ended up talking most of the ride, which was really fun.  I think sometimes we both get caught up in life and forget to just visit with each other, so it was nice to take time to do that.

Saturday, we didn't get out as early as we planned (we overslept a little...oops).  Most of Saturday went by rather smoothly.  But Saturday night, we had another adventure, this one starring a kamikaze deer.  We had driven all over the back roads of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, and where do we run into a deer?  On the highway, surrounded by several other cars, about half an hour or forty minutes from our destination.  I had just looked up to talk to Peter, and I hear this loud thud tha-thud thud.

Me: What was that?
Peter: A deer. (He had caught a glimpse of it right before it hit us).
Me: (higher pitched) A deer?  We hit a deer?
Peter (calmly): It's okay.  Jess, it'll be fine.

I was seriously freaking out because I know deer can really bang up a car.  We pulled over to the side of the road several hundred yards past where we actually hit the deer.  Peter gets out first, while I stayed in the car, afraid of seeing pieces of deer still clinging to the outside of my door.  (We actually don't know what happened to the deer after we hit it.  It was dark, and we didn't see it when we got out.)  Peter tells me it's clear and asks for my help, so I get out to hold the light.  The front corner of the bumper and the front passenger wheel well (Peter gave the names or else I'd have just said the bumper lol) are pretty torn up.  The wheel well is sort of flapping, and we need to get it secured up so that it doesn't rub against the wheel or anything else on the car it might mess up.  Unfortunately, we have no duct tape in our car. (I know one thing that will be in any car I own now for the rest of my life).  Peter digs out the first aid kit, and we find this thing of skinny medical tape.  Since we have nothing else, we try it.  Peter has to use a lot, especially since it keeps tearing.  Not a good sign for something that needs to hold up for another 40 miles.  Peter eventually does get the pieces taped up out of the way, though.

We're a little worried because the tape seems weak, and there is a little bit of rain as we're getting into town. As we got back on the road, we said a prayer, thanking Heavenly Father that we were safe and that the car was still in good shape.  We also prayed that the tape would hold up until we got to my brother's house.   I'm pretty sure that tape was held together by prayers, especially since we made the left turn into their neighborhood and heard the wheel well scrape the wheel a bit, which it hadn't done up until that point.

It could have been much worse than it was.  I am so grateful that neither us nor the car were seriously hurt, and I know there is something we're supposed to learn from this experience.  If nothing else, I think facing this together brought us closer to each other and helped us learn to trust each other more.

Stay tuned for the next adventure!