THE BEST WORST TRIP EVER

We were supposed to leave VA in the 14th, but we were all sick of it there and just wanted to get home so we left a week ago, the 9th (our 6 month anniversary!). We got everyone loaded up and headed out around noon. Me & Sam were in our truck and we pulled Blayne's (sam's manager) Saturn behind us on a car dolly, Cj & Diana in their truck, and Mike, Blayne and Chris were in Blayne's van! We went as far as Nashville the first night and we got there at about 4 am! The campsite we wanted to stay at was closed so we just slept in our cars in a parking lot! We got about 4 hours of sleep and then found a faucet in a middle of a field to "shower". We put on our swim suits, and had to get on our hands and knees to fit under it! Our second day we drove to Memphis and went and saw famous Beale Street, where Blues & Jazz started and became famous. It was really cool to see, there were a lot of cool shops and lots of restaurants and we saw this kid..

He would do his flips, then walk around with a bucket and get money from people. He couldn't have been older than 7 or 8..and he was RIPPED! It was crazy! After Beale St we went to check out Elvis's house, but it cost a lot of money to go see and it was super busy, so we just drove by and got some food nearby. It rained really hard the rest of the night and we went as far as Ozark Arkansas, and spent the night in the Ozark National Forest. We all put tarps down and just slept on the ground...we woke up about 6 hours later to rain...so we got up and hurried to put our things back in vehicles and then went to the bathrooms and showered. While we getting ready Cj noticed that the tred on our back tire was literally falling off....SO, the guys tried getting the spare off from under the bed of our truck and couldn't get it because they didn't have the right tool. They tried for close to an hour and a half and didn't have any luck. A forest ranger told us to go into the next little town to Job Corps and ask for some help, so we did and they were able to help us, and it only took about 1 minute! But our other back tire was looking rough so we stopped at the nearest Wal-Mart to get a new one. We had to wait about 2 hours for that to get done, so we didn't actually get on the road til about 5 pm! We drove to Amarillo Texas and stopped to eat at Denny's around 4 am. We were all SOOOO tired and so every little thing made us laugh so hard, so we had a fun time there. We had about 2 more hours of driving before we made it the next campsite and Sam was exhausted from driving the whole way, so him and Chris switched so he could take a break. About an hour away from Santa Rosa(where we were staying that night) the transmission on our truck went out! So we had to go 40 mph the rest of the way...we got the park and the sun was coming up!! So we layed out our tarps and blankets and tried to fall asleep before the sun was totally up! I woke up about 2 hours later cause the sun was too hot on me, and so I got up and called a couple shops in town about looking at our truck, so I woke Sam up and we drove into town to have a guy look at it, his shop was on Route 66, cool huh? Anyway, so he told us that it would take him about 4 days to fix and cost about $1600.....so, THAT option was out of the question! We called another shop and they told us about a transmission place in Albuquerque so we called them and they said it'd take about 2 days to fix but cost about $18oo! But Albuquerque was 2 hours away and we didn't want to drive the truck that far going 40 so I called to see how much it'd cost to tow it there and it would have cost $390 or $525...I was stressed. And I cried. But Sam was so great to reassure me that everything would be OKAY! Our friends showered out at the campsite and met us in town, but me and Sam hadn't showered yet so I just washed my hair with a hose at the gas station we were at....So rugged! :) Our friends Cj & Chris have family in Snowflake Arizona which is about 5 hours from Albuquerque and so Cj called one of their cousins and asked if he would be willing to meet us there and tow our truck back to Az.....AND HE WAS!! Oh my, I was relieved! We were all starving so we got some food at a little mexican place, and then started driving to Albuquerque going 40 the whole way. We have the BEST friends ever..they helped us out so much and stayed with us instead of going on, and followed behind us going slow for 2 hours! Oh, we quit pulling the Saturn, so there were 4 cars in a row in the freeway going 40 mph. :) But we made it and met up with their cousin and got the truck loaded up, ate some food, and then headed for Snowflake! I slept the entire way so it was a fast trip. :) We all stayed at the cousins house that night, had a REAL shower, and ate some real home cooked food! It was so nice...we were so grateful for them and all that they did for us! They saved us SO much money..all he wanted us to pay for was the gas. We were so SO thankful for them! Cj and Chris's dad was going to drive to Snowflake and tow the truck back to mesa, and he couldn't be there til Thursday morning so everyone just hung out Wednesday in Snowflake. I had to work thursday and Blayne was anxious to get home, so we left around noon to head back to Mesa, and everyone stayed to wait for Will(cj an chris's dad to get there the next day) IT FELT SO GOOD TO BE HOME!! I went over and saw Sam's family and picked up my truck that Sam's sister Tae had been using while we were gone. And IT isn't working right now so both of our trucks are broken down..ugh ugh ugh. So Sams mom had to take me and pick me up from work (which was soo nice to get back to, I missed the family soo much)!
Will got up to snowflake in the morning, but the truck didnt fit on the trailer so they had to find a new one, and then fix the wiring on the new one, and then load the truck and by the time that was all done it was about 7 pm, and they finally got on the road and a break pad went out on the trailer....and then a tire fell off...and then they got pulled over....so it took them FOREVER to get here! Sam FINALLY got home around 2 friday morning! I went to work, and Sam was able to sleep in a little bit, and then unloaded all our stuff out of the truck and took to a dealership here in town to get fixed, and our truck is still under warranty there so we can get it done for around $500! And that was our trip home from Virginia Beach.............So much for a nice relaxing trip eh?! :) We actually had a really fun time with all our friends despite all our truck issues! We are so so thankful we were able to travel home as a group and so thankful for Chris & Cj's family and all they did for us! The saved us about $1,ooo! Alright well I've blabbed long enough..here are some pics from our trip!