Smooth Sailing

Jeremy and I have had seven years of smooth sailing. Nothing ever goes wrong. Take for example last weekend. We have been wanting to go camping for a long time. We bought a tent a couple years ago as a Christmas present to each other. We set it up twice and slept in it once - in our living room. So, for our anniversary we decided it would be a cheap way to celebrate and something we really were excited about.  We tried to reserve the perfect campsite, but we ended up with one that sounded good near a place called Mormon Lake. The website showed pictures of  the beautiful trees and said there was good trout fishing, etc.  Then as we were preparing, we discovered our tent was MIA. We don't have a large place, there are only so many places it could be and it wasn't in any of them.  Since we had no tent, we grudgingly decided just to do a day trip. Then day of, Friday, Jeremy surprised me and bought us a new version of our old tent in UT Longhorn colors. (He had no idea, he's colorblind. :) But, he does still have school pride.) We scrambled around to pack up and were careful not to walk on the floors too much, because we had just had the carpets cleaned that morning. I  thought it would be easier for it to dry if we weren't around trying to spill things on it. We met Lynne and switched cars, so she would have the carseats and headed off. It was a beautiful drive and we loved the area we camped in. We got there about 8. It is just south of Flagstaff, so it was a bit of a drive.  After we got off the freeway and drove to the campsite, we saw an entire herd of deer, complete with babies. We also saw two other small groups of deer. It was so neat. I think I could live near Flagstaff.  Beautiful trees, very green and meadows full of wild flowers.  We set up camp, built a fire and had hot cocoa and soup. It was great. The next morning, I actually slept in, no little people waking me up. It was heavenly. Jeremy made us breakfast and did the dishes. :) Then we packed up to go explore Mormon Lake, hike and go fishing.  As we left the camp site, Lynne's car was acting funny and we discovered it was a flat tire.  So, we took everything out of the trunk and changed the tire. The spare was a small donut tire.  We decided to still go forward and made it to Mormon Lake Lodge and still couldn't find the Lake. Turns out there is no water in it!  It is a beautiful meadow surrounded by trees, but we were expecting some water! The map shows a blue body of water. Oh, well. After exploring the area, a bit, we headed back toward Phoenix hoping we could find a Discount Tire. We stopped for lunch in Sedona, which is beautiful in a completely different way, with red rock and a lower elevation. There was no Discount Tire, so we got back on the freeway toward the next stop on the map. But, the donut couldn't stand the pressure any longer and gave in. We called a tow trunk and a very nice tow trunk driver towed us to Anthem to have the tire changed.  While we were waiting on the side of I-17, I wasn't exactly sure where we were - so it took a bit to find us- the glue connecting the bottom of my shoe decided the freeway was too hot and didn't want to hold any longer :). Thankfully, everything worked out. Lynne's tire was under warranty and the Insurance should reimburse for the tow. Even though things didn't exactly go as we planned, Jeremy and I still had a great time together and were glad we went. And especially glad the kids weren't there.  That might have put us over the edge right around the second flat tire! :) 

Oh, and I didn't think about leaving the fans on or a window open when we left Tucson. So, when we walked in to our house on Sunday night, we were overwhelmed by the smell of near mildewed carpet. I spent most of Monday working on it and it even smells good now - like peaches.