To get there, we ended up driving to Wendover, down to Ely, through Eureka and Austin and over to Fallon. We left Thursday morning at 2 am and got home Friday afternoon around 3:30. It was sort of last minute notice so it was really nice that my parents were so willing to keep Mya for us. Every trip we've gone on to deliver these trailers we've had something happen to make it memorable...whether it took us 18 hours just to get out of Utah due to a snow storm or picking up a hitch-hiker (he wasn't really a hitch-hiker but was a guy who Justin met at a gas station and needed to get home quick). This trip definitely had it's moments, too, that made it "interesting" and memorable.The Gas Light - We almost ran out of gas 3 times! 1 - Before Wendover 2- Before Ely and 3 - Before Fallon. When we drove through Tooele, we still had half a tank and figured that should be plenty to get to Wendover. But that last half dropped so fast and pretty soon we could see the Wendover lights in the distance and the gast light was on. It seemed to take forever to get to Wendover. You could see the lights from so far away that we'd drive 5 or 10 minutes and it still seemed just as far away. We made it though with the needle below E. After Wendover there were NO towns or gas stations between there and Ely. Again, the gas light came on and we had no idea how far away Ely was. We were lucky again and didn't have to walk in the middle of the night and were able to make it to the next town. At Ely, we decided to buy a gas can and had to try 2 different gas stations before we found one and filled that up. The third time wasn't as big of a deal to me. We had the 5 trailers delivered by then and were just pulling an empty trailer and had the small gas can with us. But still, towns were so far apart from each other that it seemed a little ridiculous that we were almost running out between towns.
The Chosen Route - There were a few ways we could have gone to get there. Since we couldn't go faster than 60 mph, Justin decided it would be better to go the shortest distance. We had no idea until this trip that there were so many mountains in Nevada! I thought it was all flat and dessert, but if you go right through the middle, it is mountain after mountain...plus a lot of fog to add to that and curvy roads. Normally fog doesn't bother me, but it does when you're pulling a trailer that has 5 other trailers on top of it. When we got to Eureka, the lady at the gas station (she's from Salt Lake but moved out there) asked Justin where we were from and where we were going then asked "Why did you come THIS way?" We ended up going home the way she told us to and it was so much better! Hardly any hills and the roads were straight!
Check Engine Light - Right after we left Eureka, the check engine light came on. The next town (Austin) was so far away and so we just kept driving hoping everything would be okay. To top it off, we had no signal with our phones, so if we did break down, we wouldn't be able to call anyone and there were no cars on the road. We'd go so far in between passing a car on this road! So I was way nervous and read about the check engine light and we were hoping it just came on because of emission problems...but it made us feel better when it said that you're usually okay to keep driving the truck around, but to just get it to the dealer as soon as possible to get it checked out. We were way relieved when the light went off after we filled up with gas at the next town...so we're thinking it had to do with the emissions...like bad gas or something.
The Brakes - There was one really steep mountain we drove down and at the bottom of the mountain was Austin. The way they set up the town was weird - the town was still on the mountain and not at the bottom where it's flat. But after that mountain, the brakes were so wet and hot that when Justin went to stop, we drove right past the gas station and had to turn around. It was only bad for a little bit, but not scary bad, it just took us a lot longer to stop. That town also plowed their snow to the middle of the road instead of off of the road, so we actually had to pass the first gas station since there was so much snow piled up in the middle of the road and we wouldn't have been able to cross without having problems.
You Have Arrived At Your Destination - This was the funniest part of the trip. After Austin, our next stop would be where we needed to drop off the trailers. The lady at the Austin gas station told us that the base would be on the left side of the road right before we got into Fallon. So that's what we watched for. We were seriously driving through this valley and it was just lots of sage brush and just flat, so you could see out really far. Then out a ways there were mountains but they were pretty far out there. Well we were probably about half-way through the valley part (where we see nothing but sage brush) and the GPS said, "In point nine miles, you will have arrived at your destination." We started wondering if she said another number before the point nine because there was nothing within a mile of us. Pretty soon, the GPS said, "You have arrived at your destination." So we stopped and started looking around. On the right side of the road there was a mail box and a dirt road that went out a ways. But we were pretty confused since the lady at the gas station said it would be on the left side of the road. Luckily, we had a signal again (which we hadn't had one for very long) and Justin was able to call the place to see if we were there. We were. We just drove down that dirt road for a little while until we got to the gate to get on that small secured area to deliver the trailers. (The actual main base in Fallon is on the left side of the road - so that lady did know what she was talking about.)
After that, the trip went really well. We were both sick with colds and Justin did lose his voice before we got to Wendover, so most of the time I was carrying on a conversation with myself and had to answer or make most of the phone calls for Justin. He did have enough of a voice for delivering the trailers though. We ended up continuing driving to Fallon, then up to I-80, then straight home from there. We stopped at Winnemucca and stayed the night. After Justin checked us in at the hotel, we grabbed our bags and went to the room. As we were opening the door, someone from the inside of the room started opening the door and it was the guy in front of Justin in line to get a room. They had assigned us both the same room. So we got that taken care of then went and took a couple hour nap. We were going to go to dinner, but were so tired we just ordered pizza to get delivered to our room then went back to bed for the rest of the night. The next morning, Justin had a text on his phone from a guy he works with that said "You're double parked." So Justin text him to see where he was at and he had driven through Winnemucca to get gas on his way to California and noticed our truck and trailer. It was really funny.
It was actually really nice to get away and spend a lot of time together. Most of the trip went really good, but we just had those few moments that made it something to laugh at and remember!
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