Lake Powell Day One

We love the time that we spend each year at Lake Powell. It's better than Disneyland for the hoodlums, and I would rather go to Powell than anywhere I have ever traveled before. The ride is long and filled with plenty 'are we there yets,' mostly from me, but I try to space out my inquiries, so as not to annoy anyone.

Saturday we left bright and early, hoping to be on the lake by noon. About 10:00 as we were rolling through Price, a man in a pick-up started waving frantically at us, and motioning for us to pull-over. I thought he wanted to beat Dave up for driving so slow, I know I did, but alas he was a good Samaritan trying to tell us we had been losing the bearings off the boat trailer for the last mile.

That of course means nothing to me, but apparently it is incredibly dangerous to drive with your back wheel about to fall off. Luckily we were at the exit to Price and we were able to drive the trailer to the local fix-it shop. The young guy at the shop studied the trailer carefully, nodding his head and grunting, then went and got another dude who came out and they grunted and shook their heads together. About 20 minutes into the whole deal, they had four or five gentlemen huddled around the trailer, nodding, grunting and shaking their heads at us. Dave and I made eye contact a few times, but I could see that he was not understanding much of it either. Eventually they told us to come back 5 or 6 hours later, bring 600 bucks and we would be on our way. Yay!

My BFF since 1st grade, Amber, lives in Price, and happened to be coming to Powell with us, so we hung out at her house and wasted some time at the local McDonald's play land. We went back after 5 hours, and they said come back in 2 hours. I almost lost it. We went back after 2 hours and drove away with the trailer. When it started smoking after 2 blocks, we went back and were there another hour and a half. I did lose it. There are really only so many knock-knock jokes I can take, that don't make any sense, and include the word fart, or some form of a farting noise. I had a little nervous breakdown in my pillow, which I feel is more appropriate than smothering someone with it.

Dawson needed to use the bathroom for the 17th time, and I refused to take him back to the Maverick, across the street where the employees were starting to get suspicious, so Dave took him to use the mechanics, Employee Only toilet. When he got in the car, Dawson said in his sweet little angel voice, "Mom, you have got to go in that bathroom. It is so clean and smells so good. You wouldn't even believe it." I told him that he was right, and I thought he was teasing me. He wouldn't let up though, and finally talked Hannah into using it. The look on her face when she stepped out of the bathroom was priceless. She was a little shell shocked when she got back in the car and just kept muttering to herself about taking a shower. Dawson thought it was pretty funny.

We eventually got on our way, and made it to Lake Powell about 10:30. We were pretty grateful to be making it at all, since we could have died in a fiery crash, and that would have sucked.