Thursday afternoon: the part is in, but van is still not starting. New battery, check. New starter, check. New plan - rent another car, make the most of being stuck in Denver while Tim hunts down an alternator to replace the one in the van.
Friday morning Tim drops the kids and me off at the Children's Museum of Denver.
I spend the day watching the kids have a great time while Tim not only finds an alternator (from a junkyard) but also finds a guy able to rebuild the one currently in the van.
creating a bubble around himself - how cool is that?
liquid nitrogen filled bubbles drop from the ceiling in this exhibit.
By evening the van is running. We celebrate and pack up for a morning departure...
Back on the road!
happy little travelers!
Six hundred fifty miles (or 10 hours of driving, plus breaks) and we arrive after dark to a completely full campground at Zion National Park. It is a Saturday night afterall, and the weather is an unseasonably warm for the area. Crap. What to do? There ARE sites (and parking) open for tent only...Yes, we become "those" people. We park, pop up the top and sleep. The next morning we get our warning that RV's aren't to camp there (duh, but legally we're not an RV either!) We pack up and move to a day
use area and hike for the morning.
Conrad earns his Junior Ranger badge for Zion National Park.
The van is starting, but kind of slow. When we fill up for fuel in St George UT, it doesn't re-start. A local gives us a jump and we start to wonder about that new battery we purchased in Denver. The Napa Auto store isn't open on Sundays in St George but it is in Las Vegas. And with the time change, we just barely make it before closing time. Not only is it a bad battery - it's FOUR YEARS OLD!! Looks brand new, sparkling clean, and Tim shows them the receipt to prove we just bought it 6 days earlier. They sell us another new battery and no more starting problems the rest of the trip!
The first Joshua trees we see.. (not to the park yet)
And finally, after dark (10:30pm local time) we pull into Joshua Tree National Park. Twenty miles into the park, the nearest campground, we come upon this scene just outside the campground. Both driver and passenger walked from the accident, but none of us had cell phone coverage. We turned around and drove them back to town, adding another hour to our drive.
The trip home was much less eventful, and three days passed surprisingly fast. The kids did quite well - good job me for being so prepared with snacks and activities to do in the car. ;-)
