Lake Powell: The Journey Continues

So not even half way into Day One we'd  already had quite a few mishaps. I forgot to even mention that when we picked up the boat that morning Ronin spiked a fever and then barfed up orange juice all over himself in the car. Those clothes just got tossed. I was going to wash them but after a few days of forgetting they actually grew mold that wouldn't come out. Much easier to buy another 3$ shirt than scrub the old one. 

So back to the story...We called the tow guys and my brother to come get us. Ronin had to go to the bathroom and ate snacks the whole time. This is what happens when you do that all together:

So my brother being the wonderful person that he is, picked us up and we high-tailed it to Richfield to load up his family that he had left playing in a park. We talked with the car-fixing guys and they said the earliest we could get it back would be 2 days. They had to go to the junk yard to scrounge out a new part so we decided it would be fine to leave the car in Richfield for the week and pick it up when we came back. Now this plan would be great if it wasn't for the fact that there were 4 of us who would be cramming into the suburban that was already full with 8 other people. My brother and his family said they wouldn't care. We were skeptical but gave in and after a quick Arby's trip we were on our way.
**Please note that this is HIGHLY illegal and not recommended as an appropriate means of travel. ** (translation: don't try this at home kids.)

We had three older kids in the very back cargo sitting on bags, and 4 people to each row. The little kids did all have car seats, so I guess that part was responsible. (I'm hoping I can't be arrested by sharing this picture.)  The kids had fun for about the first 45 min, then I think the whole family was wishing they had not invited us. We tried to be as nice as possible and they didn't kick us out. Thank heaven for the video player!

So we were off!! After three hours of a drive and a little detour because we missed our turn-off we landed ourselves in Lake Powell. FINALLY! However it was around 10 at night, pitch dark (where are those city lights??) and we had already received a voice message from my mother who was already there saying we should just get a hotel room because they were lost in the dark on the lake and had no way of coming to get us.  

So for the second night of our journey we checked into a hotel. One more day of getting a shower! Luckily we got the last 2 rooms left and slept for maybe a total of 6 hrs. We all looked dead tired the next day and we really hadn't even started yet!

Finally after a LOOOOOOONG breakfast with non-existent waiters and 8 crazy kids, we met up with some family at the dock. Oh, just look at that sky.   *sigh*

I'm pretty sure it had been at least 1 year if not 2 since the boat had actually seen water. We dropped it in, revved up the engine, put the gear in drive and the throttle fell completely off! WHA!?!?!?!?!?! 

This was shocking. Just shocking. I think at this point Patrick was ready to blow a gasket. I'm pretty sure no one could tell how frustrated he was, except for me. We were pretty sad about it, but come on, what did we expect for a boat that is easily 15 yrs. old and constantly neglected?

SO we unloaded ALL our things from our broken boat to my BIL really nice, new, functioning boat and the women and chillins' were off to find the house boat while the men stayed behind to fix the first problem of the day. I felt just like a pioneer.

A few hours later Patrick arrived with the news that the boat would not be fixed while we were at the lake and would have to be dealt with at a later time. Just to get the part to fix it would be 2 days (and thats using overnight mail!) and then with the time to fix it, it just didn't add up to be worth it. So the boat went back on the trailer to wait out the week.

That night as we sat on the house boat and watched the sun set, we were determined to have fun in one of the most beautiful places on earth, no matter how pitted against us the universe was. And as the week went on, we did have fun. And it was beautiful. 
To be continually continued...