Labor Day: An Adventure Story

Once upon a time, we decided it would be fun to take a dirt road drive on Ant Flat Road to Hardware Ranch and then on to Round Valley and Laketown.  We'd play at the park in Garden City, maybe splash in the lake if the (record warm) Labor Day crowds could be managed, and then chow on some LaBeau's burgers and shakes for lunch.  Then we'd cruise home through Logan Canyon, maybe taking a detour up to Tony Grove, and stopping in Providence for an afternoon/evening of visiting and playing with cousins.  That was the plan.  This was the reality:

So we awoke on Labor Day morning, ate some breakfast, threw some swim gear and snacks and water bottles in the car (just in case), and set off on our journey.  We kept calling it an adventure, but little did we know how true that title would become!  We were driving along on the tame dirt road, enjoying the scenery and our audiobook, when, suddenly, we heard a loud boom/pop and Gregg noticed the car was pulling to the right.  We pulled over and stopped and Gregg hopped out to check on the status of the tire and immediately noticed the front passenger side tire was flat.  Doh!  Then, when I hopped out to help him retrieve the spare and then we saw the extent of the situation.  The back passenger side tire was flat, too!  Argh!!  And also, what the?!  Like, how does that even happen?  Sigh.  This adventure had just turned into an Adventure with a capital A.

We were about 8 miles from Laketown and neither of us had cell service.  I wondered if I should start walking down the road, but I didn't know what I would do if I did that.  Luckily, we didn't have to wait long for help to come by.  About five minutes after the blowout, a couple dirt bikers came down, headed toward town.  (Miracle #1!)  We flagged them down, and they told us their buddy with a Razor was just behind them.  He had three extra seats, and they were all super willing to help out, so Gregg hopped in with them and they drove him into Laketown to see about getting the tires fixed at the shop there in town.  While he was there, he sent up an SOS to my parents, who were so willing and gracious to drop their plans for the day to come rescue us.  (Miracle #2!)  The kids and I hung out at the car until they brought him back (so nice!).  We had plenty of snacks and water because I thought to grab more than I thought we needed right before we left home that morning (miracle #3) and Gregg found that we could get service less than a mile down the road (miracle #4) so we walked down and found some shady aspens (miracle #5 - did I mention it was a hot day?) to hang out under while we waited for my parents.

The plan was for my parents to drive to Bear Lake and find us on the dirt road, grab the flat tires and take them to be replaced at the shop in Laketown, then head back to the car to put the new tires back on.  That is mostly what happened, but as we got calling around Laketown and Garden City we found that no one had tires our size in stock!  A quick call to my parents found that they hadn't left Logan yet (they were at the mouth of the canyon right when I called, so close call!) so they agreed to find and buy us some tires and bring them up to the Laketown shop where they could be install on our rims.  Since it was labor day, all of the tire shops were closed, but luckily Sam's Club was open and had the size we needed and they were able to buy two and head back up the canyon to find us.

Meanwhile, we just sat on the side of the road, eating our snacks and drinking our water and otherwise just hanging out.  The kids were incredible!  For having such a wrench thrown into our plans and not having a lot to do on the side of a dirt road, they were amazing.  They had great attitudes and the day turned out to be pretty fun despite the tire fiasco.  Lots of other vehicles of all shapes and sizes came by as we sat there, and I was heartened to see that most of them stopped to ask if we were okay, if we needed any food or water, if we had a plan.  That made my faith in humanity high, for sure.

Eventually my parents pulled up in their truck and we piled in and rode with them the mile-ish up the road to where we left the car on a spare and a jack.  We grabbed the two flats and turned around to head into town to get them fixed/replaced.  The kids, my mom and I hung out at a little park while the men took care of the tire situation.  Finally, around 3:30 pm, we were back in our car and on the road.  (The double flat event occurred around 10:00 am, so it had been a long day, to say the least!)  My mom and dad had invited my grandparents and siblings and others to their house for a bbq in the backyard, so they couldn't stay to enjoy LaBeau's with us.  We chowed down on our food and then headed to Providence to hang out with the fam for a couple hours before heading home and crashing hard.  What a day!

Back tire flatness (if you look closely you can see the slice in
the side wall).

Front tire, too.

Just hangin' out.

Still hangin'.

We're so glad grandma came to hang out
with us!

LaBeau's at last!

The sky was spectacular as we drove through Perry and Willard.

I found this after the fact on an old pinterest
board that I had forgotten I had even created.
(haha)  But I thought it perfectly described
our situation on Labor Day.  We could have
had a rotten day, but we decided to make the
best of it, and everyone kept a good attitude
and we have a funny memory to look back on.