The Freddy Special

 This truck has a story attached to it. 

Merril bought a wrecked 2013 Ford F-150 March 2017 and ran into a guy name Freddy at Copart when he was picking it up. Freddy said he could fix it and Merril dropped it off the next day. Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of it wrecked but the whole front end was smashed in. 

Over the next few months, Merril bought some parts and took them to Freddy and gave Freddy cash to work on the truck. He was working on the truck for a while but not very fast. Then he moved shops like 3 times. Merril said he really needed this truck fixed so Freddy gave him another truck to drive for like 6 months. Then Freddy needed the borrowed truck back. So we gave back the borrowed truck and he rented Merril a truck for a week. 

Then over the course of like a year, Freddy gave us about 3 or 4 trucks to borrow. Around September 2019, we ended up with a crappy borrowed Durango. Then Merril couldn't get a hold of him for a long time, at least 6 months. Merril kept trying to call him and after a while, he started talking to Merril again. By now Freddy wasn't in Las Vegas anymore but was hauling cars around the U.S. We didn't know where the F-150 was at this point. 

Merril just kept calling him for the next 3 years. Sometimes Freddy would answer but mostly not. At this point, I'd completely written off the truck and Merril didn't like to talk about it because he was doing everything he could think of but still didn't have the truck. When Freddy would answer the phone, he seemed to indicate that the truck was mostly fixed but it was either stuck in a shop or he wasn't in Vegas and couldn't get to it. 

So then one day, Merril called Freddy and he called right back and said, "You can pick up the truck on Saturday in Vegas." We were cautiously optimistic. Merril hadn't been able to confirm we could pick up on Saturday until around 2 p.m. Merril called me and said to try to get the Durango, that's been sitting in our backyard for 3 years, ready to go! The kids and I got the Durango on the trailer and we all loaded up and headed to Vegas! Freddy told us it wasn't perfect. It still has some little things that needed some work but we just wanted it back. 

HERE IT IS! 🤯🤯🤯

I can't believe we got it back. I've written off this project so long ago. It took just over 5 years to get this deal sorted out! The only reason it happened was because Merril is so persistent! He would call Freddy's 2 phones almost everyday! I bet Freddy is so glad to get Merril off his back! It only has like 50,000 miles on it because it sat for so long. Although we dropped it off with 45,000 so that means someone was driving it. 🤔 Whatever. What's done is done. Let's just forget about the whole thing. 😋

Good job getting it back Merril!

Mom's Offroad Recovery

Jack wanted to go to the sand dunes in the Ranger because we've gotten so much rain! He thought the rain would make the sand so easy to drive on. But he called me and needed a rescue.

Juliet was with him. I'm glad I have the skills to drive out and help my kids. I'm glad my kids want to go on adventures. I'm glad Merril encouraged me to learn to drive in all different terrains. Today was fun!

Seattle and Home

When in Seattle, one must see the market.

Lots of gorgeous flowers and we saw the people throw a fish.

Mikayla found this fish statue down by the water and wanted her picture taken with it. Lol.

Then we went to the Boeing Museum of Flight right by our sketchy hotel. I saw a concord! My first ever. I've always wanted to fly on the concord but they discontinued service. At least I was able to walk through an actual plane!

The nose of these planes look so cool to me. The little kids were done with the museum so I took them back to the hotel to rest. Merril and Juliet stayed at the museum for a little while longer.

After we came back to get them, Merril and Mark decided to start the drive back to Hurricane. Juliet, Mikayla and I, stayed at the sketchy motel one more night and caught the airport shuttle home.

I also discovered a Bruster's Ice Cream store in Las Vegas. Maxine has been going on about how great the ice cream is. We stopped there on the way home. It was so hot and you couldn't eat inside.

Maxine included a couple cute pictures of her and Sister Storm and the zone mascot, Zion the dinosaur.

I especially like this one by the temple. Lol.

Maxine and Sister Storm and struggling a little bit but they are making the best of it. Sometimes companionships are hard.

 

Vancouver to Seattle

With some leftover camping supplies and a quick trip to a little market, we made french toast in the park.   

I was dragging my feet a little but it was fantastic and delicious. 

A zip line was part of this Canadian playground equipment. The kids had a blast on it.

Then we jumped on a ferry boat and took a ride to an island.

Then we turned around and rode right back and headed to Seattle.

We the hit the Space Needle first.

This glass wall was scary.

The the glass revolving floor was scarier. 

It was hard for me to walk on. It doesn't look strong enough to support people. I got better at walking on it after a while.

 

Crossing the Border to Canada

Moving on from Mt. Rainier, we headed to Canada. We stopped at Snoqualmie Falls in Washington.

There was a pretty walk/hike by the falls and we wanted to stretch our legs.

Here we come Canada! This is my first trip to Canada! I'm 42. It shouldn't have taken this long! 

This arch was by the border station.

First stop in Canada: Tim Hortons! Merril always stops by Tim Hortons when he's in Canada. It's like a donut and coffee shop but also has salads, wraps, sandwiches and soup.

The donuts are slightly less sweet than American donuts and I think better. Tim Hortons! Open a location here!

Cool bridge!

Basically we got to Canada and went to a hotel to sleep. The next day we woke up and went to church. 

Bonus: The church building shares the parking lot with the Vancouver Temple! So we were able to walk around the temple grounds after church!

Then we visited a botanical garden.

Lots of pretty stuff there!

There was a zen garden. These two needed to chill out.

Then we went to Lynn Creek and walked across this cool suspension bridge and the Baden Powell Trail. He was the founder of the boy scouts of America.

Some dudes were jumping into the falls. They were wearing wetsuits but there were a couple park officials watching them with nervous eyes. So Merril and I stopped and talked with them for a minute about search and rescue.

Such a pretty stroll through the woods!

Our hotel this night was on the water in Vancouver. It was pretty nice!

On the way to Canada!

We are on our way to Canada. We are meeting Merril at Mt. Rainier for a radio repeater setup and then on to the Pacific Northwest! Girls are driving up with the gear and stopped at Lagoon and met up with Nicole.

At Lagoon, Julie and Nicole took off and Mikayla and I had a great time doing whatever we wanted.

Juliet has her learner's permit and she drove a lot on the way to Portland to pick up Daddy.

Merril and Mark barely caught a flight to Portland Oregon. The only reason they made it on the plane was because the plane was held at the gate because of a maintenance issue. I picked up Merril and Mark and drove up to Mt Rainier. We were lucky with the weather. Mt. Rainier is often obscured with clouds. We were able to see it with fantastic clarity.

First we had to hustle and get a radio repeater set up. I've only helped Merril take down radio repeaters. So was fun to watch him set up and to snag a picture of him.

After getting the radios set up, we went up Mt. Rainier. We hiked but it was very snowy on the trail.

We saw a killer waterfall on the way down.

We camped close to the repeater. There's danger of bears and I was a little nervous that one would try to eat us. We were lucky and didn't have an encounter.

Mikayla found a frog.

Can I say it was just beautiful? So so pretty!

As we headed north to Vancouver, we stopped at a roadside stand and got some Rainier cherries. They were seriously so good! I love cherries but Rainier cherries are so good and more expensive. We hit the season just right!