Coming Home

Coming home from Eureka Nevada, ipod playing and Nathan and I dancing and singing our little happy hearts out!  It had been such a wonderful weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Andersen on their alfalfa farm!  Well we were singing so loud that when the Garmin GPS system spoke we couldn't hear it...at first we thought that maybe we had missed a turn...we'll never know what it really said...Nathan looked down and on the charts it has a max speed and it said 105.  There was NO WAY we had been going that fast!  We startedthinking maybe we had...maybe that's why the Garmin spoke up, saying "Hey! You Crazy?!"  so we decided to be a little crazy and try to see if we really had been going that fast and if the Garmin would speak up again...We hit 100 and then heard the most horrible sound...the engine was being murdered and then it shut completely off, cutting off the power steering and not just not running but actually wanting to restrict the forward movement of the car.  We quickly pulled of to the side of the road in the middle of NOWHERE!   Nathan walked back a bit and picked something up off the side of the road...a piece of the engine block!  Oh my goodness, the stress of it all setting in!  I just wanted to hold me dear husband, the stress was written all over Nathan's face.  We hugged each other and said a prayer that the people who would be able to help us would be sent to us...we saw miracle after miracle! We know that Lord answers our prayers!

We didn't have service on our cell phones and evidently neither did anyone else cause it's just plain not out there.  We had 3 people stop to try to help us.  One of those took us into the nearest town 10 miles behind us...you really can't even call it a town.  Welcome to Boarder Nevada, located on the Nevada Utah boarder on highway 6/50.  There you'll find the Boarder Inn with a motel, casino, restaurant, gas pump, and RV park.  It is this tiny dot on a long stretch of highway.  65 miles to Ely and 96 to Delta - the two nearest towns.

We jumped on a pay phone to call Dad Andersen but really had no plans of what we were going to do.  We started asking around about towing companies and charges.  All options were expensive and small town mechanic shops in Ely and Delta were probably not even going to be open tonight or Sunday...Dad called us back and said that Uncle Jeff had AAA and would try to work it out to get us towed.  Both Nathan and I had tears in our eyes when we heard the news.  Just then this beautiful and kind faced woman approached me.  She said that they couldn't stop thinking about us.  They had just dropped off their motorhome and wanted to help tow our car from off the side of the highway and back to where we were with their truck!  I ran and told Nathan, who jumped into their truck and off he went.  I stayed to get the rest of the towing info from Uncle Jeff.  He said that we would be able to be towed for free and that they were on their way from Filmore to pick us and our car up. 

Nathan returned and we were smiling at all the blessings we were receiving.  "Come meet Tamara and Dave Cummings!  They are amazing people Liz".  He took me to their motorhome.  They were so concerned for us and willing to help.  They were prepared to be our step-in emergency Mom and Dad.  and Nathan was right, they are totally amazing and loving!  We feel so blessed to have met and been helped by them.  We went to eat dinner but were invited back to pass the time with them until our tow truck came.  (*for a super small place the food was very yummy. chicken bacon wraps on herbal tortillas...if anyone else stops there I highly suggest getting that!)  After dinner we went back and felt right at home talking to them and seeing pictures of family.  They drove us over to our car and sat an extra 20 minutes with us while we waited.  Talk about people who just went out of their way to help two stranded strangers. (*we so wish we had gotten a picture with Tamara and Dave)

The tow truck got there at 10:30 and off we went.

Richard was the name of our towing rescuer, also a super nice man.  Kinda hearted, generous, and amazing people are all around us! and we were so glad we got to meet so many of them.  I passed out shortly into the drive on the backseat of the tow truck but Nathan was a trooper and helped Richard stay awake on that long, dark drive.  We got to Filmore a little before 1am.  Our engine is fried!  We've thrown rods and we'll need to have a completely new engine put in...$2400...but other than that we have no other expenses.  The towing was free and Uncle Jeff and Andrew drove down to Filmore at 1am to pick-up us two hoodlums!  We got back home to Provo around 3am Sunday morning but were able to get up and be in church for our 9am meeting.

So our car is still in Filmore and we're trying to figure out what to do next!  Do we pay to have to all fixed up or do we not worry about it...we'll have to think on this...

Long story short: There are AMAZING people out there, who are willing to help.  The Lord answers prayers and helps lead people who can help right to you even when they didn't plan on being there!  A HUGE Thank you to Tamara and Dave Cummings, Richard, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Monique, Andrew, Dad, and mostly the Lord!!