October 31, 2024 Halloween

 October 31, 2024

Halloween

Brittany dressed up as a cat.

I dressed up as a Minion.  For work we were all minions in the office.

Brittany decorated the front room.

October 27, 2024 Sunrise

 October 27, 2024

Sunrise

Looked outside today and saw this beautiful sunrise.

October 20, 2024 Pumpkin Decorating Time

 October 20, 2024

Pumpkin Decorating Time

Had fun with our pumpkin creations tonight.

October 18, 2024 Trailer up for Kylee

 October 18, 2024

Trailer up for Kylee

Today Jon and I drove the trailer over to Kylee and Porter's apartment to give her the white 4 Runner to drive and follow us to where she wants to go hunting.  She wanted to go up Fairview Canyon.  Unfortunately yesterday and today it rained and therefore snowed up in the mountains, so we knew it might be messy.

We got to a snowmobile parking lot and parked the trailer to drive the 4 Runner to see how the road was.  In the parking lot there seemed to be about 4-6 inches of snow already.  We were slipping on the pavement.  Not a good sign.  There were several trailers parked in both parking lots on both sides of the road.  Probably a good idea.

We drove up the little side road and over to the spot Kylee and Porter had picked.  However, we didn't think we would be able to get the truck and trailer up that little road.  If we lost traction we wouldn't have anywhere to turn around and we couldn't back down.  So we nixed that idea and drove down the road a little further.

Ended up finding another spot that we thought we could get the trailer into.  So we went back to get the trailer.  We had Kylee follow us into the spot.  We did have a hard time with all the mud and snow.  There were also ruts in the road.  We ended up finally getting to the other side of the trees.  But when we were trying to get it into a level area, the truck wouldn't go into reverse anymore.  So we ended up having to raise the trailer front up way up high in the air in order to get it close to level.  It was annoying that we weren't able to get the truck reversed, it kept making bad noises, so he didn't get it where he wanted.

By the time the trailer was all set up and got the 4 Runner unloaded it was a little after 6:00.  Kylee had to run down to Fairview so she could get ahold of Porter so she could tell him where she had parked. Jon still had to try to get the truck to go back into a gear.  He had to keep trying for quite a while before we could start onto the main road, but he was finally able to get it into gear. We still needed to go pick up the jeep from the location Jon had hunted with Rob and his boys...which was still over 1 hr away.

We gut to Huntington around 7:00 or so and got gas and decided to get something to eat from the store.  We got store chicken tenders, fries and a drink.  Ate in the truck.  As I was moving the coats in the back seat I noticed we had Kylee's gun for hunting.  Dang it!!  So I texted both she and Porter and told her we would bring it back to her tonight but it would be around 10:00.  It was probably my poor decision to just not go and return it at that point, but I told Jon I didn't want to have to drive all the way back again a different day to pick up the jeep.  We were only about an hour away from his spot.

We started up the road to Joes Valley Reservoir, they were still up the road past that point.  The road started out fine but then quickly started getting more and more muddy.  Then we got to a small narrow part of the road with the mountain on one side and a drop off on the other.  Of course it got all goopy and we were sliding all over the place in a full size truck on a small narrow road.  Fortunately we didn't come across another car trying to pass us because I don't know how anyone would have fit in all that mud.  It was an absolutely awful road to be in with all the mud.  I was terrified and my heart rate was just racing.  We kept sliding and slipping.  It seemed we got very close to the drop off several times.  Jon was very aware that I didn't like this road.  He didn't comment a lot, I did apologize that I wasn't quiet in my dislike of the death road.

Finally made it to the hunting/camping spot around 8:30. So we needed to hook up the jeep.  Fixed the rain fly on Rob't tent and then started back down the scary road.  Jon ended up sliding the vehicles into the ditch leaning towards the mountain so we wouldn't keep sliding towards the drop off.  Again we were lucky no one was heading up the road as we were going down.  Since he had to drive so slowly we didn't get down to the bottom until about 9:30 - 9:45.  We obviously weren't going to make it back to Kylee by 10:00.  We stopped at a rest stop and checked out the tires.  The truck tires were so covered in mud there was no tread.  No wonder we were slipping around so much.

Around 11:15 or 11:30 we made it to Kylee and Porters spot.  I walked from the road to the trailer with the gun so Jon didn't have to deal with the mud.  I called out to them so they knew I was coming.  They met me at the door.  I explained how when we had stopped in the parking lot earlier we had moved some of the stuff from the 4 runner to the trailer so I could sit in the back seat.  Jon had us put the gun in the back of the truck instead of putting it in the trailer..which we immediately forgot about.  Kylee noticed pretty much immediately after returning from finding Porter (after we left) that the gun was missing.  She was panicked.  They went to that same parking lot and asked at least one person if they had seen a gun on the ground.  Porter was about to ask another person but checked his phone and noticed our text.  So they stopped looking and I am sure Kylee was very relieved that we had it instead of it being lost.  So they headed back to camp.

After we left them for the evening we started on our way to Fairview.  Of course we ran into wind, then fog and blowing snow.  

Picture doesn't do the lack of visibility justice

Such a fun drive this evening.  When that cleared out we were driving for a little while we saw a deer on the left side of the road, right on the road.  Then turned to face forward and there was a deer that was on the right side of the road that I am so surprised that we didn't clip with the truck or the mirror.  It startled us pretty good.  Then a little while later with it getting later and colder the water on the road started turning to ice. We hit a couple patches of ice as we braked we felt it.  I was so ready to be home.

It was a long drive. Around midnight I started having a hard time staying awake.  I really tried but I am sure I nodded a few or several times.  Jon had a hard time once we were to Nephi. Still had another hour at that point.  We finally rolled into our driveway about 2:00 am.  Unloaded what we had to and went to bed.  Boy was it a long stressful day.  From setting up the trailer to the driving experiences. Glad it's over.