Ever since I saw a friend's pictures of Glacier National Park several years ago, I have wanted to go. When I moved up to Utah and had a roommate from Montana, I knew I definitely needed to go. Sydnee and her family were nice enough to let us come up and stay with them in tiny Belt, MT (20 miles outside Great Falls). That place is amazing! But, before I can get into the awesomeness that is Montana, I have to talk about the 5 days it took us to get there.
Day 1- Monday, July 1st. The little sister and I leave hot and sweaty AZ for slightly less hot Utah. We make it with no problems and arrive in Orem at our brother's house that night.
Day 2- Tues, July 2nd. We hang out with Dustin, Heather, and little Kayla who is just learning to crawl. I think I may be biased, but she is the cutest thing ever. We have a relaxing day of eating out, Netflix, and teaching Kayla to climb on the love sack.
Day 3- Wed, July 3rd. We accidentally sleep in, but are the road by 10 a.m. I planned on filling up again in Idaho Falls before jumping off into the great expanse that is Montana. We pass Pocatello, then a small-ish town called Blackfoot. Two minutes north of Blackfoot, I hear a thunk noise, the engine light comes on, and the car begins to decelerate. I'm surprised I didn't panic, because honestly I had no idea what was happening. I pulled the car over to the side of the interstate, and immediately called AAA, which I had never used before. All I know is that I had the card in my wallet and my mom said to use it in case of emergency.
Well this sure felt like an emergency to me! They called me a tow truck, which arrived about 20 minutes later. Not bad! The driver was a super nice guy who felt bad for us two girls stuck in rural Idaho. He was LDS and really helpful, probably not the same experience we would get in AZ :) He took us Danny's auto repair in Blackfoot, and we waited while they looked at the car to figure out what was wrong. Silly me, I thought it was just a simple battery problem. Turns out it was really complicated!! Something about the timing belt, water pump, pistons, all this car stuff that I knew nothing about. Long story short, the car took A WEEK to fix!!
So of course when we find out that it was a long repair, we had to find somewhere to stay until we could figure something out! My parents, bless their hearts, were working on finding us somewhere to stay from 900 miles away. My mom found a Bishop Mattsen (the Church is true, y'all!) and him and his family took us in! There's not much I can say about them because they were honestly nice beyond words. Treated us like their own! So luckily we had a place to stay that night.
Day 4- Thurs, July 4th. Oh, the blessed Independence Day! Here me and Chic thought we would be spending it in Belt, instead we spent it with complete strangers in a small town in Blackfoot. My mom had reserved a rental car for us the night before, and I had to use my credit card in order to get it. However, I hadn't used my card in forever (or made a payment on it) and so there wasn't enough on it to rent the car. I was so sad! I was hoping to get to Belt that night. I debated getting a hotel room for the day until the payment went through on the credit card the next day (dang you holiday!) and me and Chic were just gonna kick it in Pocatello since the Mattsen's were on their way out of town for the day.
However, the Mattsen's said "nope, you're coming with us!"So we ended up spending the day with most of their entire extended
family at a lake in eastern Idaho! You would think it would be awkward but we
were just grateful to be doing something fun on the 4th. Their
family took us in and treated us like one of their own. It was a super fun day!
Day 5- Friday, July 5th. The credit card has to work this
time. It just has to! I called the credit card company early in the morning and
specifically asked them if I made a charge for x amount of dollars, would it go
through? They said yes and so we were once again on our way to Pocatello to get
our rental car. Luckily my mom was able to find us a cheaper one than the one
before, and I was excited to finally be on our way again! I was on edge when
the guy ran my card, and when his face fell as he said, “I’m sorry, it
declined” I thought I was in nightmare. WHAT. Hands shaking, I quickly called
the credit card company again and asked them why my card wasn’t going through. I
could barely keep my voice calm because I honestly was about to lose it! Well
they fixed the problem in a couple minutes, the card worked, and we GOT THE
RENTAL CAR finally! And that takes us to part 2. Also if anyone can think of a good spiritual application for this story, please let me know. I know
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