This past summer we spent the week of 4th of July in Minnesota with my brother and his family. We rented a cute cabin on Turtle River Lake and had the most magical week on the lake. Getting there however was a nightmare. The day before our trip we discovered that the van Dan thought he rented was in fact never rented! Our 14 year old Honda Odyssey is not good for cross country road trips, but we decided to take our chances on it since we had recently put almost $3,000 towards repairs and maintenance. Big mistake! About 45 minutes from Mark and Courney's house, we broke down on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere Minnesota. It was pitch black and mosquitos everywhere. We were lucky we even had cell reception to call Mark and a tow truck. Mark and Courtney drove out to save us. Mark stayed with Dan to wait for the tow truck and Courtney drove us and all of the lugguage from our van to their house. It was midnight by the time we got there. To top it all off, we found out the sad news that Dan's mother unexpectedly passed away. So we were stuck in Minnesota with no working vehicle and a funeral we somehow needed to be at by the end of the week. We also kept getting our credit cards denied because we were traveling across the country. Courtney had to save me at Walmart when my credit card got denied. So frustrating!!
Thankfully our van was fixed by thursday and we risked another huge cross country trip from Minnesota to Utah for the funeral, and then through the deserts of New Mexico back home to Houston. I don't know how we made it! We only had to cut our Minnesota trip short by a day and still had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful weather and lake. Mark brought his boat for tubing and fishing. The kids and Nova had a blast! I only took a few photos with my big camera of the kids on our last day there. The rest are from cell phone. We are grateful for the time we also got to spend with family in Utah. We even got to visit my brother Jeremy in Idaho and see his new baby! The drive from Minnesota to Utah was so beautiful and we got to experience parts of the country we had never been to. It was quite the adventure and a road trip we will never forget!
