Thursday May 25th – Friday May 26th

Hey guys!

Espe writing & I am very excited to finally get started with this adventure blog. Woohoo!!

Thankfully, I am in much better spirits than I was 24 hours ago. To say the least, Gustavo and I have already had an adventure & our trip hasn’t even really started yet.

For those of you who don’t know, on May 25^th Gustavo and I started a month long road trip that will take us all across the Rocky Mountains & the West Coast. We will drive through multiple states and explore many national parks along the way. This is a trip that we have been planning for a year and we could not be more excited to finally get on the road! Unfortunately, we would soon find out that we would have to wait just a little longer to actually start our trip….

So, to start us off, Gustavo and I did not have a very happy packing experience. In Gustavo’s words I was “moving in slow motion” & obviously not getting stuff done quick enough. (NOT TRUE).

Our original plan was to leave at 4:00 pm, drive 8 hours, and be in Needles, California by midnight.  However, the universe, and me, had very different plans for us. In true girl spirit, I didn’t finish packing until 8:30 pm and we didn’t actually hit the road until 9:30.

To me, I honestly didn’t care! We have an entire month and I’m thinking that there’s no rush to get anywhere. Buuuuut, Gustavo on the other hand basically had 5 ½ extra hours to act like a total ***-hole & by the time we finally got to the freeway I was just about ready to knock him out and go back home! (In Gustavo’s defense, we did have a campsite already planned and paid for in Needles, CA and the earlier we left the more rest we would have gotten for the next day.) BUT, none of that even mattered because at 1:30 am the “dream start” to our trip got even better.

As we’re driving East up highway 58, our car starts slightly stuttering. At first we didn’t think much because we are carrying a lot of cargo so we thought it was just taking more effort to get up the hills. As I try not to panic, we continue down the highway for about 5 minutes and then the worst happens….

The stuttering turns into a full on stop of the engine and we stop accelerating! The car basically shut off, we’re going up a steep hill, huge trucks are passing by extremely close, and we’re in the middle of who-knows where. Me: I’m in total panic at this point. Gustavo: focused more on calming me down then what is actually going wrong with the car. Thankfully, we made it to a pretty safe spot on the highway with a lot of shoulder space and we also had cell service.

Before calling any parents and freaking them out in the middle of the night, we decided to wait it out a little and see if it is something minor we can fix and at least make it 14 more miles to the next town.

After trying to drive again, the car barely made it 1 foot up the hill and it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere with the current condition it was in. At this point, it was Triple A to the rescue! (Thank you to Celina, Gustavo’s mom, for always forcing Gustavo to get the good stuff and not be “cheap-o beep-o”)

For the 2 hours Gustavo and I had time to reflect on all of the craziness that went on up to this point and of course we apologized. We apologized mainly for BOTH acting like jerks for no reason and we realized that it was very possible that our actions caused us to be stranded on the side of the road. So, bad luck? Or was the Universe trying to teach us a lesson??

Eventually, the tow-truck driver arrived to pick us up and at 5:00 am we arrived at their repair shop and we were finally able to get a couple of hours of rest as we waited for it to open. The first person at the shop that we met was a really nice guy name Ron who stayed totally positive and was sooo nice to us through the entire process. Huge thank you & shout-out to Ron, Mark, and everybody at MS Transport for coming to the rescue and literally spending their entire day working on our car and getting us back on the road as soon as possible.

These workers were some of the nicest people that we have ever met and we are so thankful for everything that they did to help make the day fly by and not make the process a drag. Needless to say that their town of Tehachapi gave us quite the start to our trip and we will never forget it.

Moral of This story: Watch ya’ attitude, or the universe will check it for you.

Also, just a personal lesson, I really need to quit judging people at first sight. I will be the first to admit that I am absolutely horrible at judging everyone and everything (not just people). If I’m being absolutely honest, I have to say that I immediately judged Ron and I was thinking the absolute worst about how long we would be stuck in that little town. But, turns out that Ron is the sweetest freakin’ guy I have ever met and I don’t even think he ate lunch because he was so determined to get us back on the road as quick as possible. Gustavo is so much more open –minded and non-judgmental than I am and I really have a lot to learn from him. Gustavo literally became best friends with this guy and they had so many great conversations throughout the entire day.

So, out of this “horrible” experience I actually gained a lot of awareness. I truly do believe that everything happens for a reason and maybe this was actually the perfect way to start off our month-long journey.

Currently, we are safely back on the road and the car is running great! Pretty pictures soon to come, but today all you guys get are smiling faces and thankful hearts.

Peace & Love,

Espe