Stranded

Wow, what a weekend! James and I headed up to Logan to go to a big dance with Frankie Manning (he's 90 now and has been swing dancing for ages--he knew and danced to Glen Miller's orchestra, and even danced with Ella Fitzgerald). Just as we got out of the canyon and had slowed to a near stop to turn off for Hyrum our car started making horrendous noises. After checking for a flat and finding none we decided we'd better head to the gas station across the street and see what we could find. We called our parents to let them know we probably wouldn't make it home tonight and then after calling various people to try and find a ride to the dance I got hold of my cousin Pam. She sweetly agreed to come out and drive us to the dance and also to let us crash at her house afterwards. While we waited for her James jacked up the car and discovered that the bolt that holds the caliper in place on the rotar had fallen out so the brake had fallen down and was grinding against the wheel. Heavenly Father sure was looking out for us! He kept that bolt in place until we were going slow enough that nobody got hurt and close enough to a gas station that it caused minimal damage to the car!
Pam got there quickly and we loaded all valuables into her car and took off for the dance. Unfortunately by the time we got there most of the dance portion was over. We did get to hear Frankie tell some great stories and then got to watch a fun competition, but only got to dance three or so songs.
The next morning we tried to find some place that could fix the car, but Logan is a very Mormon town and no carshop was open. So we gave up and made arrangements to stay until Monday. We went to Pam's ward. Testimony meeting was wonderful! James bore his testimony; it was beautiful! We also went to the CES fireside. Elder Nelson spoke on the importance of keeping an eternal perspective as we make our decisions right now. It was a great talk and quite humorous as well.
After hanging out at my cousin Nate's house to make cookies, Pam and I headed back to her house. James spent that night at Nate's. We finally managed to get the car into a shop today, but it took until 5:00 to get it back. So we met Pam on campus for lunch and watched Better Off Dead at her house while we waited. We finally got back to Salt Lake about 7:00, to our parents relief. What a weekend!