Joan and Taylor's Excellent Adventure!

Well, I guess it wasn't all that excellent, but we did have an adventure getting Taylor down to BYU last week. The night before he left, his old YM's president, Tyler Haws took Taylor to dinner because Taylor won the bet that he would finish the Book of Mormon before Brother Haws. Somewhere in the bet was the fact that Bro. Haws had to dress up like some goofy character (Corky) from a random movie (Waiting for Guffman?). All of Taylor's friends also came over that night to bid him goodbye. In this picture, Jordan is wearing his "Taylor" shirt as a tribute
We left last Wednesday morning and all went well until we were just outside Snowville, Utah. All of you familiar with that stretch of the road between Boise and Provo, know that Snowville isn't exactly a top tourist destination. "Sparkle Josh", the name Whitney gave her car because she wasn't sure if it was a boy or girl, started making alarming noises so we hurriedly and thankfully pulled off the road right at the Snowville exit. We coasted to the top of the off ramp and the car died. Upon further inspection we realized that the fan had broken off and a piece of it flew into the radiator and green fluid was spewing everywhere. Sparkle Josh loaded with all of Taylor's possessions was not going any further. Thankfully a really nice man helped us pull Sparkle off the road and drove us to the only gas station in Snowville. I'm also so thankful for cell phones because we were able to get a hold of Tom who arranged for a tow truck to come pick us up and drive us to Tremonton. Taylor and I enjoyed a cheeseburger and a chocolate milkshake while we waited for the tow truck at Mollie's Cafe.

The tow trucker driver picked us up and drove us to his mechanic shop in Tremonton. He was the nicest guy. He was LDS and upon learning that Taylor was headed to BYU spent the trip telling about his mission to Singapore and getting Taylor excited to serve a mission. We had been in contact with Patty and Hal and they made arrangements with Evan for one of Red Mountain's vans, which was on a delivery in Logan, to make the trip to Tremonton to pick us up. We unloaded all of Taylor's belongings out of the car and we left Sparkle at Archibald and Son's mechanic shop and headed to Provo in the back of Evan's flower delivery van. Not every BYU student can say they were chauffered to school in the back of a cargo van.
We arrived at Red Mountain and Patty and Hal picked us up and we loaded all of Taylor's stuff into their car and we headed to the dorm where the 3 of us helped Taylor move in. They also drove us to the Wilkinson Center so Taylor could get his ID card, etc. We are so thankful to them and to Evan and Kelly and Andy (our driver) for rescuing us. Taylor is now happily deposited at BYU
Sparkle Josh, on the other hand, after having a critical diagnosis (he "threw a rod") has been laid to rest in the junk yard at Archibald and Sons. Sorry Whitney that you weren't able to pay your last respects.
The whole experience reminded us that Heavenly Father is very kind. He doesn't prevent bad things from happening, but we saw so many little miracles along the way. We are so thankful for kind, "good samaritans" that helped us all along the way. We are so thankful for tender mercies that make our lives excellent adventures.