Monday morning it was back to work for Ben and back to school for Kenzie. After packing an already full car to the brim I drove back to Arizona with Dad and Aunt Louise. I read most of the way, Dad and Aunt Louise listened to a book on tape. It wasn't the best book - so I was able to follow along by catching snatches of it here and there. We took it nice and slow, making a few stops - lunch, cough drops, gas and so forth. It is easier on dad not to sit for long stretches. We even stopped at Thin Bear's trading post - in Bluff I think. He is a relative some how - I think through his wife on the Spens line. Anyway he and dad got to talking about the economy and emergency preparedness so I retreated back to the car to read my Emilie Loring. On the way again we drove into Arizona, darkness, and snow. Just when it was too dark to read and I was reluctantly scumming to the plot (or lack thereof) of the book on tape, there was a noise that sounded strangely like a tire blow out. Crazy enough it was. Getting out to view the damage we realized that we would have to take everything out of the back to get to the spare. So on the side of the road in northern Arizona we unloaded into the back seat and onto the snow. we got the spare out but couldn't find the jack. While looking it up in the Manuel Dad commented that it was probably under the back seat. I'm glad he had a sense of humor.
(View from the car into the dark lonely abyss known as the reservation)
Well after dad changed the tire (isn't it nice to have a dad that will do those things even with his hip, he did it all, though we offered to help), we packed the car back up - this time it was even harder - everything was cold, the old tire took up more space so nothing was able to go back where it had been. With numb hands I squeezed into my spot and we were on our way again, in bad winter conditions on a doughnut - But Aunt Louise drove like a champ - slow and easy. We stopped at Holbrook for dinner and hot chocolate and finished off the journey 13 hours after we left Salt Lake and just before the book on tape ended. After unloading everything dad and Aunt Louise set up the CD player in the house and finished the book, I was in the room next to the kitchen, so even at home I couldn't escape the book - but it was worth it to hear the end. After the end I sent this text to Rachel - whom I had been texting through the whole ordeal: Just wanted you to know the book ended and trust me when I say Green needs a lesson in how to end a book. She resolved absolutely nothing and will be putting out another. Too bad this is already book number two. I told dad and Aunt Louise the joke was on them. But don't worry -keeping with Greens standard I'm sure the agents long lost dad is the mobster boss that is trying to kill her. And I am using the term agent as loosely as Green did.
Hope that summed up the book for all of you who were dying to know what it was about. Happily I retired to my room, snuggled under a mas of blankets and finished the last 15 pages of my Emilie Loring!
