Robertsons & Daughters: Indiana-Iowa-Minnesota-SouthDakota

Elden, Haley, Eric and I headed out on our 2024 Nevada trip. We left after Elden got home from Aaronic Priesthood camp. First stop Indiana. Oh...never mind....we stopped about an hour and a half from our house (still in Virginia) because I thought the oil was empty. Buuuut......it wasn't. I should have thought logically that we just BARELY got the oil replaced. Somehow I got it in my mind that it was leaking out so I pulled off at some random exit with nothing more than a gas station and a handful of houses. The oil had been burning up in the Suburban and a few months back we did have to put new oil in it before the oil change. It didn't help that I was a bit distracted because I was trying to fix our car insurance and was talking to car insurance people. One person was a bit rude, so I ended that call to talk to someone else. Before we exited I added a quart of oil. We stopped at the gas station and I proceed to add even more oil. Not wanting to hog pump space, I eventually moved the suburban. Odd thing though, the shifter was broken. Thankfully I was able to back up out of anyone's way. After talking to Lee I realized my first mistake, I had overfilled the oil. In fact there was plenty of oil. Now WAY too much! I thought this problem had ruined the shifting, but that wasn't it. Lee's sister and brother-in-law were visiting. Lee started to drive to meet me, but soon I called and told him to go back home. We were safe and he wouldn't be able to help me (the shifter wasn't working) so he might as well be with his family. Eric and I couldn't get the bolt/screw thing to the oil reserve to drain off the excess oil. I looked over at a house across the way and told the boys I was going over there. It looked like a house that had tools to help us. Eric and Elden volunteered. They went over, but no one came to the door. They walked back to the gas station and soon after a guy pulled up. The guy was from that house that I picked out! He thought Elden and Eric were his son's friends so he didn't bother to answer the door. But seems like he saw us stranded at the gas station. He had all the right stuff and emptied out almost exactly the right amount of oil. Whew. That problem was solved. But now what to do about the shifting?! The Chevy wouldn't go into gear. He called his buddy who HAPPENED to be available. The guys names were Jeff and David. Not sure who was who now. The buddy rigged the shifter mechanism and we were able to drive to the buddy's garage. He worked on the Chevy and put a part in to fix the shifter. Kind of like an elbow joint...he popped in a little piece that helped two different things work together. He also said the oil filter wasn't on tight and it was leaking. He gave me an extra little piece thing to put in incase the one he inserted fell out on our trip. And they wouldn't take payment at all. I told them they were our angels and that I was thankful to the Lord for blessing us through them! Wow. What a miracle!!! We left about 9pm.

The little shifter piece that was broken.

Jeff or David's garage.

Wow, what an adventure so close to home. Oh and Clark bought a second car!

I was going to pull over at a gas station to sleep but I was pretty mad about what happened at camp with the young men---the lack of leaders--that I kept driving. I arrived at Steph's at 5am.

Lois was passing through so it was fun to see her as well.

Lee enjoying some garden goodness!

Sunday night talk with Elder Robertson!

Monday we went boating at Lake Patoka. Not a very good lake day! We got rain for a little while, but just stayed out on the lake. We left about 4pm to head to Cedar Falls.

The found a lot of geodes!

Shanna and Lee did a date to Jimmy Johns.

We made it to Cedar Falls! We had fun at the bike park, swimming, Hobby Lobby and hanging out.

We bought a new bike for Haley and had it shipped to Cedar Falls. Haley had fun putting it together.

Enjoyed listening to the local band. So good!

We left pretty early Wednesday morning to head to Sioux Falls for Lee and Shanna's evening flight to there. I made a stopover to Westbrook to visit my friends Peggy Klasse and Erin Hadfield. Had lovely visits with them! We also drove by my high school and got ice cream at the grocery store in Westbrook.

This is one of my favorite pictures the whole summer....kids riding up to the pool. dumping their bikes and scooters on the ground for a day with friends. What a childhood summer should be!

Drove up to Walnut Grove as well to see the old house.

On the way out of town I realized that we would drive right by the Lindquist's house. I recognized it from the road and stopped. Leo was home and it was great saying hi to him!