the terrible 3 week mark

we’re on the road to nowhere…(we always listen to that song)
Puni’s Block
Jesus Christ in the Mormon church
Gus in Salt Late

This is the exact spot Gus Broke down (we had to drive by the next day), US-6 south Mile Marker 186, 1.5 miles from US-89

Utah!
Arches National Park




Arch!

Mom- remember when I waited till after I went skydiving to tell you about it…this is kind of like that:

We started this lovely Wednesday (our official 3 week mark) driving from California through Nevada to Utah in hopes of see Arches park the next morning. Gus was fully intact with a fixed muffler thanks to John. Things began to unravel from there. At about 11AM, in the heart of the Nevada desert our AC unit decided to stop working. Gus was only blowing hot air in both his front and back AC units. Good timing Gus. We stopped in the town of Elko, NV. Maybe it was the nature of what we were doing, looking for auto mechanics to diagnose Gus, but I hated this town. At first we thought our unit might just need recharging $50-$100, but then found out it was actually our compressor that was shot and that would run about $1,000. Max and I had no problem deciding to cut our losses and AC wasn’t that important after all (although the desert heat would suggest otherwise). We got the hell out Elko as fast as we could. It was so hot, we opened the sunroof & tore out the makeshift window. That made it at least bearable. We saw the Great Salt Lake and eventually made it to Salt Lake City. The Great Salt Lake smelt distinctly like cow and port-o-potty. On the way to Salt Lake the ground was white like snow- only it was salt-maybe that’s why they call it salt lake. We tagged on to a tour of the HUGE Mormon Church.

Chilled with a statue of good ol’ JC. We excused ourselves from the tour to get Indian food, sadly not converted. After getting lost for an hour trying to find it we landed at a Taste of India. It was some bomb Indian food, the best part of Salt Lake City I experienced. We walked back to Gus in the rain. We stumbled upon a parade who was celebrating California’s over turning of Prop 8. Yey California. About 300 people were marching from the downtown area through the Mormon Church(yeah!) to the capital. It wasn’t quite like DC, but it was really exciting. We talked to many who were raised in the Mormon Church and had since been excommunicated because of their sexuality or gender identity. Max was told by Domanique, that in the Mormon faith being transgender was akin to murder—the only two sin that would stop you from getting in the Mormon heaven—appalling . We left Salt Lake City just as it began to pour again. We were 30 minutes outside of SLC when our music went out, and the battery symbol appeared. We thought it just need some recharging and decide to continue. It was pitch black and raining, and when our headlights began dimming we knew it was time to pull over.

Typically there was no exits or even pull off areas. They were doing construction, which there seems to be a lot of in Utah and there was no shoulder on the road. It was Gus, Max, and I, in the pitch black, on the side of the cliff, when all of a sudden our headlights, indicators, flashers, and anything that made light in our car died. It was no more than 4 minutes later that the entire car died with it as we began to make our way up a steep hill. The hill was at such an incline that it looked like the "cheese" I learned to summersault on-only we were (unsuccessfully) trying to go up it. In true Prankster style our car was really really dead. In the middle of the lane, to our right a cliff, to our left cars screeching trying to avoid us. We set out triangles and left the bus as quickly as possible. A VW bus (of course), unsuccessful tried to help us. It was time to call our allstate motor club to get a tow. WARNING: YOU ARE NOT IN GOOD HANDS WITH ALLSTATE.

We have a roadside assisted with allstate incase anything like this were to happen. After 3 hours on the phone with some of the rudest people I have even talked with, they decided that THEY sold us the wrong insurance and there was nothing they could do to help us. They knew everything about the car after all they did INSURE it but still sold us the wrong insurance and refused to help us in anyway.They sent nobody, gave us no towing numbers, and suggested we **might** want to call the cops. They left us on the side of the road with a dying phone and no help. I REPEAT YOU ARE NOT IN GOOD HANDS WITH ALLSTATE.

LUCKILY, my phone told us of a towing service not to far away. Waiting for the towing service me and max passed the time imagining the ways we could kill Gus. We didn't want anyone to crash in him and get hurt but… the insurance money would solve of our problems. Puni picked us up thankfully, from Larry's trucking, and began to tow us to the closest automotive mechanic. Where we planned to sleep hoping/praying they could help us in the morning. After talking to him a bit, he seemed to know a lot about cars. He told us he worked out of his garage, and I didn’t miss a beat asking him if he could work on our bus. Our alternator, battery, condenser, and voltage meter were shot and needed replacing. He told us that our broken condenser could have put a strain on the other parts and cause them to die. We started the day with a working car and ended the night in front of Puni’s house at 5AM minus a working alternator, battery, condenser, and voltage. In the morning Puni fixed everything that was wrong with Gus down to the AC. If this man didn’t find us we would be in Utah forever. Puni IS THE MOST AWESOME GUY EVER X 100 THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Maybe we will leave Utah today….