Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?
We had discussed a trip to Disneyland with Jane's parents 6 months ago and it took some smooth talking to get them on board. Jane's folks have never been to Disneyland. We had been telling the kids we were going to Las Vegas, and they seemed pretty excited to see all the lights and "casinos" .Inviting Jane's parents brought a few changes to our trip plans. We added a couple of days and about 500 more miles. They were also able to bring a 15 passenger van to the party (more on that in a moment)...... We left November 12, 2010 and headed West to Reno (yes the wrong way to get to Disneyland). The van seemed to be fine other than two quick odd sounds during the first 200 miles and then just outside of Wells Nevada it started whistling....
We pulled over and the right front wheel was hot. We pulled the tire and we thought it may have a bad brake or wheel bearing. We limped into Wells NV. and found a tire shop that seemed confident they could fix anything.
The wheel bearing was shot and even more the spindle (the post the wheel & bearing rotate around) got so hot it now had a pretty nice curve to it. At that moment I thought well, this shouldn't delay us to much. Well as we learned, spindles for a 15 passenger van are not in large supply in Wells, NV. The shop told us they might be able to get one shipped here tomorrow (Saturday) or the following Monday. This would have ruined our plans for the trip.
We were stuck with a van that wasn't going to move until we had a spindle and the shop couldn't get one for at least a day.
Hoping to save the trip from a major delay.... Scott called his Dad. Scott was able to find a spindle at the GM dealer a block from his parents and his Dad was able to drive the part three hours out to Wells, NV. and three hours back. He is our hero!!! After 5 hours of exploring Wells, Nevada, the part was installed and the van was ready to go and worked flawlessly the rest of the trip.
We stopped in Winnemucca for dinner and were eager to thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings and help we received to save our trip!! We arrived the first night in Reno, exhausted from all the van excitement ~we checked in and went to bed.
The next morning we stopped by the Reno temple and then headed on to Berkeley, California and San Francisco. Jane's Dad was born in the area and his Mother was buried in Berkeley and we had never seen the grave (Jane's Dad had only been here one other time).
(Golden Gate, SF trolley, Lombard St were a few of the highlights)
Jane's best friend lives south of San Francisco and we were able to visit with her for a few hours too.
About two hours from Disneyland we asked the kids if they would rather go to Disneyland or Las Vegas... and then we told them we were going to Disneyland. They didn't believe us. We were kinda stunned. We finally arrived in Anaheim. And they finally got it when they saw the sign for "Disneyland Drive". They jumped out of the van at the hotel very excited.
We all had a great time in Disneyland. The weather was wonderful. The hotel was great. The pool and hot tub felt so good after walking the park all day. Disneyland was all dressed up for Christmas. It was so pretty and fun. Small world and Haunted Mansion was in Christmas mode. They also had fireworks every night and a Christmas parade.
"World of Color" at California Adventures was amazing!! It just doesn't compare to any other water show.
We spent our last day in California at Sea World and then drove to Las Vegas for the night. It was a great trip. We made some great memories and had a lot of fun.
