July Adventures Part 1

July was meant to be a wonderful month.  The girls flew to Wyoming on July 5th and didn't return until July 29th.  They had many adventures.  Perhaps I will share some of their stories, but that will be for another time.

So July was to be a month of Dan & I getting to do lots of stuff together and to enjoy each and to celebrate our upcoming 20th wedding anniversary that will happen in August.

The month didn't start off as plan.  As some or all of you know Dan is a DRE (drug recognition expert) and also is and instructor in this field.  So NHP has decided to take advantage of his training and have put him to work teaching classes.  So extra overtime...not so much time at home.   Then a fire started on the mountain on the Pahrump side and came over the ridge to the Las Vegas side...no camping trip for us.

I spent many evenings home alone in a quiet house.  I spent some time roaming around Hobby Lobby and ended up buying a counted cross stitch baby blanket.  The one crafty thing I know how to do.  This filled lots of my time.

So finally Dan was to have a day off, so we made plans to go to St. George to attend the St. George Temple, eat at Cracker Barrel and to visit with our friends the Kraushaar's who had recently moved there from Wyoming.  Dan had to work the evening before we were going, but was to get off work at midnight and then we were going to leave when he woke up.  Well of course nothing goes as planned...he didn't get home until 2:30 am.  Exhausted.   So I figured that St. George wasn't going to happen that day.   He got up around 10 and wanted to go even though he was tired.  So we got dressed, threw our Temple bags in the car and left.  The trip there was uneventful, lunch at Cracker Barrel was yummy and the Temple was as always worth it.  Then we went to the Kraushaar's where we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening visiting.  Ellen prepared a yummy dinner.  Elk steak, potatoes, squash and salad.  I hadn't had wild meat in so long.  I miss it, yummy!  So around 7 we decide we better head back.  This is were the trip got really long.  About 30 miles from Las Vegas we witnessed a young girl from Idaho roll her car.  She had been heading northbound, left the road and rolled down an embankment and landed in the passing lane in the southbound lanes.  Dan was able to stop safely as did another family from Utah.   I called 911 and spoke to a dispatcher who needs some more training.  Just saying, I know what should be asked when this type of accident happens and he was an idiot!   The family from Utah had blankets and tended to the young woman who appeared to just have cuts and bruises.  Dan worked on traffic control and getting people to slow down and get out of the passing lane.  People are so stupid!  I literally screamed in fear as several near misses occurred, almost causing another crash.   So backing up some, early on in the event, a vehicle with a Clark county badge on the side of it pulled up behind the crashed car and turned on a set of amber lights.  Dan continued to work on getting traffic to slow down.  Dan had wrongly assumed that the man in the Clark county vehicle was there to help.  Dan yelled for me to get out of the van and to use the flashlight to wave traffic down.  It was getting dusky at this point.  Dan runs up the road to the crash site and tells the gentleman and the others at the scene to push the car out of the lane of travel.  The Clark county employee told Dan they weren't going to do that, and Dan told him oh yes they were, and explained that he (Dan) was an off duty trooper.  The Clark county employee felt like he needed proof.  So Dan had to run back to the van to get his wallet with his badge in it.  Now as a side note, my husband is in his suit.  Dan runs back to the scene, produces his credentials and without the help of the Clark county employee, but with the help of another man and a woman, push the car out of the travel lane.  It has now gotten dark and the situation is super dangerous.  Who knows how much time goes by, but FINALLY the ambulance and on duty officer arrive and with their bright red and blue lights, people finally get the hint that there is a problem on the road and should slow down.  The ambulance loads the girl up and heads into Vegas,  the Trooper talks to stupid Clark county employee and sends him on his way.  Then Dan talks to him and finds out that the guy was a dog catcher.  Nothing against dog catchers, but seriously if you are going to be a county employee in uniform you should be a little bit more helpful or don't bother stopping next time.

We did manage to get home safely and were glad we took the time to go to St. George. We are also glad that the young woman in the car will be fine and that she survived a very scary crash.  I also had not had an adrenaline rush like this is quiet a long time, I use to deal with adrenaline all the time as a dispatcher.  Let me just tell you the crash my body went through was horrible...I had the shakes so bad and the next day I was physically sick.  Maybe I should start having rushes again more often so then the side effects aren't so bad. ;)