Christmas 2009 Roadtrip Part 6

And so it came to pass that in the fullness of time, the lovely maidens found it necessary to continue their journey, so they bid the Busses "Auf Wiedersehen" and were on their way. Spending time with the Busses was a wonderful way to spend the last day of 2009, which will be remembered with great fondness.





The last leg of their journey to the ultimate destination to attend the wedding of Joanne's niece, Ashley, lasted two hours. They were greeted by most of the Jim Wilson family (Joanne's brother), consisting of Jim, his wife Gail, daughter Rachel, and her daughter, Hannah. (Hmm... this is beginning to sound like the introduction to the Jetson's.) Oh, and let's not forget their dog, Blossom, and the chickens, who Jim calls his girls. But they didn't greet the lovely maidens at the door.





That evening was New Year's Eve, and the lovely maidens prepared fondue for the group that had gathered at the Wilson residence in preparation for the wedding. Having fondue for New Year's Eve is a tradition the lovely maidens have maintained since Joanne called Myrtle Creek her home after Raisa moved to Roseburg in the late 90's. It would have been criminal to have broken with tradition, so the lovely maidens treated the Wilson guests to their tradition. Many of those present had never had fondue before, so it was a new experience for them.





On New Year's Day, most of the residents and guests at the Wilson residence made their way to the resort where the wedding was to be held to prepare for the event. Those who stayed behind were the lovely maidens, and Rachel and Hannah. Rachel provided taxi service for the lovely maidens when they needed to frequent a place of business for one reason or another, and Hannah became Raisa's kitchen assistant.





Raisa had been commissioned to make and decorate the 6 inch cake topper for the wedding, which was to adorn the stand that had previously been prepared for the cupcakes which were to be served to the wedding guests. Raisa worked on the cake all day. The first step in preparing a wedding cake is to make a test cake. That was 3 layers. Next came the real cake. However, the cake mix for the real cake only made 2 layers, and the cake required 3 layers, so another cake mix was prepared. This provided 3 layers for the real cake and 5 leftover layers, including the test cake. So while Raisa decorated the real cake, Joanne washed dishes and frosted the other 2 cakes. It would be a misnomer to say she decorated the other 2 cakes, since their final appearance was quite pathetic.





Joanne had been looking forward to watching the Rose Bowl game on TV on New Year's Day, since her nephew, Justin, was at the game serving as a cheerleader for the Oregon Ducks. Her plans were thwarted when Jim advised her that she had a coolant leak. He had not even been told of the previous adventures on this topic. So Rachel chauffeured Joanne to the store to buy some more Stop Leak. This time, she bought two bottles, just in case. Before she added the Stop Leak to the engine, the coolant was just dripping slowly out. After adding the Stop Leak and starting the engine, it started pouring out! She became very frustrated! Joanne let the engine run for about 10 minutes, all the while watching the coolant pour out of the bottom of the engine, then shut off the motor, not knowing what else to do, and because of lack of anyone at the house who knew anything about such business. Miraculously, the leak stopped and to this day has not leaked again.





Joanne was able to see the end of the game, but never saw her nephew doing his job of cheer leading.





The next day was the wedding day, Jan. 2nd, the day Ashley and Frank had been looking forward to for so long! As a joke, the lovely maidens and Rachel presented the bride with one of the pathetic looking cakes in a cake box, and asked her what she thought. Please view the video of this exchange, since it tells the whole story. Ashley really thought it was the real cake topper, and wondered why she hadn't just had her seven year old niece, Hannah, make the cake. She was greatly relieved when she was presented with the real cake. Had her going there for a while, though. And the real cake looked even better after seeing the pathetic one.





The wedding was outdoors at a golf resort in Mesa, Arizona, and the weather was beautiful, sunny and about 70 degrees. After the wedding ceremony, the reception was held in a large hall at the resort and it was decorated beautifully by the bride and her mom. They were asked what company they commissioned to decorate, and Gail said, "We decorated it!"





They had a buffet dinner, and Jim's former boss, Elvis, was sitting at the lovely maidens' table. He is an elderly gentleman, who doesn't put on airs. The roast beef was still pretty pink, and Elvis remarked, "This cow is still bellerin'!" The server at the lovely maidens' table was very efficient, and it wasn't a minute after asking them what they would like to drink that the beverage was served! It was quite a lengthy party, which the bride and groom had wanted, and as the partying continued, the lovely maidens decided to call it a night. As they were leaving, they thanked their server, and she commented on how wonderful the cake topper smelled as she and her fellow servers were preparing to serve the cupcakes to the guests. Raisa told her to cut herself a piece, but she said she couldn't do that, so Raisa cut one for her and gave it to her. She was so grateful and gave both lovely maidens a hug.





Originally, the plan was to have the lovely maidens spend the night in the motel suite that Joanne's parents had rented. However, there was no place close to park the motor home, and to transport all the belongings they would need for the night would have required several trips, each about a mile in length. So the lovely maidens decided to sleep in the motor home in the parking lot, and just use the shower at the motel room in the morning.





As the lovely maidens were winding down after the wedding, Raisa commented to Joanne about one of the cabinets in the motor home by asking, "Does that cabinet look crooked to you?" Joanne looked at it, and pushed on it and discovered it had come loose from the wall and the ceiling. The only thing holding it in place were the electrical wires that ran through it. Joanne agreed that it did look crooked, but lacked the hardware to fix it. In the morning, they called upon one of the maintenance men at the resort to bring his drill to shore the thing back up. However, Joanne found it necessary to advise him how to do it, since he was trying to put new screws in the old holes which were completely stripped. Fortunately, Joanne's dad had given her a cordless drill that she charged in her parents' motel room that morning, and let the maintenance man use some of the drill bits to drill new holes for the new screws. It was enough to hold the cabinet in place for the time being, but Joanne decided to get some L brackets to finish the job, which they purchased on their way out of town.





After bidding Joanne's family adieu, the lovely maidens embarked upon their grueling journey home, to be completed in 3 days. Before they had reached the outskirts of Phoenix, they suddenly heard a loud, "Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!" and smelled burning rubber. They were in the 3rd lane from the right at the time, and this time when Joanne put on her right turn signal, for the first time in the city, the traffic behind them slowed and allowed them to move into the right shoulder. In the past, when the right turn signal was applied, as many as 4 cars would pass them on the right, at one time causing them to miss their exit. They even tested the turn signals to see if they were working, wondering if that was why the drivers of the cars would not let them in the right lane when they applied the right turn signal. The moral of this story is that for those of you who have not driven a large vehicle, it is much more difficult to tell if a car is in the lane beside you than it is in a car, so please be courteous and allow the trucks and motor homes to change lanes ahead of you. You will then be able to pass them on the correct side of the vehicle.





Upon stopping, they discovered that the tread had come off the inside right back dual tire, and the mud flap had bent so that it was on top of the tires instead of hanging down behind them. Raisa once again called the road service. In 15 minutes a very nice man appeared from the service to change the tire. While they were waiting, Joanne attached two L brackets to the loose cabinet using the cordless drill, and Raisa vacuumed the floor, using the cordless vacuum. There is no way either of the lovely maidens would have had the strength to have changed the tire, since the muscular brute who helped the maidens required the use of an extra long tire iron to loosen the lug nuts. The lovely maidens were thankful that the tire that needed attention was on the shoulder, rather than traffic side of the motor home, and since it was about 80 degrees outside, they were thankful that the service technician was able to do the job in the shade of the motor home.





They were fortunate to still be in the metropolitan area and at the next exit was a Walmart, where they were able to buy a replacement tire. Upon voicing their request to replace the spare tire for their motor home, 3 separate times they were told that Walmart did not service motor homes. 3 separate times they were required to advise the service people that they only needed a spare, which was on the back of the motor home and they would not have to put it on the motor home axle. So after this adventure, the lovely maidens were once again on their way, this evening to Palm Desert.





To be continued...