My boring and elaborate telling of my tale from today.

Oh my Goodness sake.

I really need to get a digi camera so in the future I would be able to use it for proof of places of interest as well as reference in writing the scenes that I experienced. Obviously that way they are vivid in a readers mind with small details that are important but easily forgotten if you don't have someway to permanently save them. My loss. When I was a teen to young adult, I used to never leave without my 35 mm SLR because I knew that if a perfect shot presented itself, I would never get it back if I wasn't prepared.

So with that in mind I have to make do with what I am able to remember in my non-photographic memory. I drove out to the Utah Ashgrove Cement plant today. I got out on my day trip later than I had wanted to by about an hour. It was around 12, noon. I was heading south from UVU towards Nephi and then west on state road 128. Today was really beautiful and I love driving with the wind in my hair, fast, music playing, on roads that are surrounded by ever changing sceneries of endless nature and so that is exactly what I did today. That was it....I was soaking up the setting and it was quite uneventful.

However, just because it was uneventful does not mean it did not bring out a certain sense of adventure in me. I was alone. No kids nagging or fighting in the background. No phones or computers to overtake my focus. I was even fabricating ideas in my nervous mind on how to get my boys out here by ourselves for a camping trip. I say nervous mind, because I over think being alone too much and then scare myself at times when I take the boys by myself places that are unfamiliar. I just need to learn jujitsu or some other Marshal art form, then I wouldn't be such a chicken.

Since the road seemed to show no signs of ending anywhere and literally, no signs of any significant help either as to when or where this plant was, I did wonder if somewhere I might have missed some other turn. But no, just as I was carving the car through another turn, BAM!..there it was right in front of my face. It was gigantic and it looked like a castle gone "communism architecture bad" in its ugliest form. Even better, remember the crude cities in the Lord of the Rings III where Frodo has to sneak among them without "the Eye" seeing him. That was what this plant could have fallen from the pages of, but luckily there were no scary, seething trolls lurking about it.

I got a first rate tour of this interesting production plant. I got to walk up next to a huge long tube that inside of it burned rocks at the unbelievable degree of 2500 Fahrenheit. Though it was slightly breezy outside, standing next to the heat that the pipe gave off was unbearably hot and I would not stay next to it for long. My guide, the plants production engineer, explained to me that police departments from across Utah Valley actually come down there and bring sensitive documents etc. to be incinerated there because of the heat they are able to produce.

After the tour I was ready to head home and take up the roll of mom again. So I was off and enjoying my car ride once again.

Then without blinking, there it was BANG, PLANK, PUT, PUT, PUT...stop. Right in the line of my tires approach a big ole brown rock sat on the freeway. I saw it and there was no time to move my car fast enough. Though I tried to swerve, the rock blew my front passenger tire and lucky for me I didn't hit another passing car. I was able to get to the side of the freeway and as luck would have it, I had just passed the Spanish Fork exit and was now on the side of the freeway entrance lane.

But sometimes however stupid a decision it may be, your will to survive overtakes anything else that might pop into your mind in similar situations to this one. There I was alone, several miles from the next off ramp, turned the wrong way from the previous exit, without a cell phone since I have been without one now for a year and in no mood to get out of my car and try to hail someone over to help me. So instead I started to drive slowly on a popped tire, with a bent rim that was doomed to a worse fate because of my persistent desire to keep driving toward some kind of eventual help.

I saw the sign for the next exit, which posted 5 more miles. "You've got to be joking!" But up ahead I could also see that the emergency outside lane was being cut off because construction barrels were aligned along the roads edge. Ugh!, another obstacle. "Ah come on already. Enough is enough." As I approached this area, there was a hill and I knew there was no way to go around the barrels and up it without getting thrown out into ongoing traffic. I scanned beyond the barrels and noticed that although no construction equipment was moving, I did see several regular pick up trucks parked behind some concrete barriers. So I made a quick decision to turn off through the barrels and head toward those trucks in hope that I would find some construction person to help me.

And with some definite luck from above, three guys were walking towards me. When the first guy was within shouting distance, I asked him if he would let me use his cell phone. He said "yes", but I realized quickly that I had no clue who I would call to "rescue" me. So I asked him if he knew how to change a tire and he said yes and I asked him if he would be able to help me. He politely let me know that he couldn't do it because he was late for something else already. But the two guys behind him heard my plea and offered to do it for me, unfortunately the former guy stated that they didn't have time 'cause they were riding with him.

Brilliantly one of the two guys who offered to help asked me for a trade. If I could give them a ride into downtown Provo to their employers office, then they could stay and change my tire. It may sound naive and dangerous in idea, but the guy that offered the solution also chimed in that if I didn't feel comfortable with that idea, that I should not feel obligated to do it. However, since I had approached them and the first guy who had driven them was still there and involved in our conversation (because he too needed to know their plans, so if to drive them back to the office or not) I felt comfortable in the situation and I didn't worry that there would be any trouble if I drove them back to their employers office. So they helped me greatly by quickly changing my tire and then they humbly accepted my apologies for my garbage strewn indoor car decor and we were off to get them where they needed to be.


And in retelling this, I have to relay to you what my instructor/professor told me in an email today after hearing from me on my trip because the trip was for his class. My professor is definitely one of my most favorite people in the world. I am his T/A this semester. He listens to all my war stories and is full of wisdom and knowledge whenever I ask him for advise. So this is what he replied
"Katherine, Glad you enjoyed the tour. You sometimes have the worst luck, but I am still praying for you. Things are funny sometimes, but costly. ....Good luck. Jim".

So with a noble and good man like him praying for me and other friends who have seen me through a challenging school year with their thoughts, prayers and actions, even though the mire may be constant in my life right now, I've got lots of blessings overpowering the adversity and guiding me through it all. And to top it off with a little whip cream and cherry, I most definitely am glad for the humor I do see in all my day to day quirky adventures in this, the"this-is-the-life-Miss-Katie-Marie" for you and your crew. Ha, ha, ha...what a day.