We made it!

After leaving Almont, CO early Friday morning we finally arrived this morning at about 5:30 a.m.  Maddy enjoyed having her head out the window for the majority of the trip.  We still don't know how she can keep her eyes wide open when we are going 70 mph! and for long periods of time!  At some point in the afternoon when we got off the freeway in Hays, Kansas to get gas, we happened to hear that when we applied pressure to the brakes that there was a  loud metal on metal sound coming from the left rear tire.  Turns out the pad was worn away.  We found a mechanic in town who said we wouldn't be able to get it fixed today, maybe on Wednesday!  We called around to find someone near a computer and J-P helped us to find some phone numbers of mechanics in towns we were headed towards.  No one was going to be open on Saturday.  So we called Sara and we got a phone number to a Firestone in Kansas City, KS who was going to be open at 7 a.m. Saturday morning.  Since that was only option we continued to drive the rest of the way across Kansas trying to use our brakes as little as possible.

We made it into Kansas City about 9:30 p.m. and found a sketchy hotel to stay in for more money than we really wanted to pay.  We ended up staying in a room that was too far away to have access to the free wireless internet and I was a bit worried about the safety of the contents of our car, but the woman at the front desk said not to worry.  Everything is on video surveillance.   So we stayed the night.

Woke up early and arrived at the Firestone shop about 6:40 a.m. and as luck would have it they were all ready open.  So we dropped the car off and they replaced all the brake pads and the two rotors in the back.  After we wandered the neighborhood for hours because dogs are not allowed in the shop and wishing that I hadn't taken off my long underwear because I thought it was springtime elsewhere in the country our car was finally ready and we were back on the road by noon.  The best part of the deal was our lunch...across the street from the shop was El Pollo Rey, a very authentic looking Guatemalan/Mexican eatery...smoke billowing out of the vent on the side of the building that emitted the aroma of smoked chicken and had been tempting us since about 7:30 in the morning.  Mat went over to see what we could get and you had two choices: 1/2 a chicken or a whole chicken.  We got the 1/2 a chicken and so they hacked off our portion.  They also gave you some warm tortillas, beans and rice. Mat brought it all back for us to eat and it was delicious!

Then we got in the car and drove until 5:30 this morning.  Which around 9:30 p.m. I could no longer stay away except for brief periods and then for a couple hours at the tail end of our trip.  Mat is amazing that he was able to stay awake and get us back here.  We are staying at Mat's parents for the week until the people we have renting our house move out.