Day 22 - Homeward Bound

There were three things on our agenda today.....
     
     1.  Our granddaughter, Launa's baptism
     2.  Pick up Eli in Las Vegas
     3.  Getting home

These three items may not seem like a lot, but as yesterday went, today was also a VERY long day. 

1.  Baptism

8:00am the alarm buzzes and it is go-time.  Shower - check.
Dress - check.  Heels - check. Out the door at 9:30am to the church in Spanish Fork, UT for the 10:00am baptism.   Launa is the oldest daughter of Shale's daughter, Brittney and her husband, Porter. Launa has a sweet spirit and an independent mind.  She is definitely the leader of the pack between herself and her three younger sisters. We were so happy to have been able to make this stop and celebration today as a part of our trip!  Once again, I am bummed that Cassidy and Eli weren't with us - they were missed greatly!

Meet Launa Ming Nielsen...... Yes, her middle name is Ming!

Lunch followed the baptism at Brittney and Porter's home.  Lots of family joined the celebration.  I am always happy to spend time with this group of great people and.... it is always hard to say
good-bye.  We had to get on the road early today since Eli would be arriving in Las Vegas from Kentucky, so we were off to hook up the trailer and start the final leg of our trip.  We were officially going to be, homeward bound.

The drive through the beautiful Virgin River Gorge south of St. George, UT

2.  Pick up Eli in Las Vegas

Eli was to arrive in Las Vegas this evening at 7:30pm.  My brother-in-law, Max had agreed to pick him up for us since we weren't sure what time exactly we would be getting into town.  Because of the time change and the fact that we got on the road a little earlier than we expected, we got in before Eli even landed.  A favorite Las Vegas restaurant was calling our names so we stopped there to eat and pick up food for Max and Eli before heading over to meet the two of them and Charma, my sister-in-law at their house.

By far, THE.BEST.TACOS around!

Eli took this photo out the window of the plane on his way back - cool!

Why did Eli fly to Las Vegas without Cassidy?, you ask.  He will be starting Jr. Lifeguards this Monday morning down at Salt Creek Beach so flying home a little before Cassidy was necessary. I think Cassidy will be having some awesome girl-time with Samantha in Kentucky and I know that makes her happy!

Before Eli climbed on the plane in KY earlier today, Grandma and Grandpa had taken him, Cassidy and Sammy to Fort Knox for the afternoon.  There is a water park and miniature golf course there that they had some fun at.  Once again, Grandma and Grandpa are the best!!

                                  
                            I really need to talk to the kids about making sure they
                                           are in the photos....  Sheeesh!

3.  Getting Home

Visiting with Max and Charma is always a pleasure!  We hung out with the two of them for a couple of hours catching up, talking about the fact that they will be grandparents in just a few short months and we were also able to have some time with Charma's father - he is great!  


So here's a funny story...we are all sitting around chatting once Max showed up with Eli from the airport and I get a phone call from the mysterious "No Caller ID".  Don't you love those?!  It is about 9pm at this point so I silence the phone knowing that it was nothing remotely important.  We continue our chat session.  Ten minutes later...ring, ring, ring - yep, same "No Caller ID" - agh!  Ok, I feel at this time that I should pick up and give whoever is calling me a piece of my mind.  "Hello, is this Robin Mount?"  "Yes" I reply.  "Is your son, Eli Jackson Mount?"  "Yes".  "Does he happen to have a phone with him?"  "Well, no...he has an iTouch with him but no phone, why?'  Now, you have to remember that my son is at the "I lost my head" stage in life so the only thing I can imagine is that he has left his iTouch on the airplane!  Wait...I think about this quickly before my inquiring caller has a chance to say something else.  Eli is sitting in front of me and he and I "spoke" via text from his iTouch to my cell phone earlier this evening when he arrived at the airport, hmmm.  "Ma'am, do you know if your son has his iTouch with him?"  "Yes, yes he does...I am looking at him right now and yes, he has his iTouch".  The voice on the other side of the phone hesitates and says, "You are looking at your son now?  Right now?"  Seriously??  What the heck?!  "Yes, I am looking at him right now, he is sitting in the chair across from me....What is going on?!"  "Well", the voice continues, "He is NOT on the airplane going to Salt Lake City and we have been calling his name over the loud speaker to board the plane and we were about to call the police!"   You can imagine at this point that I am totally confused.  "Why in the heck would you be calling the police?" I asked.  Well, Ma'am, he is not on his connecting flight to SLC and he is a minor so we were going to call the police".  Agh!!!!! This is the point that I start to get really irritated because our world has turned into a "non-communicative world"!  You see, I had changed Eli's flight yesterday from a connecting flight to SLC through Las Vegas to a flight ending in Las Vegas not to mention that when Eli got to the airport earlier today with Grandpa, they made sure that they let the ticketing agent know AND had his bag checked through only to Las Vegas.  I let the voice on the other end of the line know all of this and he was, to say the least...upset with me.  "You need to let US know (hadn't I?) that he will not be flying through to SLC!!!"  Ummmm, what had I just told him?People just don't listen when we talk anymore.  Obviously, the gal I had spoken to yesterday about this didn't listen so that she could make a note of the change in her computer.  The ticketing agent earlier today listened to only PART of what was going on (I guess I should be happy that Eli's bag actually showed up in LV) and not one person let the people that apparently "needed" to know, what the change was...know what the change was!   Frustrating!  Anyway, if you are planning on flying somewhere and need to make a change....you should probably set aside say, eight hours of your day to continue calling the airline about your change so that EVERYBODY knows that you are changing something because obviously, communication between airline employees these days is obsolete!

So, after all that....we got on the road for the absolute final hurrah of our journey around 10:30pm.  Shale was REALLY ready to get out from behind the wheel. Although the 4 hours to get home was nothing in comparison to all the hours we have spent on the road, I am pretty sure this was the roughest stretch.  We finally rolled in at 2:45am - safe and sound!

As much as I am sad that our 22 day/ 5,800 mile road trip is over, I am happy to be home too.  Twenty-two days....1/3 of our sixty-six days of summer, over already.  I am ready for the next chapter of this time in our lives to begin.  Eli will start Jr. Guards on Monday, Cassidy will be home later this week, Mason and Kirsti are in town this week and well....Shale and I will begin by unloading, cleaning out and returning the Airstream - ugh!  Before all this begins though, tomorrow is our day off. A day of nothing, a day to sleep and recover, a day to lay around - something that is being looked forward to by the three of us very much.  

I am sure that if I were to post tomorrow, it would be anything but interesting so I am going to spare you the agony and I am officially declaring tomorrow, "Blog Day Off".  Until Monday...