flashback friday

so, this morning i was thinking that i hadn't done a flashback for quite a while and then i remembered this ~ our moving trip to utah from arizona.

here goes ~ i got home from y.w. girls camp in arizona, to find that my family had everything packed and ready to move to utah. i loved utah, because that is where all of my cousins and my grandpa and grandma lived, but i really had a hard time thinking that i would be leaving all of my good friends that had really part of "my family" for quite some time. and at 14 yrs old and going to a new school (high school, no less), scared me a bit.

my parents were divorced at the time, but my dad's family was from utah as well, so he went with us, driving the moving truck and pulling our "gosh awful, UGLY, green pontiac station wagon" filled almost to the brim with "stuff". mom followed, driving our little blue volkswagen bug. (we looked like a bunch of "hillbillies" driving down the road) i rode with mom and alan, jeff, and virginia mostly rode with dad in the truck. brent and steve stayed in arizona and came up with friends later in the summer. (this was at a time when air conditioning meant driving 50 miles an hour with your window rolled down). it was HOT during the day, but the thing that sticks out most in my mind, was the night we stayed on the side of the road to get a little sleep. ~ we stopped in the middle of the desert. mom made a bed in the pontiac for the little kids to sleep. dad slept in the front of the moving truck. the LONGEST night of my life! my mom and i, slept in the v.w.. she, in the front seat and me in the back. my mom is short, but not that short and i am 5'8". we had one blanket between us. and you would think being in the desert , it would be HOT, HOT, HOT. but NOT! i remember trying to get enough blanket to get warm, my legs were so cramped, and i was scared to death to open the window to stick my legs out. what if someone was out there lurking in the desert, just waiting to attack? besides, i was already freezing! all night, i watched the stars and all of the shadows of the cactus and sage brush, swaying back and forth. (i swear!), just waiting for the right moment of the "attack" to take place. i figured that dad would be able to defend himself, but what about my little brothers and sister, they were in the car by themselves. and i knew mom and i would both be too scared to even move. it was dark! darker than i could ever remember it being! NEVER, was i so happy to see the light of the sun coming up! (i am usually NOT a morning person, but that morning i was!) never, ever again, did i have to stay in the desert on the side of the road overnight,in a v.w., and i promise... i have never, ever missed it!