Days 366 - 374 (Mon 7/22/13 - Tue 7/30/13)- The Road Back Home

By this point in the trip we had decided that we were close enough to the end of our adventure that we would try to get home by the end of the month when Isaiah's aunt would be having her 60th birthday surprise party. Having a flair for the dramatic we agreed not to tell anyone we were coming, thus upping the surprise element. Unfortunately for us it proved to be easier said than done.

Believing the van to be running a little rough but otherwise in good health we drove through most of Iowa before arriving in the town of Mt. Pleasant.

At a stop sign our drive shaft fell out...

In sheer panic with no idea how to remedy this we couldn't have been more relived to learn that we had broken down in the best spot in the entire country.

A man took pity on us and towed us to a spot out of traffic where we proceeded to wait for a tow truck. A second man approached to see if he could help. After a quick assessment and making a deal with the tow truck driver (who he knew from high school), Tehrant aka Turtle had the van brought to his yard across the street where he and his neighbor worked on the drive shaft for 4 hours. Working with limited parts and an approaching lightening storm they ended up welding our drive shaft thus allowing us to (mostly) make it home.

After spending hours in their yard talking with their lovely wives we were treated like family, invited in, offered food, showers, you name it. We could not have been more touched. This was clearly not the first time they had offered help to someone in need. We traveled 46 states and can confirm the nicest people in the entire country reside in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

Tehrant if you are reading this we cannot thank you enough for your generosity. May you be blessed in your life as you have been a blessing in ours and many others.

The next day we managed to make it through Iowa and most of Nebraska before a tire blew out on the freeway. Luckily we made it safely to the side of the road but that is where our luck ended. We quickly found out we had broken down in the worst place in the country. It took 2 hours to get help from AAA (we didn't have the right equipment to do it ourselves) and even though we were clearly in distress not only did no one stop but several people honked. We eventually got back on the road and after getting the spare changed out for a new tire we made it through the rest of Nebraska and Wyoming before running into trouble again in Utah.

Driving 45 mph in a 75 we limped along as long as possible before getting towed 100 miles. The amazing tow truck driver couldn't have been nicer and got us as far west as he could go. Using tears to work around AAA's limit on multiple tows we got towed the rest of the way to Emmett, ID.

We recouped over the weekend at my Uncle's as he replaced the van's yoke which allowed us to get home safely.

What we learned from this experience is that the limit for a U.S. trip is 365 days, not a day over or else the drive shaft will fall out of your van.