Day Four: Mountain Time

I've never experienced a prolonged stay in the Mountain Time zone. I've skirted with it, when flying into Denver or Phoenix, but never so much enjoyed its vast features. So, today was a new adventure. 

We started off in Amarillo, where our hotel had a Texas-shaped waffle maker. Of course they would...it's Texas! As we jumped on I-40 West, hoping to get to our next destination of Gallup, NM in a timely manner, two boulder-sized rocks flew up and smacked the windshield of our minivan.  The cracks were immediate and by the time we hit the New Mexico border the "creeping" began.  Hopefully, they won't span the entire windshield by the time we get to Bakersfield.

Shortly after this frustration, I noticed that the rear tire on the auto carrier seemed to be off-kilter.  We pulled over at exit 0.  I have no idea what state we were in, we were in the middle of nowhere and we had no reception on our phones.  I was looking around for an Oceanic jet or a smoke monster. The damage was evident. The tire was shredded. We decided to go on ahead and find some civilization, hoping and praying the tire would stay inflated. We made it to exit 356 in San Jon, New Mexico.  Out in the middle of field resembling something from the X-Files (replete with barren cemetery) was Terry's Service Station.  We had reception on our phone, called Penske, talked to Chad, who worked for Terry, found out that Penske can contract Terry's to replace the tire and also found that Terry's had five tires of our size in stock!! What I feared would throw our trip off in a major way only took off an hour of time....which we got back because of the beautiful thing that is the Mountain Time zone.

I love the Mountain Time zone. More importantly, today was a glaringly bright example of God's good care for his people. His providence and sovereign care during this trip has been very humbling and encouraging.  We enjoyed God today. We even had a nice evening in Gallup with some swimming in the pool, some eating at a Cracker Barrel and the use of our hotel's lovely laundry facility.

Tomorrow we are off to Flagstaff. It is a short drive because we will spend the day up in the Grand Canyon. Hopefully, we will have some cool pictures for you tomorrow. 

Grace and peace from the Mountain Time zone.