We had never been to one before--wow, it was wild. There were cars stacked all over the place, it was kinda sad to think that there was probably people in those cars when they wrecked, and I'm sure there were many deaths-in a weird way, it felt kinda like we were in a graveyard. I had to just not think about that as we strolled through the car lined dirt roads of the salvage yard. We stayed at the first salvage yard just exploring, and then left to see what the other salvage yards had.
The whole street is just lined with salvage yards-- it's crazy! We went to one huge salvage yard, and the guy at the front desk asked us what kind of car we were looking for. We told him and then he immediately headed out the back door and motioned for us to follow. We walked out back and were just in awe of the number of cars lined up and down the dirt roads of the yard, and then all of the sudden the man told us to get in the car. Having spent all morning looking at so many pieced out cars we were reluctant to just hop in one of them and expect it to actually work. It was a million year old Buick covered and filled with dirt and dust and junk. I was hesitant to step into this car, because. . . well if you could have seen it. . . you'd know. The boys were such gentleman and gave me shotgun, only because neither of them were brave enough to sit next to this interesting fellow. The radio was playing, yea shocker--another surprise coming from this corpse of a car, it was an old rock station just beginning to play Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water as we were stepping into the vehicle-- it was the perfect touch to all that was about to play out. Litterally like the second after I shut the door- the man had his hand on the shoulder of my seat to look out the back window, floored the gas pedal in reverse and started weaving through all the piles salvaged car parts. I didn't look back just clenched onto the door with one hand and my seat with the other, but I could see ahead, which is weird because in reverse I was looking at the trail we were leaving of dust trying to comprehend how in the world we were racing through those tiny gaps of cars in front of us. I wouldn't even have gone through them driving straight! In slow-mo! With someone outside the vehicle causiously giving me direction! Let alone, in reverse-- maxing out my speedometer, with other people in the vehicle! I was freaking out-- what I didn't know was that the the tough army boys in the back seat were freaking out too! That's how bad it was. But they had a little bit more reason than I did, I found out shortly after we came to our abrupt stop. The trunk was totally open. He had been driving like a maniac backwards without even being able to see through the back window! I kid you not!
We'd stopped because we were at the first car he wanted to show us. We didn't find what we were looking for there, so we looked at our Buick, looked at each other, and hopped back in for another ride. This time, we used our seat belts. I held on to mine for dear life as we continued to fly backwards in reverse. We got to another car. He dropped us off this time and then went to go check out another car, and said that he'd be back for us. This salvage yard was so huge that it really would be a workout to walk the whole thing, that's why he was driving us everywhere. He came back and picked us up. It was probably more of an adrenaline rush than any ride I'd ever been on before, but maybe a little of it had to do with the fact that it wasn't a ride-- our lives were literally in the hands of this speedy gonzales-- all the time the Deep Purple playing. . . it was unreal-- the combination of the music and events taking place couldn't have been better scripted if we'd planned it on purpose. It was like we'd just stepped into a scene on tv-- haha really, so crazy. But kinda a thrill! We said goodbye to our buddy at the end of the yard as he sped away in his rockin' buick. Unable to find the parts we needed, we were still glad we'd come.
We were able to go to the Gila Valley temple on Saturday and spend the day in Thatcher Arizona. This Temple is brand new, it was dedicated the end of May this year.
The drive was so beautiful. We had never been there before, so when we drove into this little farming town we were surprised to find amidst the rows of fields ahead of us all of the sudden a temple!
So pretty, it actually shared a parking lot with a new chapel too!
I'd never seen that before.
We got in and were ready for our session when we discovered that their time zone is actually different. So we were an hour early. We were able to do some other temple work, so neat, before our session actually began. I couldn't believe how full it was when we got into the chapel. Fuzz and I were among several other couples that had to stand around the perimeter of the room as the seats were all filled. It was a beautiful day, and a special experience for the both of us.
We went to Denny's after that and I think my eggs were bad or something because I felt rotten the rest of the night and even into Sunday. Poor Fuzz is so good at taking care of me, so so patient! He got us home safely though;) We are going to go back this weekend actually with our ward! We've never been to the temple with our ward, and this time we'll actually be going with the youth that are going to do baptisms. We're excited.
Fuzz had participated in a golf tournament that week and his team placed 3rd! He came home with a trophy in his hands, and told me that he got it because they had another competition there to see who could hit their ball the closest to the pin. And he won! He has another golf tournament this weekend, and the army is really cool about letting him compete. He kinda represents them, so they let him take the day off work. Fuzz says that some of the guys don't think it's fair. But he's not complaining ;)
