Salmon

Cory couldn't wait any longer. He's been dying to go camping since the middle of February. So we packed up our gear and headed out last weekend. We stayed in North Fork (that's really the name of the town - if you can call it a town). The campground was really pretty - it backed up to the Salmon River. Note that it still looks like winter around here. Snow on the ground and no leaves on the trees.

The purpose of the trip: to scout out possible bear hunting sites. Yup. He's determined to get one this year. So we trekked through the wilderness, encountered some snow-covered trails and hit a rock that had fallen from the mountain onto the highway (I'll come back to this later).

We saw this herd of wild sheep. They look pretty malnourished from the winter. Good thing there's some grass for them to eat now!

And I had to document Cory's first "waste dump" effort. Yuck!

We left the campsite around 7:30 p.m. and headed home. Around 10:30, in the middle of nowhere, the front tire blew. Remember the rock that we hit earlier? Apparently it really damaged the tire. Thankfully, Cory managed to keep control of the truck so the trailer didn't start rocking too bad. We left the truck running for about an hour while Cory was changing the tire (because he was afraid of the battery dying). The spare tire was pretty flat and Cory tried to convince me that it just looked a little low since we were sitting on an angle. Whatever. Don't patronize me. I know a flat tire when I see one. But we didn't have any choice but to carry on. We didn't have cell service and we hadn't seen anyone pass by to help us. And since we had left the truck running, we were about out of fuel. So we limped down the road to Lone Pine - the sign said it was 44 miles away and we figured we could make it that far.

Well, we did make it to Lone Pine but it turns out that Lone Pine consists of a gas station with a little diner attached. They have one gas pump (no diesel) that doesn't take debit cards and they were closed by the time we got there. The next closest town, Mud Lake, was 33 miles away and we were really low on fuel at that point. We decided to stay in Lone Pine and attempt the drive to Mud Lake in the morning. We figured that if we ran out of fuel, someone would see us and stop to help. But when we went to crawl into the trailer and go to bed, we realized that the keys to the trailer were missing. Sweet! I seriously started praying so hard to find those stupid keys. I was exhausted and cold and couldn't imagine spending the night in the back of the truck when we had a perfectly good trailer to sleep in. After some serious digging (and praying), we located the keys. They had lodged up underneath the cup holder. Whew!

I'm happy to report that we did make it to Mud Lake on Sunday morning. I think we blew into town on fumes. We got fuel and air for the tire and finally headed home. Not bad for our first camping adventure of the summer. :-)

Hill Climbs

We went to the hill climbs in Jackson Hole a few weeks ago. I've only been to one hill climb event before and I watched it from the bottom of the hill. This time, we took the ski lift to the top of the mountain and got to see the action up close. You might have to click on these pictures and blow them up so you can see the detail. It amazed me how the riders "danced" with their snowmobiles. They would jump from side to side of the machine in mid-air so that they could lean the right way to get over a hill, etc. The upper body strength that must require!!!

Watching a rider come up and looking down on the town of Jackson.

Brady and Alicia went to the top with us. They are getting married on June 12th! Hooray! Such cute lovebirds!

There were two ways to get down the mountain. You could either trek back up the hill and take the ski lift down (we had walked down a little way to get a better view) or you could slide down the hill on your rear end. We opted for the latter...and I had no idea what I was getting into. I wish someone would have been at the bottom of the hill to take a picture because I'm sure it was hilarious. You slide down the hill on your bum and your feet are out in front of you. Got it so far? Well, since your feet are out in front, they act as a "scraper" (picture a snowplow) and throw the snow all over your face (brrrr!!). So you're going down the hill at 50 mph (because it's been groomed for the skiers and your snow pants are slick) and you can't see a thing because your feet are throwing snow in your face (and the harder you dig your feet in to stop, the more snow it throws) and your face is burning because the snow is so cold. Sweet. Loved it. There goes my eyeliner...

As we were going up the ski lift, I couldn't figure out why there were TONS of guys hanging out on the hill. I figured it out pretty quickly. They are there to grab the snowmobile if a rider gets stuck and starts to slide backward. You can see a little bit of that in this video. We watched one poor snowmobile roll all the way down the hill (they have a net at the bottom of the hill to catch run-away sleds). I think the rider must have cried when he got to the bottom and saw his banged-up sled.

A Little Funny

I needed a laugh this morning so I pulled out this video that I took of my cat. Precious looooves to climb inside and/or on top of anything that is placed on the floor. She climbs into boxes, shopping bags, etc. This time she crawled out of the bag and instead of going through the main opening, she climbed through one of the handles and got stuck. I was laughing hysterically as she cruised around the house with her tail swishing and the bag hot on her heels. She was highly offended that I was laughing.

FINALLY!!!!!

Exactly 45 days after my car accident, we received the money from the insurance company. Seriously! And now that we are done with this stupid process, I will shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone I know that they should never, under any circumstances, use an insurance company called American Commerce. I've never dealt with a more incompetent group of people in my life.

It took them three weeks to perform the market analysis on my car and determine that it was a total loss. Since then, we've been trying to get the settlement offer from them. Just to be clear...the settlement offer should equal the dollar value of the market analysis. So it's not rocket science to simply transfer the dollar value from the market analysis onto a piece of paper and send it to me, right? Wrong.

They said their system showed that the settlement offer had been mailed to me on X date. And it never showed up. So I called back again. And this time they tell me that the settlement offer had been mailed on Y date. And it never showed up. So I finally turned this over to Cory since I wasn't getting anywhere. And he was ruthless. :-) Our friendly neighborhood insurance agent's name is Tracy. And after Cory was done with Tracy, she could recognize his voice the minute he called (i.e. he no longer had to give the case number to identify himself). The first day he tried to call Tracy, he kept getting sent to her voice mailbox. So he started to leave five minute messages of nothing. And then he'd call back and do it again. Just so she would have to check her voicemail and listen to nothing for five minutes. Perhaps Tracy finally got the message because she eventually spoke to Cory and agreed to email us a copy of the settlement offer.

Since American Commerce doesn't have a local office here in Idaho Falls, we had to sign a power of attorney form and send that, along with my car title, in order to get the settlement check. You can imagine my trepidation with sending my car title off to this company that is an absolute joke. Since we NEVER received a settlement offer in the mail, despite numerous times of them assuring us that it was sent, I really never thought we would see a check from them. I sent the title via FedEx so I would have a tracking number and I also included a nasty letter in the package. I advised them that due to the "undue hardship and emotional stress" that they have caused, I expected that I would receive a check from them by X date or else they would be required to extend my rental car allowance until such a time as I did receive the check. It must have worked (i.e. perhaps they sensed a lawsuit on the horizon) because they did extend the rental car allowance until yesterday. And yesterday is when we received the check. Unbelievable!

In retrospect, we may have done things differently. We deliberately chose not to file the claim with our insurance company because the accident wasn't my fault. We didn't want to have to pay our deductible and then have the accident go against my driving record while we were waiting for our insurance company to get a settlement out of American Commerce. But it may have been worth it. Battling an insurance company as an individual is an exhausting ordeal.

Another Chapter Closed

Today I had to say goodbye to my car. And it broke my heart. This is what my poor baby looks like. A few weeks ago, some crazy old bat pulled out in front of me and I couldn't stop in time. It was 2:00 p.m., dry roads and the sun was shining (rare for this lovely town that I live in). I was headed to the grocery store. Minding my own business. And all the sudden she makes a left turn in front of me - she told the police officer that she "just didn't see me". She received the traffic citation and was remanded to appear in court to have her driving privileges evaluated. She is 88 years old and clearly should not have been on the road. At first I felt sorry for her. And now I just want to scream at her.

I will pay the consequences for her negligence for the next several years. After 2 1/2 weeks of fighting with her insurance company, they are finally in the process of issuing me a settlement. The car is a total loss - the repair bill added up to $7,600. I've decided that having insurance is an absolute joke. They don't make you whole. If that were the case, they would have fixed my car and not issued a salvage title. As it is, I will have to live with the settlement that they have offered and go buy a new car. And I don't want a new car. I want the car of my dreams. The car that was paid for. The car that I took care of so that it would last me for at least 10 years. We are using the money that we were paying for the car to save for a house.

And that leads me to fun fact #2 for 2010. Why do I need to save for a house, you might ask? Why don't I just sell my house in Utah and take the money from my down payment and buy a new house?? I just found out that due to all of the foreclosures in my neighborhood in Utah, I am now upside-down in my house in Utah. And to top that off, we are going to have to lower the rent by $150 - $200 beginning in May because the rental market is saturated right now. The rent we currently receive doesn't cover the mortgage payment.

And that leads to fun fact #3. The real estate agents are predicting that another wave of foreclosures is going to hit the market in the second or third quarter of this year. Which means the house value will drop even further. At this rate, it will be 5-6 years before we can even think about selling the house. Guess we'll be renters, in this town that I despise with all my heart, for the next 5-6 years. And really, let's be honest. At this point, I'm not just throwing money out the window. I'm shoveling it out the window. So let's just add a little more salt to the wound. It's one thing if you make a stupid financial decision yourself. Of course you should pay the consequences for that decision. But it's another thing entirely if you have to sit back and watch others make stupid decisions for you. I hate being stupid. I thought 2010 would definitely have to be better than 2009. So far, I'm not impressed.

At the end of the day, I realize that this is not a crisis. Cory and I are not destitute. We will not starve. It just means that it will take us longer to reach our financial goals. It just means that I have to re-adjust my hopes and dreams. And it might take me a while to be okay with that. Cory tells me to suck it up - this is life.

One funny thing about this whole ordeal. I did have someone from a chiropractic practice here in town call me to tell me that he had heard about the accident and wanted to offer me a free consultation and adjustment, if necessary. Really? I thought only lawyers (sorry Tams) were the ambulance chasers. You learn something new every day.

Our Magic Carpet Has Arrived!

For those of you who looked at the pictures from our cruise, you may remember that we purchased a carpet (rug) in Turkey. They said it would take 6-8 weeks to get to us. Add in the holiday shipping delays, and it took a little longer than that. But we finally have it! This is what the package looked like when it arrived. I'll never be able to get it rolled up like that again.

They had me sign the rug at the store so that we would know it was really the rug we selected.

This is a wool on wool blend. Apparently it is mid-range quality, as far as Turkish rugs go. The cotton rugs are lower quality and the silk rugs are the best (obviously). The quality of a rug is measured in how many knots are tied per square inch. More knots = higher quality. We were told that it took someone 10 months to make our rug.

The rug is still in our living room so we can admire it for a few more days. We'll have to wait until we have a house before we can leave it out for good. Oh wait, we do have a house. Someone else just gets to live in it instead of us. But I'm not bitter...

Party Time!

It's already been one week since Cory's birthday. Where does the time go?? Oh wait...I'm doing three people's jobs at work. There's no time for anything anymore. But I digress. Cory celebrated his birthday by going to the Packers' playoff game against the Cardinals. The Packers didn't win, but it was a great game!
Cory and Evan both drove semi trucks to Phoenix and Jordan hitched a ride. And no, I was not invited. :-)

Our celebration at home paled in comparison. Cory went to Mutual on his birthday and then he opened a few presents. My parents gave him a cover for his new chainsaw. Cory is so anxious to go out and cut something (anything!) down...

He also requested a book titled "Elk Hunting the West". This book now has a proud place in our bathroom. Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!