Not knowing exactly where this place is, we stop at another gas station and ask where this repair shop is. The cashier gives me some pretty vague directions, and then proceeds to tell me that it's closed. Apparently all the repair shops are closed today, and the one next door closed at noon. It's now about 12:30. *sigh* :( She then tells me there's a rental car company down the street. So I call my friend back in Salt Lake and ask her if we can park my car over at her sister's place until we can tow it back to Salt Lake (after we get the rental car of course). She makes a call and gives us the OK from her sis. So off we go, looking for the rental car company... we get there ... and of course it's closed. Saturday and Sunday. Fail.
At this point, I'm all out of ideas. Kind of. And then I think... who can I call? Who would know someone out here? Maybe my visiting teacher! So I called Carrie, in hopes she'd know someone around this area. She asks how my triathlon went when I call her, and I tell her it went well... but that there's a problem. She tells me she doesn't know anyone out here, but she tells me that she can come pick us up when she gets out of her class around 3pm! What a life saver! And such an awesome friend! (Mind you, she just got called as my visiting teacher... what a blessing!)
To kill some time, we went out for lunch. And then went around to the various gift shops around the strip to cool off and help the time pass quicker. There's this fun shop in Moab called Tumbleweed, which carries hand made and recycled crafts and gifts. I saw this fun magnet...
I debated on whether or not to get it, but FeliAnne convinced me to, so I did. I now need a name for him, so if any of you have ideas, I'd love to hear them!
We spent the rest of the time hanging out at the information center, and trying to take a nap at the gas station we stopped at earlier. There was a nice tree that provided shade, and a breeze that graced us. We tried to nap, but a man with a metal detector inhibited the rest we so desperately needed. So we sat around talking as we waited for Carrie.
She got to us around 7:30pm. The Rodes Inn so graciously and generously allowed us to park my car in their lot until we could get to it in a day or so. I'm so grateful for that! We packed Carrie's car with our two bikes, and gear, and headed back to Salt Lake. Just past Green River, we saw a car on the side of the road with its hazards on. I noticed it was just a woman with her 3 children. Carrie didn't want to stop, but she felt strongly to do so. Since it was just a woman, she felt better about it than stopping for a random man. The lady was so grateful. She was almost out of gas and wasn't sure she could make it to the gas station. Carrie agreed to follow the lady to the nearest gas station, and to take her there should she run out of gas before then. We all took a break and filled up on gas while there. We found out the the lady's husband had left her and her kids on their own, so they were homeless and planning their next move. They even had a cat with them! :( She thanked us for our help and we went about our journey back to Salt Lake.
I was so exhausted from the day's events that I couldn't stay awake for most of the trip home. I was able to stay awake once we got to Spanish Fork and got out to use the bathroom before the home stretch.
Past American Fork, we almost got side swiped by this red truck with a trailer. As I was frightened by how close the guy was, Carrie moved to the next lane over. The guy later moved to the lane closest to us, so Carrie sped up and overtook him.
As we dropped FeliAnne off, Carrie noticed there was a car parked further back with its lights on. She thought the person was waiting to turn into the driveway or something. We waited until FeliAnne got to her boyfriend's apartment and headed off. As we turned, a vehicle seemed to be making the same coincidental turns. We took some random turns to see if they'd turn somewhere else, but they seemed to be following us. Carrie then noticed the trailer... it was the same guy that almost side swiped us back in American Fork!
I called Ezra, waking him up, and asked him to meet me at the door. I told him that I needed him to escort me inside because someone was following us. Carrie sped up in hopes to lose the guy, but he just kept following. We took some random streets, and he just kept pursuing us. We finally were able to beat a light on 1300 S and headed towards Walmart. Ezra said to get to a public place. We wanted to head to the police station, but even that felt too far away. I then asked Ezra to pick me up at Walgreens at Sugarhouse since it's open 24hours. I was afraid the guy would have made the connection and followed Ezra there too. When he got there, I was relieved to find just him. He told us that when we didn't show up outside, he went back to the house and looked out the window and saw the truck following us around. There was nothing in his trailer.
We followed Carrie home to make sure she got in safe. Then Ezra circled the neighbor to see if the guy was still circling. He was hoping to find him, get his license plate number, and call the cops. We didn't find him. But he called and made the report anyway, just to alert the authorities.
Even after getting back home safe in the apartment, I was still paranoid that the guy was around. I have never had that happen to me. Carrie was wondering what we had done to him to make him follow us all the way from American Fork to Salt Lake, and all around our neighborhood. Ezra was convinced it was just some sicko. I hope that never happens again! But that just lit a fire under my butt to get a concealed weapons permit! I want to be prepared and protected if something like that ever happens to me again!
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