I made it to Kansas City! Woohoo! Time for some bbq.. except its almost 2am. Nevermind that. Here's a very brief rundown of events so far this trip:

• Left Thurs, Aug 31st for Payson. Had a little difficulty finding the key.
• Fri, Sept 1st Drove to Garden City, KS. Decided to take the scenic route thru NM, which found a less-than-desireable dirt road for the new car. Managed to hit a large rock. Some things weren't right with the car after that, although not immediatly obvious and still driveable. Arrived just before sundown, washed car.
• Sat - Mon, built a fence for my mom's house. This involved digging out concrete, and some intense calculations to ensure the pickets were spaced properly. Helping out on this task were Ryan (brother), Howard (grandfather), Mom (mom), and Bob (mom's boyfriend), and Grandma was master of the kitchen. Other tasks for the weekend included installing a micrwave, headed up by Ryan, and hanging a ceiling fan, which I headed up. Lastly, there was the issue of fixing the car... Bob really did most of the work on this, after some inspection (thank you jack stands), it was determined that the "power steering fan assembly" needed to be bent back into a circle, and more importantly the bottom rear motor mount was pretty much gone... all that remained was a small chunk attached to the motor, and the rubber piece attached to the frame. Bob, with a tiny bit of my assistance, bent a piece of strap steel into shape to replace the broken piece. He also managed to fix the fan assembly, so the car is practically good as new... not counting the cracked plastic splash guard and scratched paint job.
• Tuesday, Sept 5th - Drove to Manhattan to see Matt (cousin) at KSU. Had lunch, met some of the roommates, and dropped him off at band practice. I wasn't quite ready to get back in the car, so I walked around campus for 10 minutes to stretch the legs out good. If only I had had a backpack, I would've really felt like a student again. Drove on to KC, arrived again in time to wash the car... this time getting the remainder of the dirt off the car and out of the grooves from that pesky NM dirt road. Dinner with Dad, and a quick visit with Beth who now lives only a mile away.

So much for being short, but a lot has happened already! Upcoming events are to meet up with the other set of Grandparents, some more cousins, and an Aunt and an Uncle too. Lastly there will be the joyous drive back to the ovendesert, which shall not contain any dirt road segments.