St. George, Utah is a beautiful place. Nice and warm in the winter (compared to up North). Beautiful red rock scenery. Friendly people. Great soccer tournaments. All except one thing....I think my van is allergic to this city.
All three of my kids participate in the soccer tournament during President's Day weekend. We had a fabulous time. Vanessa's team took 2nd place overall. Christine guest played for a Salt Lake team, she had fun and actually played the entire time during the games because she was THAT good. Jorgy guest played for a Park City team and enjoyed the practice. Vanessa played at nice fields with parking lots. The other two did not play at nice fields. It was rather difficult to get three children to different places at the same time. Often times I was the one running around because I wasn't coaching. So, Jorge was at the nice fields with the nice parking lots, while I was at the bad fields with the mud parking lots! Ugh! The first game, I had to get Christine to her game at a certain time. They were playing on a sod farm and Utah had had an unusual winter with a lot of water. This sod farm was soaked through. Cars were getting stuck all over the place, including mine! I went in thinking I would be okay because I hadn't seen anyone else get stuck yet. I figured I would hurry and drop her off and find a good place to park where I wouldn't get stuck. She got out and I tried to move the van. It didn't go anywhere. I was completely stuck. I started to cry. I was all by myself with the two young kids in the back. I just sat there wallowing in self pity when I decided to get out to see how bad I was stuck. It didn't look too bad, so I tried again. Nope. Stuck. Then someone saw me and offered to pull me out. He towed me all the way out to the road and I was ever so grateful as he got down and dirty in the mud to help me out! But now what? Christine is playing on the fields. I went around and finally found a place where I could park and walk to the fields. This was day one.
Day two wasn't any better! I needed to drop Jorge and Vanessa off to play their games at the nice fields. All was well until I tried to start up the van to go to Christine's game. The van wouldn't start. Batter was dead. I had to call Jorge off the field and beg him to help me. Again I was crying. Jorge's parent happened to drive up at that time and helped me jump it. It started right up. Dumb battery always gives me trouble. So off we go to the sod farm. I decide to go to the street and walk in again, but Jorge drives up as soon as I get there. He says, follow us, I can find us a spot where you won't get stuck. I follow him hoping he is right. We find a good spot and can watch Christine and Jorgy from the same spot for three or four games. Then Christine has a game further down the field. Jorge says we will find a spot. So, we follow him and find a spot. I knew the second I turned into the spot I would be stuck again. Sure enough as we were trying to leave in the pouring rain, I was stuck and bad. Jorge had gone off to Vanessa's game, at the good fields, while I struggled. Jorge's mom was with me but had no clue as to what to do either. The tow trucks were on the other side of the fields. I had Jorge's mom get in the drivers seat and accelerate while I tried to push the van. This didn't work except for making me full of mud. Finally, someone driving by with blessed 4-wheel drive got us out of that mess once again. By this time I was numb to the nonsense of car trouble.
Jorge asked me if I wanted to go back to the sod farm the next day. I calmly said no.
On a good note, my Vanessa kicks butt on the soccer field!
Note the mud and people's choice to avoid it at all costs!
