journal January 1985 continued

"We didn't make it to Utah for Christmas - but we tried. We left Sunday night intending to drive all night. We made it about 3/4 of an hour out of Bakersfield going up Tehachapi and our transmission went . Mark finally flagged down a trucker and hitched a ride back to Bakersfield. He came back eventually with a tow truck and we were towed back to Bakersfield. The night was freezing and we had to ALL sit in the front of the tow truck (seven of us - Jon was with us) (seriously, picture this- the driver, Mark, Jon, pregnant me and 3 kids in pajamas.)

The headlights kept going off on the tow truck which had us all TERRIFIED the whole way down the mountain. He parked us at 3 Way Chevrolet at 2:00 AM and we sat there till morning waiting for the place to open. Actually we were lucky it did open that day because it was Christmas Eve day. They had it fixed by early afternoon and we tried to go up Tehachapi again and the transmission started to go again - we gave up, turned around and drove home.

We ended up having a really nice Christmas with just us, at home. I think we'd like to stay home from now on.