Planes, Trains and Automobiles Part 1

So after a crazy good camp in Crystal Springs, ND we were staying with Scot and Crystal in Valley City, ND. We were going to leave on Saturday at around 6 or so in the a.m. to head to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to camp. Now when we're leaving at 5:50 a.m., on a Saturday, in Valley City, ND we got hit from a guy running a stop sign!! THE ONLY DRIVER IN VALLEY CITY, ND, POSSIBLY THE ENTIRE STATE FOUND THE SIDE OF OUR CAR WITH HIS!!!


It was kinda interesting because we had just prayed for traveling mercies and for God to watch out for us and then not even 5 minutes later we got hit. We are both ok (at least from the accident), however my car Rosie is not. She was totaled and now resides in North Dakota somewhere. I'll have to say she was a great car and did everything that we wanted her to do.


So as we were gathering what to do in the midst of the craziness of getting hit that early we were lucky that we were only about 12 blocks from our good buddy Scot's house. So we texted him but got nothing, which we shouldn't have at 5:50 in the AM. So the policeman drove around the corner and got his pickup truck and drove us and our entire car full of stuff to Scot and Crystal's house. Where we proceeded to make home base for the next weekend.


Now in normal cities the auto body shop would be wide open on a Saturday...however in Valley City, ND there is no auto body shop open on Saturdays. So the fun continues. So we contacted out insurance company about the whole thing and the waiting began. We couldn't do anything since there would not be anybody available til Monday morning. Oh and did I mention that Scot gave us a cold?? Well it might have been somebody from camp, but it's more fun to say it was Scot.


So as we're feeling like death and looking not that far behind I got a call from the local pastor to preach at Valley City First Church of the Nazarene. Which I gladly accepted because I love to preach...so it worked out well. So as we're waiting on Sunday we are trying to formulate a plan that makes sense and won't cost an arm and a leg. We checked on rentals out of Fargo, but that would be a ridiculous amount of money for the time and miles we needed the car. They were going to charge something like $2 a mile outside the region for us to use it. Um I don't think so considering we're driving 18 hours away.


So as Monday morning rolled around we are trying to figure out what to do not only to get us home, but our entire car full of stuff home as well. Mindy found that Amtrak would be a good option and that they would let us take 3 checked bags and 2 carry-ons, which we would probably be able to do. We told both insurance companies that was what we were going to finally do. This train departed at 2:30 in the morning so we had to ask Scot how good of friends we were considering we would need a ride at about midnight so we could get to Fargo on time. The train we were taking would be from Fargo to Chicago, then Chicago to Cincinnati...so we thought...