We arrived in Denver at the Marriot Hotel and got our van upacked and settled in to our booth. If anyone has ever manned a booth before, you know this is a big ordeal. If anyone has ever manned a booth before with six children, you know this is a real big ordeal.
But it always means we meet incredible people. That’s the trade off, and we’ve found it to be worthwhile every single time.
Hattie got a special pass at this conference that said she was the speaker assistant to her dad. And oh she took that job very seriously. She always made sure he had food and snacks, and kept letting him know how much longer until his next speaking session. Which was very helpful as he spoke five times in the three days we were there.
After the second full day of vendoring, we decided a bit impulsively to load the kids up and head to the mountains for pizza. Our kids have never been in the mountains and it seemed like it might make for a fun late night memory. We loaded up with excited kids and turned the ignition and…nothing.
The van was dead again.
The next day was Saturday and Rory had two more talks to give and actually began his first talk by asking if anyone in the audience was an auto mechanic. Meanwhile, back at the booth, Ivar was connecting with more people. One couple introduced themselves as the owners of Conquering Cars, a curriculum they have designed for families to learn automotive skills and maintenance together. Ivar stared in amazement, “Can you fix our van?”
That is Steven, founder of Conquering Cars, in the navy t-shirt. He ended up leaving his booth and instead spent the 95-degree-day laying on the asphalt under our big blue van. Duane in the blue was a mechanic who was working at another booth and ran to get parts to try, as Steven kept trying and testing more things. Eric is in the plaid and had the needed socket wrench set. These three worked until the car was literally conquered- around 5pm. The conference was over, the booths were being packed up, and they got the van working again.
I think the best part of all of this, is that we are so thrilled to get to sign up for Conquering Cars ourselves, thrilled to support this family economy desiring to educate others, and thrilled to get to spread the word to as many other families as possible. We are going to start our classes in January and know we have a ton to learn.
Our fixed and working van meant that we were able to go to our friend Kevin Swanson’s church and to see the Generations warehouse where they package and ship all of their homeschool curriculum. Generations writes my very favorite science and history books, and my kids agree.
We went to the Swansons for lunch after service and Abel gladly received the strawberries Kevin kept putting into his cup of ice cream.
We had a wonderful time together and left the Swansons to begin our trek home. We were all a bit defeated because we never did make it to the mountains. We had been so close. But the van had thrown us for a loop and we knew we had many, many miles ahead, back to Minnesota. We drove for about 90 minutes, and at a gas station, Rory looked at the radar and confirmed that the black clouds we were looking at were going to be the clouds we would drive right into, very soon.
So in a super-fun and uncharacteristic move, he announced to the family that we were turning around and driving back to Boulder! We went to the city park at the base of the flat irons and took a sunset hike, everyone still in their church clothes.
It was so joyous because it was so unexpected. We all were grateful to be there. We hiked for a while and took a zillion pictures and then turned around, got back on the road, and began our journey home, making it to Ogallala, Nebraska late that night.
The next day we made the final leg, while the car worked perfectly and the children got loopy. I have always said a long road trip is one of my favorite things, and this trip from Minnesota to St. Louis to Tennessee to Kansas to Colorado to Nebraska to Minnesota will forever be one of my very favorite. And strangely, I would say the car troubles added to the trip because of the great people God sent to help us along the way.
We have no affiliate program with Conquering Cars, but I love what their family has created and want to help spread the word. Here is their website if you’d like to add auto maintenance to your family’s skillset.
