Manti Pageant experience!

Back in the spring I made plans (reservations) for our family to attend the Manti Miracle Pageant in Manti on June 19th.  It was something that I've never done and it had been years since David had gone.  We have fond memories of taking Austin and Ethan to the Palmyra pageant so I thought we should take McKinley and Evan to one too!

We actually left town on time about 4:30pm on Thursday to make our way to our campsite, get settled, and then attend the pageant.  Well, things didn't go as planned.  About 1 hour into our 2 hour journey we felt a tire go out on the trailer.  We pulled over and discovered that it was not just a flat tire...the tire and rim and everything was gone!  Somehow the tire bolts (all 5 of them) had broken clean off and the tire had ripped off and gone flying somewhere (we never found it!).  

Luckily we were able to pull over quickly and get off the road.  Also, we don't think we affected anyone else driving behind or to the side of us when the wheel came off.  We were just stuck at the side of the road.

After calling our Good Sam roadside assistance and finding out that it expired 3 days before we made some calls to local mobile mechanics and finally found one that was open (6pm on Thursday??) and could come.  So we waited, and waited...and they finally came.  At this point we'd been at the side of the road for 2 hours!

The mechanic made it and assessed the situation and determined that it could be fixed.  They started to jack up the trailer and get the assembly off.  Somewhere along the line the mechanic determined that he didn't have all the parts he needed and he had to go and get some.  He thought he would be gone 30 minutes...so we decided to go and get some dinner in nearby Nephi.  We had a quick dinner and rushed back to meet the mechanic on the side of the road (nearest exit was 10 miles when we had to turn around!).  And then we waited and waited some more.  By now it was 9pm and we'd been at the side of the road (minus our quick dinner trip) for 3.5 hours!

Well the mechanic was not back yet, so we waited and he finally arrived, made the repair (another 2 hours) and we were on our way about 11:45pm!  Phew...

So we missed the pageant that night and just set up the trailer and went to sleep.  The next day we explored around Manti, venturing up a dirt road in Manti La Sal national forest to a cute little lake.  We hiked around it a noticed some koi fish and some dead fish in the lake.

After our hike and exploring it was really heating up and we decided the Manti pool looked like a great place to cool down...and it was.  We enjoyed the pool, slide, and lazy river for a couple hours until we got hungy and headed back to our campsite for some lunch and a nap!

After a nice nap in the air conditioned camper, we headed out to get our seats at the Pageant.  We went early (about 6pm) to make sure we could get decent seats and it was easy.  We were middle, 6th row and had a great view.

After saving our seats we walked around the craft fair, got some lunch and ice cream, and then played hearts in the city park until the show was about to start.  We really enjoyed the pageant and walked back to our campsite after for our final evening.  The next morning we headed home and had a very nice, uneventful ride home!  It was a fun get away with the two younger kids!