Taylor Gang: Hot August Night

I have been looking forward to Hot August Nights (HAN) for months. I knew I was going to be able to enjoy the whole week and not have to worry about work. I couldn't wait to go cruising again with everyone, especially Brielle. As the event got closer I wanted to make sure we really did take advantage of the week because there are rumors that HAN was moving to Long Beach and we wouldn't have HAN in the area any more. Then with the news about my mom I was so excited to celebrate the week with them.

The week generally gets kicked off on Monday where we hang out at the Atlantis. However Perm was coming home that night so we decided to pick Perm up in Matilda. However, Perm's flight was delayed so Matt, Mensah (who flew in to be with Perm) and my Dad all took off in the Plymouth to go to the Atlantis. My mom and I took the kids back and watched the season finale of the Bachelorette.

The next day I knew that Dad had meetings that night so Matt made arrangements with his folks to go cruising with them. Our hope was to get dinner early and have the rest of the night to cruise. We tried to pick a place where we thought wouldn't have a lot of people and we could get in and out. However, that wasn't the case. Dinner took FOREVER and we didn't leave dinner until 6:50ish. We felt really rushed because Perm was getting released at 8 and we were across town. Matt and I were feeling stressed and not knowing what to do. We had his parents here to be with us, Erin with us and not wanting to be late for Perm's releasing and not much time. We finally decided to hit the Atlantis and cruise the parking lot. We then dropped everyone off so they could look around and we headed back to the truck and over to Sparks for Perm's releasing.

We figured it would take 15-20 minutes for Perm to be release as a missionary and then we would go pick up Matt's folks and go cruising. However, an hour later we were leaving the stake building which meant it was a little past nine. Matt's folks were heading home and cruising was ending in a half hour. Matt and I both felt really bad how the night turned out. Maybe next year we will do dinner at 4!

Wednesday is HAN dinner for the registered participants at the Nugget. I was really excited because Matt and I were invited to go with my parents. We (Brielle, Miles, Matt, Mom, Dad and I) all piled into the car at 5:30 to head to the Nugget. Right when Dad turned the car on it was making a very load pinging noise. Matt said, "That's weird, it wasn't making that noise last night." Then halfway down my parents street Dad said, "I wonder if it needs gas?" As we turned onto Wedekind the car started to die and stopped before we could completely pull off to the side. Matt and I jump out and push it off to the side of the road. Dad tried a couple more times to get the car started but it wouldn't fire up. We figured it was probably out of gas. Matt ran up to the shop and got a gas can. The car fired up and we were back on the road again. For the first time ever I was pretty nervous about being on the road with my kids and the Plymouth. As we were approaching the intersection of Sullivan and Oddie, the car begins to die again. I started freaking out inside, I didn't want to be stuck in the middle of the intersection, especially with my kids. Luckily we were able to make it a parking lot and it died again. By now it was after six and Brielle was getting hungry saying, "Mama, eat! I eat!" I didn't bring any snacks with me because we were heading to dinner.
By now we were done taking the car to dinner but we needed to figure out how to get the car home and us too. Dad called Grandpa Ross to pick us up. We figured we would tow the car home and then go to dinner. After some time the car started up. My Dad wanted to try to get it home so Matt stayed in the parking lot for Grandpa and the rest of us were back on the road. But we didn't make it far. We made it across the parking lot onto El Rancho and died as we were approaching the intersection again. My dad pulled off into the right turn lane and I jumped out with the kids. I was so afraid we were going to get hit and I wasn't about to be in that car if it happen. I called Matt to tell him we died again. Matt came running over and my mom tried to go find my Grandpa. As we were trying to figure things out again, my parents neighbor (a car enthusiast who has worked on the Plymouth) were driving by with their classic car. They pulled over to help.

At this time it dawned on me that the Pharmacy we were next to probably had something to snack on. So I took Brielle and we headed in to see what I could feed my poor starving daughter. They had dried apricots and gold fish...perfect! Right after I bought the food my grandpa drove up. We figured we could load up the kids, mom and I and head home and wait for the boys.

I stirred up the pot because I refused to get in the car with Grandpa behind the wheel without car seats for my kids. This really upset Grandpa when Mom asked if she could drive. But then Dad decided he better go with us and get the truck so we could tow the car back. Grandpa got mad at Dad when he said he was driving, but he did move over. We all loaded up and left Matt and Mike working on the car.

WE were dropped off at the house and realized no one had house keys. But a few minutes later we heard a horn and looked down to see Matt at the end of the road with Matilda. YIPPEE! The car died right as Matt was driving it into the garage.

We loaded up into the truck and took off for dinner. By now it was close to 7PM and we were all very hungry. We made it to the Rotisserie for dinner but had to wait in line before we could eat. Needless to say we all over ate because we were STARVING! The food was yummy!So you guessed it, we didn't go cruising that night because we didn't have a car! SAD.

Having the car not working was going to really put a damper on the poker run the next day. So after dinner I went home with the kiddos and Matt stayed to work on the car. He worked till almost midnight. Then he couldn't sleep very well because he thought about the car and what he could do. In fact neither one of us slept much and were awake from 4:30 on.

Matt headed over to my parents house early trying to fix the car in hopes that he could get it going. After several hours the car was working! Good job Matt! He saved the day. We took off around 10 to start the poker run. Dad drove the corvette, Matt drove the Plymouth and I drove our truck with mom and the kids. We figured I better drive the truck just in case the Plymouth breaks down and we needed to tow it.

The Poker run started out in East Sparks. I felt like I needed to stay right behind the Plymouth just in case something happen so I think I ran about 4 red lights just getting to our starting point. The day was a little weird for me. At the beginning I didn't get out of the car and participate at the different stops and I was driving a new truck not a classic. However as the day went on I was grateful I was driving the truck.

The Plymouth was running really well around town and through most of Carson. However as we were heading out of Carson and up a hill the car started to act up-of course right? We were SO far from home! Matt was trying to pull over and I was right behind him with my flashers on. After what seems to be eternity but really only a couple minutes, Matt was able to get the car running and off we went. We stressed about it every time we had to stop. I guess it was getting stuck in second gear and would shake the car and try to die. So there were many stops where I had my flashers on and Matt trying to work his magic. It was a very stressful drive! I cut off several people as they would try to get between Matt and I.

On our way home we were driving through Washoe Valley when all of a sudden everyone was slamming on their breaks-fast and hard! It didn't take long to see what everyone was slowing down for. A semi-truck had dumped some of its load onto the road. Dirt was covering both lanes and there was a lot of it. Just ahead was a semi-truck pulled over with its flashers. I told Mom I hope he was calling it in because that was going to cause an accident. Plus it's terrible for the classic cars that were going to be driving through it. Then as we were driving through Pleasant Valley I noticed that same semi-truck getting into the other lane so he could pass people. The next thing I know Dad darts out in front of him and slows down. It was really funny. I knew exactly what he was doing-preventing that semi from passing him so he wouldn't get dirt/rocks onto his corvette. I knew this pissed the semi driver off because he was riding my dad. As we were approaching the stop light at Mt Rose everyone was applying their break EXCEPT the semi-driver. I thought for sure he was going to hit my Dad-but he didn't.

On our way to one of our last stops Matt decided to take the freeway. I thought we were all going to stick together but my Dad went straight and we were heading up the freeway ramp. As we were going on the ramp Matt was driving a little weird (halfway on the shoulder and not speeding up) and finally pulled over once we hit the freeway. Of course because my Dad wasn't there. The car over heated. We gathered everyones water (total of about 8-10 bottles) and dumped it down the car. After letting it sit for a bit Matt felt comfortable enough to drive it to our second to last stop of the poker run.

I have always like this stop because they provide free food, drinks and snacks. This year they had ice cream too! We sat and enjoyed our snacks and listened to music. While we were sitting there this little girl came up to Brielle and asked her if she wanted a teddy bear. Brielle was SO excited.

We sent my parents in the corvette to do the last stop and the rest of us headed back to my parents house. We had enough stress for the day and were done. We didn't feel it was a good idea to take the Plymouth cruising that night. We also had some nice visitors-the Highway Patrol. We had two officers come to the door to get a statement from my Dad because he reported the semi-truck. These officers were SO excited that someone actually reported the truck. They already knew which company was at fault but they can't do anything because they needed a witness. They came and picked up his statement and assessed his car for damage. It made the night kinda fun. We hung around my parents and said our goodbye's because they were heading out in the morning for the big Scandinavian trip.

Friday Matt really wanted to get the Plymouth going so we could go cruising again. He spent some of the morning working on the car and felt he fixed the problem. He drove it to our house and back without any problems. That afternoon we packed up the kids and went to the auction. It was my first auction I have ever been to. It was so fun and those auctioneers always surprise me with how fast they can talk. It was kinda funny because we were sitting on the bleachers and this guy turned to Brielle and told her she needed to tell her Daddy he needs to buy a corvette for her. Matt turns to him and says, "She's good, her grandpa has two of them." The guy didn't know what to say.

That night we packed Mensah, Perm, Erin, Brielle, Miles, Matt and I into the car. We decided to leave Miles in the car seat which helped protect him from the wind. We started off cruising Victorian because it was close to home. It was pretty busy and we had to wait but the car was doing really good. In fact once we made it through Victorian we decided to see how well it would do at the Grand Sierra. Since it was doing so good we decided to hit downtown Reno. On our way there Brielle fell asleep on me-it was so precious. She hasn't done that in a long time. We hit downtown Reno (not our favorite) then Peppermill and we ended at the Atlantis. We couldn't believe we made it to all the venues. It was so fun! On the way home we watched the fireworks go off in downtown Reno. The car ran really good and we made it home safe. We were so pleased.

Saturday night we decided to take the Jolleys. The clouds were threatening but we figured we would go until it rained. This was their first year doing HAN and cruising. We had a good time introducing them to the event in style. We were shocked that every place we went wasn't that busy. We hit sparks first and sailed right through then went to the Peppermill where half the parking lot was empty. We have always heard Saturday night is horrible because its so busy but it wasn't that way for us.

The week was wild, crazy and stressful. But overall we had a fantastic time and were so pleased the car functioned at the end of the week. Love that we have a classic car that we can enjoy as a family. Thanks Dad for letting Matt take it for the week. We had a blast!

Dinner with the Taylors'

Brielle wasn't too sure of the car and we were lucky she even stood next to it. I had to force her into the car so we could go-she was kicking and screaming but then realized it wasn't that bad and she had a good time.

Norma, Brookie, Brittany, Merlin and Tyler all cozy in the backseat.

The next night we didn't have any problems getting Brielle into the car. She was more than happy to get in and drive without a seatbelt.

On our way to dinner Wednesday night.

We were all hungry and couldn't wait to eat, cruise and play.

Stuck on the side of the road on Wedekind

Brielle didn't mind the pit stop, she liked playing the car.

The only time you are going to see me in the drivers seat. Having to steer as Matt and Dad pushed the car off the road a little bit more.

The beginning of the poker run

Lunch at the park in Minden. It was a hot day. I figured Miles would get hot in the car seat so I left him in a diaper. When we got to the park he was ready to eat and stretch out for a little while.

Mensah, Perm and Erin

The parentals

Family picture time. The original plan was to have Miles and Brielle drive in the truck but Erin wanted to take her. She loved riding in the car with Erin and even fell asleep on the way to Minden.