Wrecker Trucks and Funeral Potatoes
We left early in the morning on Thursday to get to Utah in time for everything leading up to Carma's funeral. Just outside of Cortez, Colorado, the car engine slowed way down and we limped into town. We decided to get some lunch and then look for a Pontiac repair shop, but as we traversed main street without finding a garage, the car seemed to be working all right again. I figured that it might have been bad gas and it would be worth going on into Utah, so that if we needed help from our son Michael, he wouldn't have as far to come.

We made it all the way up to Moab, and then 20 miles out of town, engine power dropped to zero and the car coasted to a halt. We got onto a cell phone and called the Auto Club which arranged for a wrecker truck to come out and tow us back into Moab. Marolynn, Jon, and I holed up in the Super-8 Motel and the car was towed to a repair shop. We arranged with Michael to come and get us early Friday morning, and as it was, we left the car at the repair shop and got into the Salt Lake area in time for Marolynn to meet her sisters to prepare Carma for the funeral.

On Saturday morning Carma's funeral was held, following the typical format of a "viewing", the memorial service, all in Cama's ward meetinghouse, and then the graveyard service, and after that, a trip back to the meetinghouse for Relief Society-served lunch. I've never been in favor of viewings ever since my own parents funerals, but I came to realize that viewings are held as much for the family and friends to meet and converse with each other as it is to actually view the deceased. So I'm more accepting of it now.

One of the items in the Relief Society lunch was a potato-based casserole; several of which were baked by different sisters and brought to the meetinghouse. Marolynn's sister told me that the recipe was called "funeral potatoes" in the Relief Society cook book, because that was the purpose of the dish. Somehow I have to work that name into my family history.

We stayed over for Church on Sunday and returned Monday, assisted back to Moab by Michael. The problem with the car was the fuel pump - I have yet to figure how it worked for 110 more miles from Cortez to Moab before it quit.