Road Trip Trouble and an Anniversary

So after spending so much time the night before we left packing, we still got a little bit of a late start for our road trip to Virginia. But we left, eventually, about an hour late. We gave our selves some cushion and weren't too worried about being late to Brock's big cardiology appointment in Duluth. On the way, we called the hospital to ask for specific directions. And we were given bad directions. So we got lost in Duluth, and ended up being about 30 minutes late. I should have realized that maybe this was an omen of things to come. The Clinic was super nice about us being late, and the check-up went really well. Brock's heart is doing better, and they are hoping that as he grows his heart will continue to get better. He is supposed to have another big check-up in 6 months. This is great news, much better than the every month or so that we have been doing. After the appointment with the cardiologist I was ready to get on the road.

But Kasey remembered that her ring had a bent prong and that I had bought the ring in Duluth. So she wanted me to take it in to get fixed. So we drove back across town and got the ring fixed. Then Kasey wanted to buy some fruit and healthy snacks for the road trip. After we finally got on the road, we were 3-4 hours behind my previously assumed schedule.

We told Ady that we were going to visit Aunt Melanie. Back in July, Melanie had invited Ady to come visit her in Virginia and Ady was really excited to go see her. She asked about every 17 minutes if we were at Melanie's house yet. Every time we stopped to get gas, she asked if we were at Melanie's house. When we stopped to change a diaper, she asked if this was Melanie's house. Every once in a while, probably about every 32 minutes, she would ask if we were still on our way to Melanie's house. After driving for several hours we finally got across Wisconsin and everyone but me was asleep. I was getting very tired and saw a sign for a 30 dollar a night motel. So I decided to pull over and we got a room. Ady looked at the motel with a somewhat worried look and asked if we were still planning on going to Melanie's house.

The next morning we got stuck in traffic for a while in Chicago and it was late afternoon by the time we made it to Indianapolis. Things were going along okay, we were behind schedule, but still okay. And then Ady said, "I need go potty". I looked up and there was an exit with a service station. I was just getting ready to take off the cruise control, when all of the sudden, we had a problem. My dash lit up with warning lights, and my power was reduced. So I kinda coasted down the off-ramp and Kasey took Ady to the potty while I looked at the vehicle. The ABS light, the service engine light, the 4 wheel high, and the maintenance needed lights on. I'm definitely not much of a car mechanic. But I am a guy, so I know the usual drill of at least pretending like things are under control and I know what I am doing. I popped the hood, checked the bearings for heat, felt along the axel joints, sniffed around for burnt smells, checked the oil and even checked the tire pressure. Just like I expected all those things were fine and of course I still didn't have a clue what might be wrong. So I got out the trusted owners manual and looked up what each of the lights mean.

I couldn't remember which lights had come on so I started the car back up. It fired up just fine, and what do you know, no lights were on and the vehicle sounded fine. I decided that maybe we had just hit a bump and had some electrical fluke thing happened. We put the kids back in the car and away we went. A couple hours later, just after 6 pm when everything is closed. It happened again. This time, the lights stayed on and we the car was most definitely not running correctly. The owners manual was very clear on what the one light meant. It meant that the vehicle had gone into "limp home mode". Sure enough the vehicle wouldn't go very fast, had almost no acceleration and we were "limping" along. We were in the Columbus Ohio area and had to get another motel while we waited for a car mechanic shop to open in the morning.

Kasey handles these sort of things fairly well. Me, not so well. Actually, not well at all. My guess was that we had some computer or electrical problem and I was sure that it would be a couple thousand dollars. A couple thousand dollars that we don't have. And then I have to pay 50 bucks for a motel room that we hadn't budgeted for. So instead of getting to Virginia late that night we found ourselves entertaining Ady by playing with the Thomas the Train set at a nearby ToysRus store. When we left the lady at the door said the oddest thing. Fully expecting her to say something like- good night, see you next time, thanks for coming- the "be safe" was somewhat weird. Made me wonder if we were safe.

We had to call 3 Ford dealers before we found one that could look at our Explorer that morning. When we got there, we waited about 2 hours for them to tell us what was wrong. By this time, Ady had either eaten or crumbled and spread all over the couch thing, all the free cookies that they had for customers and I had worn a path on the floor in the waiting area. They told us that we had one of two things wrong, either it was a "simple" and "cheap" 300 dollar rear wheel sensor, or our throttle body needed to be replaced. My eyes were already bugged out with the cheap 300 dollars and then the lady made my stomach hit the floor. They don't have any throttle body parts, and they can't find any anywhere in the U.S. I asked what does that mean, and was informed that if that was the case, they would make us an offer for our vehicle for parts and we could use that towards a purchase of a new vehicle, or we could leave it there for a couple months if need be. My already dismal outlook got decidedly uglier. I told the lady that that wasn't really a good option for us.

She tried to make some small talk and asked what I do for a living. I really wasn't in the mood, and didn't want to get into a complicated long discussion about entrepreneurs and setbacks. So I just said that I'm looking for work. I know that she was just trying to be nice, and that it wasn't her fault that we were in this situation, but the look on her face almost made me feel better. After 7 hours, several tries at various things, a new set of rear wheel sensors, 5 test drives and if we crawled underneath we'd probably see a bunch of duct tape, we were told that they thought we'd make it to Virginia. Just the thing you wait to hear, "you'll probably make it, but if not, we've written down some other things that might be the problem, you this to the next guy". Knowing that the previous quote was 300 dollars, and that other stuff had been done since, I greatly feared finding out what our bill was. I went to ask the lady and she looked around, saw that no one else was around, leaned down and in a near whisper told me that she had given us her employee discount. We still had to pay 250 bucks, but I think that was about half what we should have. Duct tape is expensive you know. We thanked the lady, paid the bill and very nervous and apprehensively got back on the road. We did make it to Virginia a little after midnight. But I haven't dared to move the vehicle from where I parked it. Maybe it was just the rear wheel sensor, who knows, the Ford place doesn't.

After some recovery sleep, we spent the next day with Aunt Melanie walking around the National Mall. I've always wanted to go to D.C. Always wanted to see my Nation's capital. I was very excited to see this place that millions of visitors see every year and is somewhat of the symbol for our great country. So when I came out of the metro station and saw this, it made me a little dissapointed. Dirt walkways, patchy grass-actually very little grass, mostly weeds and a reflection pool that was so dirty, filled with algae moss and bugs I was seriously dissapointed. But then we started exploring and things somewhat improved. We went to the National Natural History Museum and I decided two things: first, Ady goes through a museum very fast, and second, that isn't always a bad thing. There were tons of stuff to look at, but so many people and with so much to see, we needed to move to see it all. So Ady led us on a tour.
This was Ady's favorite, the room with the "three-horn" the "long neck" and the "sharp tooth". Ady would walk up to one of the displays, put her hand on her hip and say "everybody, let me show you this-this is a monster". And then she would say, "let me show you something else" walk to the next display and say "let me show this bad guy-this is a sharp tooth". All through the museum we looked at 3 things. Sharp tooths, monsters and bad guys. Made us laugh pretty good. If it didn't have big teeth, sharp claws or look altogether scary, Ady would walk right by it. She liked the kids discovery area. She especially liked looking through the microscopes at the butterflies.
We walked around a looked at the Washington Monument.
Kasey really liked the Washington Monument. I really liked the Lincoln Memorial.
In addition to wanting to blog about our trip thus far. I also wanted to write a little about what day today is. Today is Kasey and my 6th anniversary. While going through this week and having several hours in the car to drive and think. I was thinking about all the different choices I've had, and all the different ways my life could have gone. I was particularly thinking about all of our ups and downs and how well Kasey handles it all. Kasey has always been very supportive of my dreams and ambitions and I don't know anyone else who would put up with all of this. Most of the time she even seems to enjoy our little adventures and goes along happily. These last few months especially have been volatile and difficult at times. Yet Kasey keeps on going and still supports me in chasing a dream. I don't know of anyone else that would go through this much with me and still be willing to keep smiling. We laugh sometimes because we don't have much in way of possessions. We have moved so much that we never accumulate much of anything. But we have had some great adventures together. And loved having the adventures together. So on this day that we remember our past 6 years, I am looking forward to the future years. Don't know what exactly might be in store, but know that we will have great adventures and be together for them.