My family doesn't take many vacations, in fact, in fifteen years, we've taken all of three. In this case we had decided to go to Florida, to visit Legoland for the first time. We had decided to drive to save the money on airfare and a rental car as that expense can be ridiculously high... little did we know how expensive the trip would become because of this decision....
Our 2004 Vibe was in good condition. We had taken it in to have it checked out before the trip and were all set. AAA had set our course to go through several states and little did I know, through several mountaneous states. I hate heights... seriously, if I see a video of people riding a rollercoaster, my feet begin to tingle. And three states of hills and mountains were not my idea of fun.
Well all was good when we set out that Friday morning until we hit what Pennsylvania ubiquitously calls "hills". All of a sudden, this car behind us jettisons up behind us and my husband quickly speeds up and swerves us into the next lane to avoid getting our back end bashed in. (We think the guy's car just suddenly clicked into gear and he couldn't slow it down fast enough). That was the death blow to the Vibe.
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| Down but not out in Pennylvania. |
Suddenly the "check engine" light came on and we rushed to find the nearest gas station. We poured four quarts of oil into the car (saw nothing coming out) and were able to get the check engine light to go off but only for a moment. We called the nearest gas station that was open and on a wing and a prayer attempted to make it there.
We didn't.
On an entrance ramp in the middle of Washington, PA our car began to buck like a bronco in heat.
It was over and in one last gasp she died.
We called AAA and were told it would be half an hour until they could get a tow truck that could take the three of us to the dealership...this was at four o'clock on a Friday. An hour later when it still hadn't arrived we called back only to be told by a snotty clerk that it could be HOURS until they could get a tow truck to us that would house all three of us. It was now five o'clock on a Friday. Not good odds at gettingour car fixed at all. My husband made a quick call to the dealership who kindly agreed to pick up at least my son and myself, but luckly that wasn't required as the tow truck showed up immediately after that call. (Clearly the second agent had no idea what she was talking about thank goodness.)
So, now we are in another state, far from home and our car was dead. They couldn't fix it so what do we do? We could rent a car and go back home, but then we have to pay for the tow to have the car sent home and we still have to look for a car. Or, we can buy a car that we had no intention of doing at this point.
Well, we bought a car. The car is very nice and Washington Chevrolet is a phenomenal dealership that I would do business with again in a heartbeat. They truly went over and above for us and because of them we were able to continue our vacation and have a safe car to do it in. When we set out we had no idea we'd be putting ourselves back into debt for another six years... but then it could have died anywhere... it just choose the exotic vacation land of Pennsylvania to do it in.
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| I'm going to die... I'm going to die..OMG! OMG! OMG! |
You see, West Virginia and Virginia surprises you with their mountains...you come around a curve it's like, "yep, here it is"... so while you know you are are in the mountains, it kind of sneaks up on you so you don't have the anticipation omnipresent...
Not Pennyslvania... Pennyslvania lays it all out for you so if you have a fear of heights it shows you the 5000 mile view to say, "You could die here...you could fall of a cliff there....Just look how deep that ravine is...
" Eeeeiiik!
Couple that with a brand new car you know nothing about and my husband, being a typical man, wanting to explore all the new features ......while driving around death taunting curves.
I was white knuckling it all the way.
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| White knuckling it all the way... |
We finally made it through to our first night in Winston-Salem, NC. There was a famous BBQ place there that was within walking distance of the hotel. The doorman assured us it was a safe walk even at 8pm at night. So, we made the walk and got there just fine, but the walk home was a bit more frightening. As we were walking back to the hotel, we passed a bunch of older youths outside a church yard discussing how one of their friends had just went to jail. We walked up further and passed a street that had been blocked off and this menacing looking guy came out and started to follow us. Our car dyng and now we get to be mugged too? Wow, what life experiences we were having....
Luckly we speeded up our trek and got back to the hotel.
HONEY, TURN OFF THE ALARM.....
But it's not the alarm in the room... it's the hotel alarm...going off... at six am.... and we are on the seventeenth floor....what do we do? Visions of "Towering Inferno" start going through my head...
There is no directions from the alarm other than they will tell us what to do when it's over. I looked out out window to see the fire engine coming down the road. It reaches the hotel, stops, turns off the lights... and drives away..... I'm hoping that is a good sign...
Then the announcement comes over the loud speaker that the emergency is over and we can go back to our previous activities... um..SLEEPING... highly doubtful at this point and right before a ten hour drive...
Anyway, we did reach our destination and had a good time and luckly the rest of the trip was uneventful (in a bad way I mean). We got to stay in Mt. Airy on the way back. Mt. Airy Life is the birthplace of Andy Griffin and the town he based his mythical town of Mayberry on. http://www.visitmayberry.com/ We didn't get a chance to tour it as we we had to get home to go back to work, but it looked like a great place.
So, our vacation wasn't as restful as we'd hope but we did have many interesting experiences. We did have fun and we got a good story out of it.
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