We had planned to leave Monday for Georgia, but then everyone (except for me) came down with a stomach bug. We lost a day.
I determined we would not leave until people had acted healthy for a minimum of twelve hours, which would give us twenty-four hours of minimum health before arriving in Georgia. Thus, we left around noon.
I was driving my little brown truck, a Chevy Malibu, so my sister from Florida could buy it. Steph bought the car thirteen years ago, and it has served us faithfully these many years.
We had gone about five minutes when a change came over the car, and it lost all power climbing hills and started to overheat. I’m pretty sure the catalytic converter (some of you call it a Cadillac converter) is the problem. I managed to get the car about half an hour down the road before deciding it really should go no further.
I’m not sure what to do with it. Is it worth putting more dollars into a vehicle that’s not worth $1,000 itself? Farewell for now, old friend!
We stopped and picked up Steph’s sister Christina who is going along on the trip to help with our littles. We got to Harrisonburg, an hour away, around 3:00. That was disheartening, but we kept on trucking… or vanning.
We had gone about two hours more when I noticed a slight tremor in the front of the van. Ten minutes later it was beyond noticeable. I stopped and checked things and topped off the air pressure.
Back on the road, things were worse than before. We stopped about ten miles later, pulling into a tire shop at 5:03. Thankfully, they were open until 7:00.
We had a separated tire that the mechanic said was just around the corner from a blowout. The family bailed out while two new tires were put on. Farewell, dollars!
There was a Hardee’s a few buildings up the street, so we walked there and sat in the cool and ordered a light supper. There was a strip of grass out front, so I had the children run races. Carpe diem!
An hour later we were back on the road. Our ETA was now 4:00am the next day.
I drove until shortly before midnight when I began to feel sleepy. Steph had been sleeping a fair bit, so she was ready to drive a few hours while I took a nap. Thanks, Sweet Pea!
I finished the last leg of the journey, getting us to our destination at 4:32am. The low-fuel light came on in the driveway.
Steph’s sister Melissa was there to pick up Christina. We’re staying in a cute apartment one of the women from the church here has.
We dragged ourselves and our stuff inside. Steph showered. The boys needed a shower for various reasons, so at 5:00 in the morning, I was lathering up three little guys. That’s the earliest shower they’ve ever had.
I had just rinsed the last soap out of the last little guy’s hair when Seth decided he really needed to go potty. One-and-a-half-year-olds do not know to wait to defecate until they and their loved ones have exited the shower.
More delay. More soap–lots more soap!–and more rinsing. At last we were ready for bed. We were shutting the lights off about the time the sun was waking up.
We made it.
Juan David 