We went home for spring break and found a house. It was a wonderful trip filled with family and excitement as we put an offer in on the above home that sits two doors south of the house in which I grew up and in which my parents still live. The skepticism we continue to receive when we report that last tidbit is comical to both of us, but really I couldn't be happier to live near my folks and Melissa feels the same way which is all the better for me. I'm excited to have my kids ride bikes on the same trails that I did 25 years ago and go to my elementary school and high school. I'm also excited to be able to walk to church.
The real excitement of the trip was in the traveling itself. We left South Bend Friday night and drove straight through. Saturday night we arrived at an empty house as my dad was at a track meet and mom was out grocery shopping, but it didn't matter because we were just happy to get out of the car. Somewhere in Nebraska we lost a blanket, a pillow pet and a pair of pajamas after Kristian decided to lose his dinner upon waking at a gas station at 1:30 AM. I was in no mood to attempt to clean any of that and decided to pitch them. My grandparents are rolling in their graves at my wasteful attitude, but in my defense it was 1:30. Then remainder of our trip out was uneventful.
The trip back was a little bit less stressful to start. We decided to do it in two days and left Salt Lake at a decent hour on the Saturday of spring break. We made it to Lincoln, NE before calling it a day. The next morning we were on the road by 8:00 South Bend time and made great time until we were a mere 3 hours from home.
About an hour outside of Joliet the check battery light in the Yukon came on and I noticed that our voltage was pretty low. I turned off the A/C, radio, DVD player, daytime running lights and we used our windows sparingly so as to conserve any battery power we might have left. I figured our alternator was having a difficult time (having gone through an alternator replacement in my first car some years ago), but we likely wouldn't be able to find anyplace to help us out on a Sunday anyway so we kept going. Upon arriving in Joliet we pulled off the freeway only to have the voltage meter kick back up to normal. We filled up the Yukon, counted our blessings and got back on the freeway.
Another 20 miles down the road and battery light goes on again. We pulled off the freeway again hoping against hope that whatever kicked the alternator before would do it again. We were sorely disappointed when it didn't come back this time so again we got back on the freeway and continued on our trek running on the last battery power we had. At this time we were driving I-80 along the south side of Chicago which is a very poor spot to break down.
We made it to Indiana and even onto the toll road here where traffic thins considerably. After about 10 minutes on the toll road the lights and gauges in the Yukon go out but the engine continues to run. Another 3 minutes and we coast to a stop on the side of the freeway where we wait for our rescuers.
A couple of years ago I would have considered this to be an incredibly poor turn of events, but as I was waiting for the tow truck I got to thinking about how many things went right for us on this trip. First of all we traveled 3500 miles in a week and the car broke down with 30 to go. That's not too bad. We have an AAA membership that I purposely did not renew in February because we're moving in June anyway. The week before we left we got a letter that the membership renewed itself through automatic billing and at that time I was ticked because I didn't want it to renew. Dumb me. We had enough power in our cell phones to call AAA get a tow and call a friend in South Bend who graciously drove the 30 miles from South Bend to pick up Melissa and the kids. As if all that wasn't enough the unexplainable glitch in the alternator back in Joliet where it kicked back on recharged the battery back to where it was 30 miles previous to that stop. Thirty miles from South Bend isn't a bad place to break down. Sixty miles from South Bend is right in the middle of South Chicago where I-80 is 5 lanes with very little shoulder, not a place I want to be stranded with Melissa and our 4 kids.
We had the car dropped off at a shop just up the road from our home. They replaced the alternator and we had the Yukon back by the end of the work day on Monday.
It turned out to be a wonderful week and I feel very blessed to have learned the lessons I did, though I still don't know what I should have learned from that gas station in Nebraska with the pillow-pet in their dumpster.
3 comments:
I'm excited that our kids are going to get to know each other by attending the same school - FUN!!! Can't remember the ages of your kids, but I'm certain we have some that are close :)
We live 50 feet from Tyler's parents currently and love it. That's the hardest part about moving. We love walking back and forth and the relationship our kids are making with their grandparents. If you get along with them and Melissa does too, then it'll be awesome. Congrats!
We've had numerous members of the ward asking if it was true. I think most started from one member visiting their dentist, Scott, and spread from there. I took Mark and Krista up to visit the shrine, only from the outside, of course. We planted extra broccoli Saturday, in hopes you'll help harvest.
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