Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Next adventure...or misadventure?

So previously I discussed the awe-inspiring ice storm and the adventure that entailed. Well, folks, here's adventure #2 with Cali:
Our attempt to make it to the Peters-Duplechin wedding in Irving, TX.

After much thought as to whether or not we should even consider taking a road trip with a three-week-old baby, with the approval of her pediatrician, we decided to take the plunge and go for it. However, we most certainly were not making this trip in our little beater of a 2-door convertible. No sir, that was out. At this point, it's the most reliable car we've got, but it's not much for traveling very far, I'd say. So we explored our options....carpool with someone? Perhaps. Rent a car? That could get pricey. Buy a brand new car for the purpose of this trip? Haha, just pulling your leg on that one. Then there were the accommodations to figure out. Would we just get a hotel for that night? Possibly. Was there anyone in the area we could stay with? That was an option. Could we just assign one person to be sleep deprived that night so we could make the journey back home right after the reception? Hey, I wasn't gonna be driving, so okay! ;)
Finally, we concluded that, 1)We should carpool with other peeps going from Tulsa, and 2)We'd make Joanne drive back that night (no, we are not that cruel. She did volunteer such action). Since Jo had flown to Washington, her car was still in Tulsa. Therefore, we would drive her car to the wedding, all attend this beautiful event, and then head home together. Jamie Jewel Hutch needed a ride there, but already had a chauffeur for the way back, so this would work out perfectly. The three parties involved would each pay for a share of the gas expenses, and we were guaranteed good times both there and back. We had a plan, and it was pretty great, if I say so myself.

About 50 miles south of Tulsa, Jo's car started to make a sort of a constant beeping/whistling sound. We were driving through some little podunk town, and at every stop light, we could really hear this little noise.
Then more little noises.
Eh, we thought. Maybe we just didn't notice that before because we were too busy talking about married things. So we kept truckin' right along.
A little ways from the toll, the car, which had been on cruise control, suddenly decided to go at its own speed. It sped up a bit, and the RPMs went a little berserk. At this point, we were coming upon a McDonalds, and the fleeting thought of stopping there entered all of our minds, as we later came to find out. But alas...we just passed it on by.

After paying the toll, the silly thing wouldn't pick up the speed again! It could barely make it to 50, let alone the speed limit. At this point we were thinking to ourselves that we were going to be so late for the wedding at this rate. But little did we know....
approximately one mile post-toll-paying, the engine started shaking and the car began to slow down more on its own. We decided now would be good time as ever to pull over and turn off the engine, no? Well...no need! The engine shut itself off. How convenient! Ryan got out and took a look under the hood. That thing was smokin'. Baaaaad. I was in the backseat with Cali in her carseat, and Jamie was in the front seat trying to get the engine to even turn over. Nothing. What a sad, sad little peanut of an effort that car made to start again. There were, however, a lot of pretty little lights that came on all at once. Something to the likes of, "service engine soon," then there was the same ol' oil light, and, OH--the engine overheat light. Nice to know we should service engine soon. Seriously, cars should have something that says, "service engine NOW!" and just like that, too. That way, you know how long you've got, you know? Like it says "soon," and you know you've got a good solid 200 more miles or so. Anyway, that will probably never happen anyhow, so I'm going to continue with my story now.

Ryan gets back in the car and the three of us look at each other incredulously. We had a funny moment when we realized we were right in front of the "keep off median" sign. We laughed a little.

It was about 2:45pm, the wedding was at 6pm, and we were still a good 3 hours away. Now there was no way we would make it on time! We still clung to the hope that maybe, just MAYBE there was someone else we knew heading in that direction for this wedding. But of course, they'd have to be heading out pretty darn late to be behind us. Well, no such luck. We finally gave up the idea of being able to attend our friends' glorious event, and decided to figure out how we were going to get back home. Well, we could scarcely find anyone who was even in town, let alone someone who could come rescue us from the side of the road. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE, and there were lots)who picked up their phone was out of town, and the people we knew were in town were not picking up. It was, in fact, the Saturday afternoon between Christmas and New Years. So. Enough said.

Well, at least it was about 60 degrees outside and we weren't going to frostbite or anything. The three of us sat around, calling everyone in our contacts list that could possibly help. And tow trucks, not to mention, because we could not leave Jo's car to be towed away and taken to some wasteland of an impound. I'm sure she would not appreciate that, either. Ryan called this ma and pop kind of towing company in Tulsa, since they have the cheapest prices in town (broken-down car issues were not new to us). So he made arrangements to have that of the broken down machine variety to be picked up, and Jamie really came through on this one by finding someone (her father in law) to pick up those of us of the human variety. And Cali? She was sleeping this whole time (and I guess that was really the best thing for her to be doing!). And me, I was just sitting in the backseat, having no luck with anyone I tried to call, thus quite lacking in contribution to the solving of our little problem. I did, however, change one diaper. So I wasn't completely useless. ;)

To pass the time waiting for help to come, we began to make little bets on what time the tow truck would arrive. The winner would get a candy bar. The current time was somewhere between 3:30 and 3:45. Ryan said 4:55, if I remember correctly. I said 5:00. Jamie said something like 5:02, or whatever it was, but she was right on! We were thoroughly amazed. Her father in law arrived about 15 to 20 minutes later, and we were saved. Yippee! Just in time, as it was starting to get dark and it was getting much colder. As God would see fit...perfect timing indeed.
Ah, well. So that was our second little adventure as a family, and Cali's first time (and I should mention, only time thus far) sleeping a solid 7 hours straight. Seriously...why doesn't she do that at night???


Update (you know, like the captions at the end of a movie): Jo got her whole engine replaced, and her car is now in tip-top shape. Especially for a Jimmy of the older variety. Jamie never got her candy bar for winning the bet. The Lampe family made it back to their apartment, at which point the baby awakened and stayed awake for quite some time that night, LUCKILY for them.

2 comments:

ErinJess28 said...

Hey Luci!

Crazy thing happened to me on the Saturday before Christmas...I was on my way home from Nashville to Alabama for Christmas and three hours into the drive a similar thing happened to my car...the car started rattling really loud and then smoke came out from under the hood before the car stalled out completely on the side of I-65 South in a bad part of B-ham, Alabama. So, I called the cops, and 45 minutes later they came and made me get out of my car to tell them what was wrong with my car! Then once they heard I have USAA and they tow for free, the cops left me there! Stranded!

I then called my insurance company and an hour later the guy came and towed my car to a place in Hoover, AL about 10 miles away from where I was stranded. The mechanic there said there was no use in fixing it at all...so then I waited for three and a half hours for my mom to come and get me and take me home to Alabama for Christmas.

Good thing is that I rode a Greyhound bus back to Nashville...and then just one week later, my brother-in-law called me and offered me his '97 Honda Accord LX...the following Friday night, I was on the road in a rental car with one of my best friends, driving down another six hour drive to Ozark, AL, to pick up that car...

What can I say, except God is so good and I am so grateful HE comes through every time! :0)

ErinJess28 said...

Hey Luci!

Crazy thing happened to me on the Saturday before Christmas...I was on my way home from Nashville to Alabama for Christmas and three hours into the drive a similar thing happened to my car...the car started rattling really loud and then smoke came out from under the hood before the car stalled out completely on the side of I-65 South in a bad part of B-ham, Alabama. So, I called the cops, and 45 minutes later they came and made me get out of my car to tell them what was wrong with my car! Then once they heard I have USAA and they tow for free, the cops left me there! Stranded!

I then called my insurance company and an hour later the guy came and towed my car to a place in Hoover, AL about 10 miles away from where I was stranded. The mechanic there said there was no use in fixing it at all...so then I waited for three and a half hours for my mom to come and get me and take me home to Alabama for Christmas.

Good thing is that I rode a Greyhound bus back to Nashville...and then just one week later, my brother-in-law called me and offered me his '97 Honda Accord LX...the following Friday night, I was on the road in a rental car with one of my best friends, driving down another six hour drive to Ozark, AL, to pick up that car...

What can I say, except God is so good and I am so grateful HE comes through every time! :0)