Me and the kids are in California this week for the kid's Fall Break from school. It was quite an adventure just to get here...our original plan was for us all to drive to my parent's house on Friday morning and enjoy the weekend together, then Mike would fly home Sunday night to work, and fly back on Thursday to drive home with us on Friday.
So we packed up the car and left our house around 9:30 am on Friday and followed Mike to the airport to drop his car off so it would be waiting for him on Sunday. We continued on our merry way, just like any other drive to California when suddenly we start to smell a wierd smell in the car. We determine that it isn't the air outside, so it's coming from our car. Then Mike looks down at the dashboard to see if anything looks awry (because he knows so much about cars-ha!) and the RPM's are revving really high, but the car is not speeding up when he presses the gas. We immediately find a place to turn off the freeway and pop the hood to look inside. Steam and smoke are coming from somewhere and there are splatters of something all over the engine. We are all stressed because we aren't sure what to do, and we are really in the middle of nowhere.
If I had thought clearer, I wouldn't have done this, but I call 911 and tell the lady where we are and ask her to send us a tow truck. Instead she gives me a number of a place I can call. So, I do that and about 20 minutes later, Kid Rock's brother appears with his tow truck to take us to the nearest place-Quartzside. If you've never been to Quartzside, you've probably driven by it while on the way to California-and I will tell you that the part you see from the freeway is the scenic side. It is a hole. Anyway, we get towed to this place and an old guy comes out, opens the hood and says "looks like something splattered all over" (duh) "it smells like transmission fluid, I think your transmission is gone". Now we are stranded in Quartzside in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the day, with 4 restless kids that can't leave the shop's dog alone.
I think they felt bad for us, and a lady that works there, kindly drove our family to McDonald's for a delicious, nutritious lunch. We decided the best thing to do was to have the car towed back to Mesa Honda and let them look at it.
The tow truck with our van attached to a flatbed, came and picked us up from the McDonald's parking lot. Now remember, there are 6 people in our family and 5 seats in the tow truck. I wasn't going to hold Dylan for 3 hours on my lap, so again--what do we do? Kid Rock's brother tells us that we can ride in the van. I mention that perhaps that was illegal, and he says "no, as long as the wheels aren't touching the ground it counts as 1 vehicle and you can be anywhere on it". I didn't really believe this so I say (kind of joking, but not really) "ok, but if we get a ticket, you're paying for it" to which he gives me a look and says "we aren't getting a ticket". So all the kids climb up and get into the van with me and Mike rides in the tow truck so he can tell the guy where to go. We had the car on, in PARK, so we could run the air conditioning, and the kids could watch a movie. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I felt every bump and wiggle and I swore that I kept hearing the chain wiggle around, and I was convinced we were going to slide right off.
Three hours or so later, we were at the Honda dealer, and the kids were helping themselves to the free snacks and drinks and getting all of their energy out. I tried to pretend I didn't know them, but the jig was up when they kept calling me "mommy". Mike called one of neighbors, and they were nice enough to come and pick us, and the contents of our car , up and take us home. By the time we got home it was 6:30pm. I was done with everyone and had no desire to go anywhere. I was ready to bag the whole California idea. Then I felt guilty because the kids were so excited, so we decided we would just fly me and the kids out and Mike would stay home. So , Saturday afternoon, we flew into Los Angeles, and now we're here. In beautiful, cold (to us) and crazy windy, California.
