Car Woes Part Deux

In the previous episode of Car Woes, we left off with me being in a bit of a car jam when my recently purchased for $1 used Saturn decided to die right as we were getting ready to take Care Bear to her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. Luckily, we were able to make it to the birthday party thanks to Grandma Dawn who drove us all up there. However, that didn't solve the problem of how I was going to transport myself and my three children to wherever we needed to go in the near future with the weather getting cooler and cooler as the days progress.

Enter Grandpa S. The grandpa to end all grandpas; the handy-man, car mechanic extraordinaire. (This isn't the grandpa who provided me with three of the cars I've ever had; this is my other grandpa. If you haven't picked up on it yet, I have two sets of pretty amazing grandparents). Hoping beyond hope that this was nothing other than a battery issue, and not wanting to spend a hundred big ones on towing it to a shop to have looked at, we called good 'ole Grandpa S in to drive the 1/2 mile to our house and look it over. Saturday evening was spent with hubby and grandpa huddled over the engine of my car whilst I wrangled in the kitchen attempting a new recipe (Swedish meatballs) I had never tried (that was more time consuming and difficult than I had anticipated) and an over-tired Feisty and Care Bear hanging on my legs begging me for dinner.

A few hours and burnt meatballs later (the ones that did turn out turned out great according to hubby), it was determined that it was, in fact, the battery and after purchasing a new battery, the car was in great running condition again. According to Grandpa S and hubby, it didn't look as though a new battery had been put in since the car was purchased and it was literally corroded inside the battery case. Word. I wiped my brow in relief, grateful that I wouldn't actually have to resort to exercise (heaven forbid) and walk my kids all over town. My derriere is still in great shape from the two or three months I had to do that last time a car of mine decided to break down on me again. If I had to do it again, I was considering marketing a 21st century "Buns of Steel" for us young moms without transportation. The camera crew would simply have to follow me around behind my double stroller as I hoofed it all over town, camera focused on the back of me, and I would make millions. (Understand that I am not saying that I have a supreme derriere, I'm just saying that after walking so much, it isn't flabby....just wanted to make that clear.) So, now, instead of paying $1 to ride the bus to work, I get to pay $5 to put gas in my car for the priveledge of driving to work in the comfort of my own car, with my favorite radio station on. Works for me.
****************

With my Car Woes post getting so lengthy last week, I decided to leave out a couple of the "woes" last time and expand it into a two-part special to go into a couple of woes that I felt I didn't have the time or space for last week.

As I mentioned before, the first car I ever drove/used was my Dad's old Plymouth Champ. The first day I ever drove that car to school, the excitement was contagious between my friends and I. I was the first of my little posse to get a license, and just that year, the school had decided to allow "open campus" for lunch. This meant that those of us that were lucky enough to have a license and a car to use could brave the streets and the traffic and leave campus for lunch if we so desired. My friends and I, having had enough of Little Debbie Nutty Bars and soft pretzels decided that, yes...we were ready to make the trip out into the wild streets of our mid-sized town and get some greasy, albeit delicious, fast food for lunch. For some reason, we decided to head downtown to Hardee's instead of just down the street to McDonalds. As you travel downtown, in my town, the two-way street splits into two one way streets. For a first time driver, this can be an easy thing to forget. (That's the excuse I use anyway). As we were leaving the restaurant to head back to school, I was exiting the parking lot and started going the wrong way down the one way street right as the light had turned green. Have you ever driven the wrong way down a one way street right as traffic is coming at you? Have you ever had a car full of 16 year old girls screaming in your ears as you're trying to do a 180 on said one way street? I'm surprised I ever got in a car again after that experience. Of course, by the time we got back to school, we were all laughing about it....or rather, all my friends were laughing at me about it, and by the end of the day, the whole junior class had heard about it.

Days later, when leaving the school parking lot with my best friend in the passengers seat, I had just entered onto the busy street outside of our school when a moth....in my humble opinion one of the nastiest, most annoying creatures ever created.....started flittering all around me, in my hair, in my line of vision, in my eyes, and everywhere else he could that made it nearly impossible for me to drive. Naturally, I did what anyone else in my same situation would do: I took my hands off the wheel and started batting at it to get it away from me. My friend (who had the most piercing, loud scream of anyone I had ever known up to that point), grabbed the wheel to keep us from going to the other side of the road (why she wouldn't want to go into incoming traffic twice in one week is beyond me....it's really quite thrilling!), but it didn't do any good that she had the wheel, when I wasn't paying any attention to the brakes. We slammed right into the back of a car that was trying to turn left and was stopped. The person we ran into? A co-worker and long time acquaintance of my dad. Kristen scores again! It turned out better for me that way, though, since he didn't want to call the cops on me, or even contact the insurance companies. He just allowed me to pay him the money to get his bumper fixed. So, see? It all worked out in the end.

*****************

The last woe of the day, and of this series (at least for now), is really quite a remarkable one, and one that erased any doubt I ever had that angels do exist.

Back when I had the Geo Metro (y'know...the one where the engine fell right out from underneath me one day?), my mom and I were on our way home from my college in Kansas with everything I owned in the car. You know those clown cars where 10 or 20 clowns keep piling out of a tiny, teeny car? I felt like one of those clowns. My face was practically in the steering wheel it was so packed.

The night before, we had spent a long night dealing with airports and lack of shuttles to get us to a hotel, so we actually spent the night in the Kansas City airport until we could get a shuttle out the next morning to go pick up my car and my belongings and head home. Sleeping in the arcade room of an airport with no pillows, no blankets and bleeping arcade games in the background doesn't provide for much rest, needless to say.

After hours spent packing up my car, we headed home. If we had been using our brains, we would have gotten a motel room for the night instead of trying to push ourselves to get home in one trip after a night of no sleep. But, hey, "We are women....hear us roar!"

A few hours down the road, I was behind the wheel.....1st mistake. We were listening to a book on tape. Mom had fallen asleep....2nd mistake. The next thing I knew, we were off the road, in the enbankment, bushes, and grass being the only thing I saw, and the sound of my scream being the only thing I heard. I had fallen asleep behind the wheel....3rd mistake. Luckily, that last mistake didn't cost us our lives, but it did create a huge setback for us. One of the tires had popped and was completely flat. To get to the spare tire would require taking just about all of my belongings out of my car. Not to mention the fact that neither my mom nor I knew how to change a tire. We forget to go to our "Changing Tires When You're On A Road Trip Without A Man 101" class the week prior. So there we stood; on the side of the interstate with a flat tire and a car full of crap and no way to change our tire.

Within about 15-20 minutes, we saw a large truck coming the opposite way on the interstate carrying a large trailer behind it. As the truck passed us, it flipped a U-Turn (over the meridian....on the interstate) and came over to us. Inside the truck was a nice couple, and two teenagers. They got right to helping us. They had everything that we needed to get the car out of the embankment and up onto the side of the road to help with changing the tire. As we were going through this process, another car came driving by us and stopped to see if they could help. The sight we must have been to passers-by who didn't take the time to stop and help us.

After a couple of hours of taking everything out of the car, changing the tire, and putting back in the car, we had finally gotten to the point where we could drive the car again. However, we wouldn't be able to go far because the spare tire was just a donut. We felt safe driving about 50 miles on that tire. The second couple who had stopped to help us was nice enough to offer to follow us into the nearest town and show us to a Wal-Mart or other such store where we would be able to buy a new tire.

Millions of "thank you's" later, the family with the truck and the trailer headed out......going the opposite direction that they were going when they first found us. As they drove away, my eyes fell to their license plate. One simple word was on it: 'JESUS'.

When we got to the town where we were going to purchase a new tire, the other couple stayed with us until they were assured that we had our tire, that it was secure on our car and that we were good to go. My moms efforts to get this couples address so that we could properly thank them were in vain. The man pointed his finger towards Heaven and simply said, "Just do something for someone else someday". We watched them drive away, and as they did, I also noticed their license plate. One simple word was on it: 'JESUS'.

Coincidence, or God's plan for protection over my mom and myself? You decide.

Thanks for tuning into the second installment of "Car Woes" by Kristen. This could become a weekly issue, considering Kristen has had many car woes in her 14 years of driving. Stay tuned......