Wow! What a memory!

Last Christmas when we left KY to go to TN, the van began stutter-starting at red lights when I turned right. By the time we arrived in TN, it was doing it for left and right turns, but not straight. Then it was doing fine when we left TN. Then over the course of the next few days, it got worse and worse. Kevin took it to Madison and got a part the car part store guy said it needed (but it didn’t work). Kevin ended up having to rent a vehicle to get home (I can’t remember why I couldn’t help…I think it was because he knew he’d need a work vehicle). People from our church had an extra van for us to borrow, so we followed, got, etc. until we got our van to the mechanic and me in the “new” van (1997) and Kevin in the HHR. What a blessing! The mechanic had it for about six weeks – it was the PCM box, the major computer for the van. We got a refurbished box. About a month later, it began to stutter a little, but not as bad. Back to the mechanic. The smaller box was messing up. About $800 this time and it took two weeks. We received a warning that it was most likely our wiring causing shortages and it was going to be costly – perhaps not worth the effort to replace. We decided to plug along and do what we could to keep this van – hoping for another two years, until we paid some “stupid tax” off and could get another.

When we left KY this last time, it began stuttering a little – but only on hills if we used cruise control. If we took it off cruise, we were fine. We figured that we’d need to take it eventually, but it wasn’t misbehaving too badly.

The Texas trip began poorly. Let me see what all I can remember:
1. Stuttering on hills, some starts
2. Lincoln put a "itty-bitty rock" in the fuel tank and almost got his arm stuck trying to get it out.
3. Spare tire wasn’t replaced and Kevin didn’t have the tools, so he just crammed it in the back – this caused a malfunction in the hatch and we could no longer open the back of the door (thus could not remove any of our luggage without disassembling the wooden ledge he created to help with space).
4. He turned the music on for the children while we did last-minute stuff. When we got all officially loaded, the battery was dead. Had to be jumped off.

The van stuttered occasionally as we drove. We passed under a sign for Quitman, MS and I asked Kevin if it was possibly a “sign” for us to “Quit, man!” We laughed uneasily and Kevin decided that we’d gone this far and we’d be fine. So we continued the journey and the van continued to stutter in increasingly more frequent intervals with fewer restrictions. We grew more uncertain, but still hoping. However, by the time we got to Tyler, Texas, we knew that we were quite likely in trouble. We didn’t know of the loops to circumvent the red lights and boy, did this town have some! And not just red lights – but red lights on hills!!! Kevin was putting it in neutral and revving and doing everything he knew to do to keep us going. Each red light, we didn’t know if it would be our last. I actually pulled out the pottette and let Lincoln use it while we were driving (maybe 30 mph) b/c we were afraid to stop long enough for him to go (btw…the baggies do a bang-up job of holding in the smell…once you get them closed!) We had the hazard lights on until we made it through the town, then we were okay once the speed picked back up. Then another town. Same story. Felt okay about things until it got dark. Then the reality of things started to creep in and we were ever so grateful to see signs for Waco – we knew we were close enough to be picked up by Mike should we putter out completely. We got lost in Waco and had to call Mike. We sat and idled for about 7 minutes while we waited on him to come get us. Surprisingly, the van was still able to putter to his house. Whew! Made it!!! And *only* 14+ hours with four children!

The next day, Mike rode with Kevin to Autozone to get them to do a diagnostic reading – it came up with errors every time! Someone else was in there and said that he had the same problem with his vehicle and it was just a hose with a hole in it. They went out to check out our van – and there was a huge hole in the hose. Whew! A $20 fix. What a relief! Except that it didn’t fix the stuttering. Still as bad as ever. Soooooo…now what? We had Paige's graduation that night – and somehow had to get home on Saturday! We realized that if we sold it now, we might get a little more than if it was completely dead. And if we headed home and it broke down, we’d be stranded completely. So we decided to leave the van with Mike and let him sell it (did I mention that we just paid it off last month?). We’d just rent a van to get home. Except that NO ONE rents vans or large SUVs for one-way trips with only a day’s notice. I do mean NO ONE. So we begin checking out airfare. With that little notice, Southwest had least expensive rates for $240/ticket. And that was 5 tickets b/c Linc just turned 3. No way. Couldn’t do it. We’re trying to figure out just how we are going to get home…talking about having Mike, Charles, and Royce on call just in case we broke down (depending on where we had issues). But no one felt comfortable with the thought of us + four children walking away from the van down the interstate. Finally, it dawns on me: two adults = two drivers = two cars. So back to the auto rental companies. Enterprise doesn’t rent one way, Period. The others didn’t have two vehicles available for one way. We finally got Hertz YIKES on the price!!! Went back and forth and finally got her down to a reasonable rate. The only problem was that we needed a credit card. We had brought cash and debit. So I felt like a teenager, getting my dad to go with me to pay for a car! Actually, we put it on his card and then when we got back to Huntsville, he got the $400 deposit back and we were able to pay for the rental with cash/debit. So, we made it back home with two vehicles. The boys road with Kevin and the girls road with me (I had the easier drive :)).

Whew! What a memory maker!

While we were there, we just all piled into two vehicles for Paige’s graduation, Sonic, and zoo trips. It worked out fine. We had a wonderful trip - the children were able to swim (and even soak in the hot (warm) tub) and were actually willing to talk and play with their grandparents this visit, rather than playing shy like they have in the past.

We have some stuff to pay off by the end of the summer and then can reevaluate and see the likelihood of getting another vehicle anytime soon. In the meantime, we've canceled some stuff. Thanks to friends and family, we've had some help with swim lessons and such.

We are trying to look at it all in a positive manner – that perhaps this is a great way to save $ on fuel and eating expenses, etc. When I mentioned to a friend that “lots of families function with one vehicle” she replied, “yes, but they don’t usually have four children!” True, but we’ll manage until it comes a time for us to get another vehicle. We know that God will provide what we need when we need it. And we’ve learned some lessons along the way.

So there’s the story, long version :).