We got packed and headed out on Friday. The car was full because we were taking many boxes of kitchen things for Jake's brother Ethan to have now that he has moved out to start college. Chugging along, and pleased that the traffic was not too horrible, we made it just north of the tiny town of Curtin, OR (3 hours from home) before it all went downhill. The car made a little jerky motion that felt like a tire had gone flat, so I pulled over and Jake took a look. None of the tires looked flat, so we decided to give it another go. A few miles later, it was still not feeling right so we took the next exit and found that what the road sign claimed to be a gas station, was actually just an abandoned building that used to be a gas station. We pulled over anyway and when Jake got out of the car he noticed smoke coming out of the wheel well in the back right side. Now I am not a car expert by any stretch but I do know that smoke is a bad sign! Out came the road side assistance card cause there was no way we could drive it again and had to get a tow. I am quite familiar with this process now, as I had to get a tow just a couple weeks before when my starter died!
By the time the tow truck arrived and took us back to Eugene (30 miles away) it was past closing time for most places and it was not looking promising for us to make it to CA. Amazingly there was a shop open so we stopped to see what they could tell us. There was nothing they could do for us that night, but proved that the owner operated stores care so much more than the chains. The owner said they would come in the next morning (even though they were supposed to be closed) to see if they could fix it and get us back on the road. As if this was not enough, he then called local hotels to find us a deal since we were stuck there for the night. To top it all off, the tow truck driver then drove us to the hotel so we didn't have to drag our stuff around town. The next day we got the sad news that the problem was worse than expected (broken wheel bearings and leaking brake system) and would not be fixed until after the holiday. Luckily our friends Jonas and Dohnele who live in Sutherlin were planning to go to Portland and they kindly stopped in Eugene to pick us up and take us home.
So the weekend did not turn out quite like we had planned, but that seems to be par for the course with us! I now have my car back and hope that it has got all the bugs out and will stop hating me now. I don't want to see it like this anymore.....
