Tag: car trouble

Girl Power

Our van is broke.

Since it won’t start and it’s stuck in our driveway, Jan had to trailer it in to town.

(May I stop here and point out the fact that this is the third time in 18 months that we have had to tow this particular vehicle? Once on the way home from camping after rodents gnawed away some important wiring, once from Des Moines when the brakes locked up and now because it won’t start.

You may find this bit of history fascinating – but my husband did not.)

Towing the van into town meant he needed to borrow a trailer as the van is exactly 4.187643923 inches too big for ours.

So he borrowed Dagmar’s truck and the neighbor’s trailer.

IMG_20140922_133845_879This is when things got interesting.

The first time we towed this van we rented a car dolly.

The second time we towed this van we rented a trailer from U-haul that has a fancy come-along thing to pull the vehicle up on the trailer.

This time we have the neighbor’s flat bed trailer with no fancy come along thing.

Remember that the van won’t start.

He needed a plan.

He choose gravity.

So he and Buddy used the tractor to pull the van to the top of a small rise in the yard. Then he backed the trailer up to the rise, and they pushed the van down the slight incline to the trailer.

The plan worked well – at first. The van moved beautifully down the slight incline – but when it reached the trailer, there was a slight uphill to get it on the ramps.

And the van wouldn’t budge.

After several tries, they called for reinforcements.

And since both of our strong, handsome older boys are gone – there was only the two girls and me.

Imagine his reaction when two of the three of us showed up in flannel jammie pants wearing cowboy boots and flip flops!

shoesThey shall remain nameless – but I can assure you that I wasn’t one of them.

But sometimes you have to to work with what you’ve got and we were drafted anyway. At least two of the three of us lift weights occasionally.  (Once again – I can assure you that I am not one of them!)

It took several tries but believe it or not – we did it.

We got that van loaded up and ready to go into town.

No fancy come along thing.

Just brute strength. 🙂

Flip flops, cowboy boots, jammie pants and all.

Girl power.

Dead End Adventure

Just when you think all is normal – things take a turn!

We had spent a long weekend with my family at our annual Camping Trip at Dolliver State Park.

1011159_10200136474912170_384301849_nLots of food.

Lots of fun.

Lots of silliness.

Lots of bug bites! 🙂

Jan left early – on Sunday night – to check the livestock and go to work on Monday. But the rest of us stayed one more night.

That’s when things took a turn to the unusual.

We were in the middle of packing up in the morning when a sudden rainstorm hit. Talk about a torrential down pour!

Then the electricity went out leaving us sitting in the dark dining hall eating sandwiches while mini lakes were forming all around us.

Now that’s a memory we won’t soon forget!

But that was just the beginning of the day’s adventures!

We got the van packed up and Pedro started the 3-1/2 hour drive home through intermittent heavy rain and strong winds. We were about halfway home when the transmission went out.

Boom. Just like that.

We pulled off on a side road and waited for rescue to come.

DSC_0005There we were – sitting on a dead end.

Four hungry, tired kiddos and me – in a over-packed mini van that smelled strongly of wet tennis shoes.

We called Jan – who was at work at the time. He had driven the Geo that morning, which wasn’t very helpful since it will only hold four people if 2 of them don’t breath.

He had to drove home (the opposite direction), get the mighty Suburban, then drive up to get us, picking up a car dolly at U-Haul on the way.

Poor guy.

This was going to take a while.

We watched Duck Dynasty on Pedro’s laptop, read all the magazines we threw in the car at the last minute and took naps.
Then we finished off the chips and made a big dent on the scotcheroos. Pedro would have eaten the left-over corn but we couldn’t find a spoon.
And we waited.
We didn’t drink any of the pop or water we brought because several of us needed a bathroom badly, and the corn in the fields wasn’t high enough to cover us and there was probably poison ivy and ticks in the ditches.
Still we waited.
Three and half hours we waited.
Finally help arrived and the old 1996 Suburban pulled that fancy pants mini van all the way home.
I guess you just never know what a day will bring.
So always go to the bathroom before you get in the car.
And never leave home without chocolate.