Have you ever had an experience, that upon surviving it, left you wondering if you where somehow in another world?
How do you find the words to express that kind of experience? I am not sure I can do this story justice… but here is my best shot…
This trip to PEI has been one I have dreamed of for a long time. The boys are all older, independent and potty trained. There is not a diaper bag but rather each can pack a back pack of their treasures to bring along.
I had a few apprehensions… such as … Did our beach house really exists? Hope it wasn’t a horrible scam.
The day finally arrived… after spending $1000+ to fix the A/C on the van, have all the belts and fluids checked… we left home in some crazy heat… (105 degree F).
We drove and drove and drove. Sanj’s Type A+ Personality wouldn’t allow for us to stop before we reached his calculatored stop. This meant we didn’t stop till 2 am.
We continued in the morning… stopping almost near the border of Maine and New Brunswick… for gas and snacks.
Sanj started the van and then exclaimed, “What’s wrong with the van?”
The brakes and power steering were gone.
Dear God in Heaven…. NOOOOOOOOO!!!
And then the endless nightmare began…
We were literally in the middle of NOWHERE.
CAA, well really AAA since we were in the US… was called. The tow truck came within minutes. Then the shuttle from the GM dealership came… why there was a dealership in the middle of literally nowhere was a miracle.
Everyone was still relatively calm…. a least on the outside.
Inside, I was just devastated… I had my share of crapmobiles growing up. I thought those days of breaking down in random places, before the days of cell phones, was over. Apparently not.
We went to the dealership. They said they would fit us in. It was 1 pm… we sat in the waiting room. We watched as car upon car was taken in… we watched as the mechanics took their smoke breaks. We waited till 4 pm before they took us in.
Can I just say… the boys were just fabulous. They sat there and behaviored.
Thank you, Jesus.
The verdict: The power-steering pump was broken. This is a part that apparently NEVER breaks. This booneyville town didn’t have the part. They wouldn’t have one till MONDAY. It was minutes to closing everywhere… Friday.
Then began the brainstorming. There wasn’t even a hotel in this town … at least not for 45 minutes away. The closest car rental place had no vehicles for rent till Wednesday. Soon the other customers were in on trying to help us with our predicament. Across the border was rental place … the guy had no vehicles to accommodate our family… not even a regular mini van that we could crowd into. He had two cars for us.
Then the dilemma of how to get there began. There was apparently only ONE TAXI available. Where were we? How can you call a place with ONE TAXI a town? It ended up that they called in another taxi to take us across the border.
The kind man at the rental place waited for us to get there.
Awaiting us in the lot was the Mama-mobile and Papa-mobile.
Here’s the story of what happens when a family of 8 breaks down.
We loaded the two vehicles up and continued on our journey.
In the midst of all of this… there is always a silver lining… gratitude that God protected us from the brakes going out while we were driving on those mountainous roads… Gratitude that we broke down by help. Gratitude that we were able to continue our journey… in a bit of a different way … yet never the less… not missing a day of vacationing. We will pick up the van on the way back.
God is Good… All The Time.