No drive

A very dramatic depiction of how I'm feeling right now.

Yesterday was plain awful.

Hopefully you got the Annie reference, but there's really no other way to say it. Wednesday was one of the worst days I've had in a long time.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was heading out of town to attend my youngest brother's graduation. I packed up the car with presents for him, my nieces and my sister-in-law, who's about to have her first child, and left at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. I didn't eat any breakfast because I was planning to get to my parents' house around 1:30 — but I never made it.

Instead, I ended up stranded on the side of I-15 between the small towns of Malad and Downey, Idaho. The Accord, which was humming along, suddenly decided to shut off cruise control, decelerate on its own, roar louder than my music and blow steam out of the engine.

I will be honest: I was not exactly brave. I pulled over to the side of the road, called Andrew and dissolved into tears. As he and his dad raced up from Utah to come rescue me, two people from Malad stopped to help and looked under the hood with me (OK, I fielded calls from my dad as the good samaritans quickly realized that it was the transmission and noticed gas and transmission fluid all over the road beneath the car).

Finally, my dad called a tow truck from Malad to come get me, and Andrew and his dad got into town to assess the damage. Unfortunately, the mechanics couldn't fix the car there, so we would have to tow it to either Pocatello or Logan — and the insurance wouldn't cover the cost until later in the week, since we'd already had it towed into town once.

We ended up leaving the car there and driving home in his dad's car while his dad drove his truck home. They'd driven separately in the hopes of towing the car home and me driving the rest of the way to my parents' house in my father-in-law's car — but that option was quickly shot down when the mechanic told us that a) we could start the car on fire doing that, since it's an automatic, not a manual and b) it's illegal in Utah to tow a car with a tow rope, and we could have been fined or had the car impounded. Ironically, it's not illegal in Idaho to do that (not that that's surprising).

The baby shower invitations I spent a week making.

So Andrew drove us back home and I sat in the passenger seat and cried. I had been planning this trip for months and spent hours making embossed baby shower invitations for my sister-in-law's shower on Friday. I had been planning to relax with Andrew (who was coming up separately on a shuttle the next day) and driving through Grand Teton National Park or possibly Big Sky, Montana. I was planning to support Reggie and see him graduate, since I missed my other two siblings' graduations for various reasons. It was horribly depressing to be heading the opposite direction when I'd been looking forward to this vacation so desperately.

I know this is not really a big deal in the scheme of things. I wasn't hurt, I was on a road I've driven a hundred times (and I was there in broad daylight), I had a smartphone and could quickly call people or access the internet, and I have a husband and father-in-law who love me enough to drop what they're doing and race up to help me. I have a dad who, despite being in the middle of a very hectic work day, kept calling to make sure I was OK and quickly found some very nice people to tow my car and then give us great tips on finding a shop that could fix it.

But with one car totaled and the other one stuck in Idaho until we figure out what to do, I am feeling a little low this week and wondering how we're going to afford a new car AND a brand-new transmission that will cost at least two grand.

Here's hoping the weekend will be better! It can only go up from here, right?

And we'll have fun, fun, fun

Till the car breaks down in Jackson, Wyoming.

It was an interesting week that began with my car not starting Monday morning when I needed to be in American Fork for an orthodontist appointment and Andrew cleaning the battery terminals and charging it all night after the lady at O'Reilly auto parts checked the battery, alternator and starter and said everything was running fine.

It ended with us taking the car on a long road trip through canyons and back roads to Jackson Hole, walking around the city for a couple hours and coming back to find that the car wouldn't start -- and of course, since Jackson is a tourist town, all mechanics go home at 6 and Napa Auto Parts closes at the same time.

A couple hours later (after a nice lady gave us a ride to Kmart to buy a car battery that turned out to make no difference at all, we rode the town bus through practically the entire city in the dark and an even nicer lady attempted to jump our car and called tow companies and mechanics), we got the car started and made it back to our KOA.

It was disappointing, to say the least, when we realized that it was no longer safe to turn our car off and we basically raced through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park (making a few stops for me to jump out of the car and take pictures while Andrew kept it running). The animals all seemed to be in hibernation, except for a stampede of buffalo that managed to keep an entire line of cars behind them for at least a half hour because the cars in front of us were too chicken to honk or gently herd them out of the road.

But the good news is I got to spend some much-needed time with my family in the beautiful state that I've missed so much. I also got to visit my grandpa, who fell and broke his hip and has been in the nursing home for several days following surgery. And Andrew, who is awesome at fixing things, is pretty sure the problem with the car is the ignition switch -- which he was miraculously able to score on Amazon for only $25 plus free two-day shipping (meaning it will be here tomorrow).

I'm going to put more photos of our trip up on Wanderlust and Weekends soon, but for now, here's one of a famous barn just outside Grand Teton National Park. Due to a fire burning in the Salmon area, the Tetons were really hazy and hard to see during our trip, but I love how the barn looked at sunrise. Next time we're there, I'm going to get some killer pictures with the Tetons looking as they normally do -- majestic and brilliant blue.

Repenting for my anger :)

So...a few days ago I posted a rant about how much I hated being treated like a moron when I went to car shops and tire stores. I still hate that, as I'm sure most people would. That part has not changed.

But what has changed is that I had a GREAT experience at the tire shop that I was so furious at last week, and I feel terrible that I said the things I did about that shop! After my initial reaction, I have been absolutely floored at how well I was treated. The guys there performed every test they possibly could to figure out how my car had lost two gallons of coolant within a week, and when they couldn't figure it out, they put dye in the tank and had me drive it around for the weekend and bring it back Monday. Did they charge me for the coolant they topped it off with or the diagnostics?

"Come back Monday." That's all Bob, the owner, would say.

I came back Monday, and they figured out that it was probably the radiator cap, but it was too late for the guy working on it to be absolutely positive. So he asked if I could bring it back in the morning, when he would run some more tests and make sure it was the cap. Did he charge me?

"Come back tomorrow," he said with a smile.

I came back the next day, and after they ran tests, cleaned it up and even took it for a test drive in Parley's Canyon, and when I went to pay for it, he only charged me for the part, not even for all the diagnostic work he'd done or the coolant he'd filled it with!

Now THAT, my friends, is service. I have never been treated that well at a shop in my life! So, my Utah people, hit up Bob Jones' Goodyear on 9th East. I promise you'll be happy. :)

And, by the way, I'm coming back tomorrow -- with a thank-you card. I think I've made amends now!