Car troubles and travels

Dealing with car issues this week and thinking back to the trips I’ve taken where there were the inevitable car trouble. Those trips were stressful but looking back, some of the stories that we can tell today in some ways make it kind of worth having the troubles we had.

Mom and I can speak to the road trip we took cross-country to meet up with my dad and brother in Indiana. Just a day or two in and there was car trouble. We spent half the day in New Mexico waiting for a part to be installed before we could get on the road to our next destination. I don’t remember much about this day but mom has talked about this day on several occasions. She talks about the stress of the wait to get going again and the worry of the repair cost eating up the budget we had for the trip. For me, I was nine or ten years old at the time, so it was a lot of boredom and waiting before we could keep going.

Later…much later I went on a road trip with my friends to California and none of us had cars that would handle the trip. At least not that we knew. So we decided it would be cheaper to split the cost of a rental car instead of driving one of our own. Going to get the rental car however, was a journey in itself.  We took my car to the rental place and the cooling system was out of whack. Unfortunately we hit traffic on the way. My car was fine temperature-wise…as long as we kept moving. The minute we hit traffic and were at a standstill, the car would start to overheat superfast. Luckily the person in the car with me knew a work around and had me put my car in neutral and press the gas pedal. This worked like a charm and kept my car cooling itself while we sat still. It was a challenge sitting in traffic, stressful, trying to keep the car cool and running. Thankfully we eventually made it to the rental shop but it was not a fun journey.

Flagstaff…summertime….it’s hot…yes in Flagstaff, it was hot. The car stopped running at the first traffic light into the town. Mom stays behind the wheel while my brother, Brad, and I climb out and push the car through the light and off the road. We started pushing uphill a little just trying to get through the traffic light to make a left, then the car started on a decline and we went from pushing the car, to running with the car, to chasing the car just trying to keep up. I remember praying that no one would hit the car and then when the car left us in the dust coasting down the hill, I started to worry about us getting hit.

Then the mother of all car trouble….the day before Ireland. Obviously this car wouldn’t be coming with us but getting ready for a trip, on a hot day in Phoenix, with a car that is breaking is not an ideal situation. We had to get things finalized when mom’s car rebelled and started to overheat. I showed mom the trick to keep the car cool in traffic but there was also an issue with shifting. I noticed after a while that her car had a tap-shift override so we were able to get the car back on the road and head to the mechanic that day. Unfortunately mom didn’t know how to work the tap shift and I didn’t know how to time when to shift gears since I’ve never really driven a standard car.  So our journey to the mechanic involved her saying to me “Now” when it was time to shift gears and I would work the tap-shift. On the surface streets of Phoenix heading into rush hour, the conversation was pretty much…green light “Now” tap, “Now” tap, “Now” tap. Red light, tap tap tap. Green light “now” tap, “now” tap….well you get the picture. We made it to the mechanic and then began the amazing car juggle to get ourselves transportation until we left.

It doesn’t seem fun at the time dealing with those car issues but looking back. I have to laugh at some of the trips and the troubles. Brad and I chasing after the runaway car, mom is steering and had no idea we couldn’t keep up, she was just aiming for the parking lot. The interesting “Now” tap communication with mom for 45 minutes. The rental car experiences while dealing with the troubles on our own cars. All make for interesting and in some cases fun memories.