Monday, February 12, 2007

Grapes of Wrath

Remember the movie "Grapes of Wrath"? Well "the beast" could probably play at least a supporting role in an updated version.

Listening to the weather this morning and hearing of the approaching storm, we decided to toss some belongings into plastic bags of various sizes and "hit the road" a day early totally unorganized. Our goal... North Carolina.

So... instead of leaving at 6 or 7 like we had planned to do on Tuesday morning, we left at 9:30 this morning. Stopped in Earlville to touch bases with our "manager" Jeff who will be looking after our house, mail some things and pick up some cash at the bank. So far so good until... I try to "step" out of the beast at the bank only to find my foot entangled in the "not always functioning" retractable seatbelt. Luckily snow is soft... a bit wet and a little dirty but soft so no harm done.
Finally, we're on our way at 10:07!!!! Stop in Norwich (about 20 miles south) at the light and everything goes dead. (Where is Mary when we could have used her to help push as we did Tillie?!) However, a strong "guy" showed up and, for once, I got to steer as John & our "guy" pushed us out of the intersection. Across the street was a collision/repair shop who very kindly came to the rescue and got us going again (no charge - people are great!). However, before we left Norwich, John decided perhaps we better swing into the Dodge dealership and have them test things. Stopped the van in their lot - wouldn't start. Their diagnosis... low battery. They get us started (no charge) and we swing over to a friend's house (thank you Betty!!!) for hot tea (since we were heading south and didn't expect to break down so soon, we did NOT bring our winter coats) lunch and cookies and to recharge not only the battery but the auxiliary battery charger (why don't we leave home with things charged???!!!)

Anyway, 12:45 and we're on our way again!!!! Until we get to Scranton. The battery has drained once again. We exit, we ask for a garage, we make it there. The mechanic is NOT there (nor is anyone else for that matter) but the mailman thinks the owner will be back in 10 minutes. Time goes by. John gets out the battery charger and plugs into the garage's outdoor outlet - very handy. I go to the dentist office just down the street (I seem to have this thing for dentist offices) and ask for advice. Come back and the guys from the car sales place next door have decided to come back from wherever they have gone and have come over to get us started (no charge). They recommend another repair place and off we go.

Southside Collision may look like a junkyard but it's run by angels related to Click & Clack. They took us in right away (by this time it's 4:00), determined the alternator wasn't working properly, went after another one, found they didn't have the right testers to make sure it would properly connect with the computer, put the old one back on finding in the process one of the connectors wasn't "good", repaired that. Meanwhile, the twins, Jerry & Jim had been keeping me entertained while Jeff & the two nephews worked on the van. Bottom line... they felt the bad connection was probably the problem but gave us their cell numbers, directions to a good hotel, directions to a Dodge dealership in Scranton if we need it in the morning, coffee while we waited, beer at 7 - no charge (didn't I say before that people are great???!!!).

So here we are in our "hotel" having had a great Italian dinner across the street, not very far along in our travels but feeling very lucky. Can't wait 'til tomorrow to see what happens next??? Can you?