Carmella's Hang Out

Yes! We are home! Praise the Lord, we are home….safe….though not without a bump or two {or three} along the way.

 

On our way to see my Grandparents, after stopping off too see another cousin, {my Dad’s niece} the van began acting strangely. I happened to be the one behind the wheel at the moment, and actually knew the feeling, but not what it was. Turns out, what it was, was the wheel hanging on for dear life by one lug nut and stud!!! The other four had totally sheared off! We were in between the large cities of Edmonton and Grand Prairie, and didn’t really know for sure WHERE that was. The Lord sent us a kind truck driver to be of help. Though he wished he could load our van in the back of his large semi, he was hauling foam and he and his crew didn’t think they could push it back far enough to fit the van in. {Can you believe it? They actually talked about shoving our van in and how they were going to fit us all in and everything.} Instead, he lent us the use of his cell phone to get in touch with a tow truck. Problem with that, was the wrecker only being able to take along two people at a time. The other six would have to find a way of their own. Seeing as how they semi was also only able to load two more people in, that was not going to work out either,,,,,though the driver did offer to drive two of us as far as Grand Prairie. We ended up having Dad and Tiff, who was in shorts and freezing out in the cold, accompany the van to the next town up, that being White Court, and the rest of us stayed behind in the big slab of cement they called a rest stop, to wait for a taxi. It was really strange to watch Dad and Tiff drive off, all of us knowing we had no way of getting ahold of one another since the phones didn’t work. {though the phones were out of service in that area, we were not aware at that moment that we could get service if we changed to roaming.} The tow truck took off before the taxi got to us….. so there was no way of Dad knowing if we had gotten the ride or not. The driver of the semi had also said that he was going to go to a gas station up the street and ask around for a ride for us, so we didn’t know if at any moment someone was going to show up from his help. The temp continued to drop as we waited in that parking lot, seeing as how it was after 5 when we knew what the problem was.

The taxi did end up getting to us about 20 minutes after the tow truck left and the six of us arrived at the CLOSED GM dealer only about 10 minutes after the two truck! You try and figure the math out on that one, since they both went the speed limit!

Two down sides with the cab ride. One….it cost entirely too much!! $72!! Second, my first time needing a ‘taxi ride’ and what is it that shows up?? A man in a mini van!    *sigh*!! lol. oh well. tee hee hee.

The BIG down side to the tow? Because we didn’t know our exact location, and went off of what we were told by the kind semi driver, the driver of the wrecker went to the wrong stop, didn’t find us, went back to the shop, was told where to find us, came and picked them up, took them to the dealership, then charged us for him getting lost. An extra 30k was put onto the distance because the driver went to a truck pull over just down from him rather than the truck stop further down. That was over $200.

Long story short with the dealership: Because they were closed and we had little money to spare after the cab and tow, we all slept in the van outside the shop. Very us, but not very comfortable!! The next morning they told us that they did not have the GM part, at the GM dealership, for our GM van. Does that make sense to you? Well, seems no one in White Court had the parts, so after calling all over town for it, they had them shipped in from a dealership in one of the larger cities. The calling around, the shipping and the parts came to over $130!! The labor, which should have only been about 30 minutes tops, was another $130. And we did not get our van until 4 that afternoon I think it was.

As bad a night sleep as it was, and as nasty as it was to be taken to the cleaners by these people that saw $$ in travelers {Dad could have done the job himself here in the states, and actually HAS in the past for my car, in 15 minutes and for $5 or so a stud and $3 or so a nut.} the day we spent together was actually rather fun! We walked down a HUGE hill, and into the town center which was at least a mile if not a two miles from where our van was, and spent the day in a WalMart shopping, talking, and eating. We also spent some time in the dealership lobby sleeping and {the three of us girls} drinking free coffee!!

 

Because it is late, and I am tired, I am going to end there for now. I have so many stories to tell and so many pictures to share! It is going to take me awhile to tell them all. David has many of my photos as he was kind enough to store them for me. He also, however, is storing all of his photos, Mum’s, and Kade’s on the same machine and it will take a bit to sort them all out for us.

I missed you guys and thought of you. For those of you that I call or text often, I’m sorry I was unable to keep that up during the trip. We didn’t have service much past MN and didn’t get it back until then on the way back, so!

Hope to talk to all of you very very soon!!! We all need to catch up!

Grant, Tara and Sarah, we need to get a chat together!! September is waning!!