We returned 3 weeks ago from our trip to Utah and Yellowstone. We had quite the adventure. It was an amazing trip that ended rather stressfully, and I've decided, to not take away from the positive side of the rest of the trip, I'll do the stressful part separate and first.
So let us begin this long story of gloom and dispair...
"It was the best of times it was the worst of times..."
Before every big trip we get our oil changed and have them look over our car, which we affectionately named Rhonda. Before this trip, Robert took it to a cheaper place to save a little money. (Sidenote: Robert recently, suddenly, and unexpectedly lost his fellowship which was going to be our only income for the summer. We'll get student loans and Robert will be working once school starts back up again. All of our summer trips were either already paid for when we found out he lost the fellowship or at least we'd be getting reimbursed for them so we didn't feel the need to change any of our plans. But we're paying for all of our regular bills with our credit cards, so we were trying to cut any corners we possibly could. Which added to the stress of the following story) They found nothing wrong with our car but they did break our dipstick which we figured we'd get fixed after we got back.
So on we traveled, first to Utah for a week then up to Island Park, Idaho with my family. In other words at least 1000 miles with no incident. On the 3rd day in Island Park my whole family went to Yellowstone. Mary had been up all night the night before throwing up with a random stomach bug that a couple people got while we were there. We had decided that Robert would stay home with her but at the last second decided to go ahead and push our luck and all go thinking that we wanted to experience Yellowstone for the first time all together even if it meant one of us would stay in the car with Mary the whole time. So on we went.
We noticed on the way to Yellowstone that Rhonda's heater had stopped working which was unfortunate because it was cold and rainy, but we suspected maybe a minor vacuum leak or something so we thought we'd just get it checked out on the way home, no big deal.
So on we traveled, 5 hours driving around Yellowstone. Mary's stomach bug went away as quickly as it came, we were on our way to see Old Faithful, and it was turning out to be a pretty spectacular day.
Then disaster struck!
A couple miles past Fishing Bridge, which is a stop right in the middle of the park Rhonda overheated. We pulled over and nothing was steaming or hot, but our coolant was bone dry, however we saw no signs of leakage any where. Just then it also started pouring rain. (As if it couldn't have gotten any worse, right?) We refilled the coolant and drove slowly back to Fishing Bridge where they had an auto service station to try to figure out what was going on.
They looked over our car and at first couldn't find anything. They did a pressure test and found that our radiator cap wasn't holding pressure and it would only be $10 for the part and they could have the part there by the next day. We told them we'd rather just keep refilling the coolant and get the car out of the park and then get it fixed. So they said that'd be fine but they would do one more check over our car to make sure there was nothing else. I got some change for the pay phone because we were in an area that didn't have cell phone service (broken down car, no cell phone service, pouring rain - it's the material that sitcoms are made out of!) I called my mom (the rest of my family was still on their way to Old Faithful) to let her know what was up. When I came back Robert said that they said the water pump was shot and there was no way we were driving the car anywhere, so unless we paid to tow it out of the park (at least $500) we would need to get it repaired there and it would be at least $600 to fix it and they would have to keep it until the next day. We setup camp in the diner/store that was next door to the service station, and I went to use the pay phone to update my mom.
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| The girls thought the diner was the best place ever. Oblivious to the stress Mommy and Daddy were experiencing. |
When I was talking to my mom, my tears started and they basically didn't stop until the next morning (poor Robert having to deal with the brunt of my emotions). My sisters fiancee came back to Fishing Bridge to drive us back to the cabin, so we spent a whole day in Yellowstone and still have never seen Old Faithful. Ironic isn't it, haha!
We kept calling to check in on Rhonda the next day. They told us that they already had everything disassembled and once the part was delivered it would take them 2 hours to put it back together. So once we were told that the part had arrived, my other sister and her husband took Robert back to the service station (a 2 hour drive one-way from our cabin since it was so far into the park) Robert ended up waiting an extra 3 hours. Then finally when they were done he started to drive away and could immediately hear some metal clicking, the car was pulsing, and the service engine light came on. He turned around and they checked the service engine code and said that all the codes had to do with the oil. So they finagled a way to get our dipstick out (remember it had been broken right before we left on our trip) and saw that our oil was 2 quarts overfilled and burning. They also saw that our coolant was once again low (why it didn't occur to them right away at this point that our coolant was leaking into our oil is beyond me, but now I'm getting ahead of myself) They did an oil change and said that there might still be some vibrating while the excess oil still burns off, but other than that we should be fine.
That night Mary's stomach came back, so were up all night again with her throwing up. The next day we began our drive home. The vibrating/pulsing was still happening at low speeds or when we were idling, but we figured we were okay unless something started happening at higher speeds. Just outside of Rexburg our car started dying on the highway. It almost felt like it had the hiccups that would threaten to turn off the car with every pulse. It was Sunday, so the only car place open was an AutoZone. They checked the service engine codes, and got this one.
In other words, the podunk workers in Yellowstone after replacing our water pump put our timing belt on wrong. Aside from this, our coolant was once again dry and our oil was again overfilled, making us aware that the coolant was most definitely leaking into it. Mary was still throwing up, we were stranded until at least the next day, and we had no money for any of this. We were all feeling a little like this...
We got a room at Super 8. Rhonda shut off on us 3 times in the half mile we drove it to the motel. A longtime friend of ours that lives in Rexburg, upon hearing of our predicament, came to the rescue and brought us dinner and a mechanic friend to look over our car.
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| Did I mention that this friend had 1-week old twins at home along with 3 other kids??? Yet he and his wife still wanted to help however they could. Christlike people are amazing!! |
The mechanic friend's name was Rick. He came to the conclusion that it was a cracked head gasket. He'd be willing to do all the work for free in his backyard, but he wanted us to take it into a pro-shop first to verify the diagnosis. He and our friend recommended a shop to take it to in the morning. Also if the head gasket was the problem, the repair would take a few days at best. Our outlook was pretty grim, and we were already completely exhausted.
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| My girls who NEVER nap both crashed as soon as we got settled into the hotel. That's how exhausted we were! |
Again, I spent all night crying, and again poor Robert having to deal with an emotional female on top of everything. Robert took Rhonda to the shop the next morning. The mechanic there said that of course it's the gasket and with all of the different symptoms we were now experiencing, it's probably blown in a couple places, and on top of that we now have been driving on a bad timing belt. We'd need a whole new engine and who knows what else. We could easily spend $2000 on parts alone, and even then since there had been so much stress to the system he didn't think we'd make it back to California before something else broke down even after making all those repairs.
So we had one option - Rhonda had to go! :(
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| The way I've described it is that Rhonda was a faithful and healthy but old pet that died unexpectedly |
This video kept going through my head over and over through the whole ordeal. I think it's the only thing that kept me from losing all hope...
Robert took Rhonda to a dealer, Stone's Town and Country, that my dad worked at over 30 years ago. A friend of my dad's gave us a deal on our trade in and gave us the value of the car if it was in "very good" condition even though it was dead on its wheels and we traded it in for the only decent used minivan in all of Rexburg under $10,000 - a 2007 Chevrolet Uplander.
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| We named him Rocky after STONE's Town and Country and YellowSTONE. |
While Robert was working on trading in and buying the vans my old friend, Kristen, got in touch with me and let us come crash at her house for a couple hours. It was perfect timing as the girls were sick of playing at the park.
And after all that we finally headed home. We are so thankful for the friends that helped us out in Rexburg and for the many friends of friends and family of friends that offered even if we didn't use them. We also would still be stranded somewhere if it weren't for my family, Jordan, Cameron, and Aubrie driving us in and out of Yellowstone. Also we had some family members from mine and Robert's families help us out with money for repairs and down payment and others willing to give us more if we needed it. I'm getting emotional again just thinking about it. People say it takes a village to raise a child. Turns out it also takes one to get us home from Yellowstone. Haha! So thankful for the huge support network we have of so much family and friends!
Stay tuned for the post about the fun part of this trip! I promise you it was a great trip other than all this drama.
