One Miserable Trip

What we went to California for - Congrats Karli we love you

Madelynn talking to Grandpa Bum

Family Picture after miniature golf - had a great time in Twain Harte

Jacob in Parking Lot after our car broke down one of the times - this was a long wait and it was hot

Madelynn and Kaylee entertaining themselves

Signing up the tow truck for the 3rd time

We saw this scene a few too many times.

We had a trip planned down to California for Memorial weekend for one reason to watch our Niece graduate from high school and it sure did turn into much more than that.  Not even sure where to begin...We decided last minute to head down a week early so we could attend one of Matt's good friends engagement party on a boat cruise in the bay - which by the way was a blast and well worth leaving early for, but getting down there wasn't so early.  We left late on a Saturday night hoping that the kids would sleep most of the way.  We made it into Reno luckily but our car wasn't do so well as we pulled in.  So of course we called my dad and tried to explain to him what was wrong but that only goes so far and if I remember correctly it was somewhere around midnight.  So after messing around with a few things and doing as my dad said we decided we fixed the problem (or Matt decided we fixed the problem) and off we went to try to make it over the mountain in the middle of the night.  We only made it about 45 minutes and our car plum quit on the side of the road.  Luckily we still had cell service so instead of looking at Matt and telling him I told you so I got busy on the phone and tried to find a tow service.  We waited about an hour and half and someone finally came to our rescue.  Roughly 2 in the morning and here we are loading our car on the back of a tow truck and climbing in the front bench seat with our 2 kids that were exhausted.  Luckily my parents were awesome and kept Kaylee for us so she could come down with them later in the week.  We were lucky to find one of the few rooms left in the town that night and so we pulled up with our 15 bags 2 little kids and off loading a tow truck...they did not charge us their cheapest rate as they saw us pull up...they knew we weren't going anywhere else.  So we got a quick nights rest about 4 hours and got up early so we could go rent a car to finish off our trip to make it in time for the cruise on Sunday.  Left our car in Reno at a shop to be worked on Monday.  Made it in time for the cruise barely and enjoyed the rest of the night! 
So there we were in California and our car in Reno, plan was to get it fixed and then have my parent's pick up on their way through.  That was going to be Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Thursday morning comes and supposedly after a hefty bill with the mechanic the problem was fixed!  My dad picked it up and off they went to meet up with us.  He made it about 2 hours from reno still an hour and half from their destination and surprise car dies again - this has to be a joke right?  I was on the verge of getting sick after all this.  So we found another tow company had them pick up my dad and the car and bring him to where we were.  That was a nice tow bill!!!!
So Friday morning we find the next mechanic willing to look at our vehicle and see if he can fix it.  Bless my dad's heart he wanted to work on it so bad but had no tools and no way of even getting into the vehicle to look at it.  So we dropped it off on Friday morning and Friday night it was ready to be picked up - fixed this time?  We drove it the rest of the weekend to and from where we were going for the weekend and didn't seem to have any problems. 
Monday came and it was time for us to go home!  We packed up our stuff and on the road we went.  We made it about an hour and a half and BAM car starts chugging again.  We barely make it off the freeway on an exit and at this point I think I started crying. 
Luckily my parents were with us this time so we pulled off into a parking lot and oddly enough it was a quick lube.  We asked if they could help but of course nothing till Tuesday it was Memorial day and all (Holiday).  So there we sat trying to decide what to do?  We drove around in my dads truck all 7 of us for a bit trying to find some parts - mind you the truck only seats 6.  Long story short after about 6 hours of messing around trying to figure out what to do my parent's came to the rescue.  They brought us one of their cars and we again had ours towed back to somewhere we knew and off we went in their car trying to finish our 10 hour drive home!  So we finally made it home around 2 in the morning and we couldn't have been happier.  Now we still had a problem our car was in Manteca, CA and not running and we were in Idaho.  After some long discussions and much effort we finally found someone my dad trusted and we got the car to him and after a week he thinks he got it fixed and it running.  WOW!  I am getting tired just thinking about this and trying to type it. 
Now to get our vehicle home.  Matt's awesome Uncle Ted volunteered to bring it up to us and swap out cars - we had a great visit with Uncle Ted and cousin Brendan and were so thankful they were so great to us.  And yes the car made it up here.  We have been driving it around for about a week now and haven't had any problems yet so maybe the car is fixed?  We still need to get a couple parts replaced that burnt out in the process but we will let my dad take care of that for us.  Now the question is what was the problem?  Great question...some mechanical sensor all of this over a 60.00 part.  I won't tell you how much this trip cost us but lets just say we could have taken a nice 2 week vacation somehwere expensive for what we were charged for all of this. 
All I can say after this is luckily we are all safe and we are home and no one was hurt in this!  I am still not even laughing about it.  I am sure one day I will but I have a feeling it could be a long time from now.