Living in the Promise: Our Anniversary Vacation Part 1

Scott and I celebrated our 6-year anniversary on Saturday, May 30th. If you missed it, you should check out my poem, documenting our last 6 years of marriage! :) To celebrate our anniversary this year, we planned a trip to Columbia, SC. We reserved a room at a hotel downtown and planned to go to the Riverbanks Zoo on Saturday, spend the night that night, have breakfast and walk around downtown on Sunday, and then head home. We had been looking forward to it for months, and I had been prepping Grayson for it for weeks! We even had a "We're Going to the Zoo!" song and dance that we made up.

We did most of the packing on Friday night, and planned to leave the house by no later than 7 AM on Saturday. Grayson, ever the early riser, woke us up a little after 5, so we were definitely ready by 7! We loaded up the van (btw-we bought a mini-van back in March!), feeling pleased with all our amazing cargo space, and hit the road.

Our super blurry pre-zoo selfies! We were so excited!

We were traveling along I-20, about 20 miles from our destination, when the car started beeping. Scott asked if I unbuckled my seat belt. I did not. Then, he realized we were overheating! Fortunately, we were near an exit, so we pulled over to the nearest gas station. Knowing very little about cars, we decided it might need more coolant. Scott purchased some coolant and poured some into the radiator reservoir. Then, we made our way back onto the interstate. Unfortunately, we immediately were running hot again. I did a search on our GPS for the nearest auto repair shop and discovered there was one within 2 miles. we decided to creep along the shoulder and make our way to the shop. After getting off the exit, we saw a shop attached to a gas station, so we decided to just stop there.

We talked to the guy working there and told him we were overheating. He suggested we add coolant, which of course we already did. He said we should also add water. So, we bought a jug of water and added some of that as well. Then the guys says, "I'm not really a mechanic, I just change tires. If this doesn't work, you probably want to go somewhere else." Ugh! There was a lady there with a nail in her tire and she pulled me off to the side and told me there was a really nice gas station at the next exit up with real mechanics who would be able to help. She said it was a brand new Pilot station and that if we kept driving up the interstate, we would see it.

Hopeful that adding the water would have helped our situation, we once again got back on the interstate, planning to stop at the next exit to get some help. After driving a few miles, we finally saw an exit ramp, though it wasn't clearly labeled. We started to pull off, and then realized it was not an active exit ramp. There was a big sign posted on it "CLOSED - No Trespassing." At this point, our engine was overheating to 280 degrees and it was not safe to continue down the interstate. We pulled off onto the shoulder, tucked away from the main road a bit, thanks to the fake exit ramp. I tried Googling this mysterious Pilot station and couldn't find anything. There was no other exit in sight. Unsure what to do next, we were super classy and joined Triple A on Scott's phone right then and there! Then we had the world's most frustrating conversation with the Triple A lady. Even with pretty good directions about where we were located, including our exact coordinates, she had trouble figuring out where we were. She kept asking what the closest town was and we were like, "I don't know! We don't live here! Why can't you find us based on all this other detailed information?!?!?" Okay, we didn't say those exact words, but let's just say, Scott handled it much better than I would have! At long last, she was able to put in an order for a tow truck to come get us. She said Triple A will only pay for 3 miles of towing and after that it's $4 per mile! And she said the nearest shop they could take us to was 14 miles away! AH! What is even the point of Triple A?!?! Not only was it going to be an unfortunate expense to just get us to the shop, where we might have to spend a lot more to get the car fixed, but they said it could be 1-2 hours before the tow truck made it to us! Fortunately, it was still morning so it wasn't too blistering hot yet, but it wasn't looking like a trip to the zoo was in our future, at least not for that day! :(

We walked down to a storm drain ditch on the side of the road to let Grayson play. Yes, that is real life. I cried. Scott tried to stay optimistic. Grayson was oblivious to any ruined plans and enjoyed the adventure! At the gas station stop, he was thrilled to find a grasshopper, a dragonfly, and a spider! At this stop, he enjoyed running around and playing in the dirt. Thank God he is such a good, laid-back kid! After we hung out in the ditch for a while, we decided to go back up to the van to change Grayson's diaper and have some food. We cleared out space in the back of the van and had a little picnic, with the sounds of cars zooming by!

our beloved ditch!

Enjoying our interstate picnic, still smiling! I love him so much!

More time passed, we walked back down to the ditch so Grayson could run some more. I asked Scott to call Triple A for an update, since it had been about 45 minutes and we hadn't heard anything. The lady said the tow company had not responded yet, so it would likely be another hour. I was beyond frustrated by this! We decided since it had been a little while, we would attempt to inch along the shoulder of the interstate until we got to another exit. That way we could at least we off the side of the road and near bathrooms and civilization! After what felt like an eternity, we approached the gas station. We pulled in and googled the nearest auto shop from that point. The first one we called was closed. The second one, someone answered (just "Hello?") and we discovered that it was a husband and wife owned shop, that they ran out of their backyard. They were typically closed on Saturdays, but given our circumstances, they agreed to see us. We just had to make it another mile and a half down the road! Feeling confident, we called and canceled the tow service and continued to inch along the road to our destination. I'm so thankful that we made it without doing any real damage to our car!

We pulled into the modest shop. The wife greeted us and showed Grayson and me to the "waiting room," which was just a table and two office chairs. Of course Grayson had no interest in waiting on anything, so we ended up running around their backyard and talking at length to their two dogs! Again, Grayson was perfectly content with the adventure. Why even pay for an elaborate vacation when he's happy getting stranded in small town, SC? ha!

The couple was so nice! They offered us bottled water and apples. They had to let our engine completely cool in order to check it for leaks or add anything to it. It took close to an hour of waiting, with fans blowing on our engine. It was definitely getting hotter outside, but we were still in the shade and it was really the best possible arrangement, given the circumstances. After the engine cooled, they checked the radiator for leaks. There was nothing obvious. They agreed there is probably a small, slow leak somewhere in a pipe or hose (I may not be relaying this exactly right!) and that an air bubble probably formed as a result. This air bubble was preventing any of the coolant or water in the reservoir tank to circulate to the actual radiator. They poured water directly into the radiator. They took it for a test drive and said it was running fine. Of course, we still need to get it seen so that this doesn't happen again in the future, but they said we should be fine to make it to our hotel (which was only about 15 minutes away!) and back home the following day.

It was around 1 pm and it we talked about just calling it and going home, or still heading to the zoo because it didn't close until 6, or going to the hotel and doing the zoo the next day. After all the stress, and given that Grayson hadn't napped yet and was clearly tired, we didn't think rushing through the zoo that day would make for a very enjoyable visit. But we didn't want to cancel the whole trip! We had come so far, and we wouldn't get a refund for our hotel at that point. We decided to head to the hotel, rest, explore downtown, have dinner, spend the night, and do the zoo first thing the next morning. We assumed we would still have plenty of time to see the zoo and get back home before it was too late. That was an excellent decision!