Up In Steam

Driving along, on our way to our family reunion. Little did we know everything was about to go very wrong. We had just crossed the border into Pennsylvania when we start hearing this clicking sound. Then Dad realizes the heat gauge is indicating that the van is too hot. Next thing we know we're pulled over to the side of the road, van stalled, steam pouring out of the hood. Well it just kept getting worse from there. We managed to cool it off enough to roll down the road, but every gas station Google claimed was there was not. We finally rolled into a little gas station where the van stalled again and started letting off more steam. The man there directed us to another mechanic where the same thing happened. Rolled in stalled and steaming.

It felt like we were sent back in time to 1985 or something. Old town, roller skating rink up the hill, old sandwich shop on the corner. It was bizarre. We went and found some food while he looked at the van. Thankfully he was able to fit us in and felt bad for us. I was very excited to find a rig pop at the sandwich place. Pretending everything was going to get better. It did not.

We came back to bad news. it wasn't going to be easy and it wasn’t going to be cheap. And it certainly wasn’t going to be quick seeming as it was a Friday afternoon. So what to do? Ideally we would be able to get the van back to our mechanic where we would hopefully be able to either fix it or at least get more than what we would get selling it for scrap there. The other issue was we were exactly halfway between where we came from and where we were going. So go home or go to the reunion? We wanted to go to the reunion. But how to get there?

Rental cars were virtually nonexistent. And none of them let us pick them up there and drop them off at home. We had to get home eventually somehow. After hours on the phone we finally found a rental car. The last one in the area, but it wasn’t going to fit all our stuff. So... camping gear left behind in Pennsylvania we took off to Maryland.

Thankfully we were able to find places to sleep even though we weren't camping like we originally planned. We had a good weekend, but what to do come Sunday? Our van is still in Pennsylvania with half our stuff. Locked in the mechanics shop. And the rental car still needs to go back 3 hours from home to where we got it from.

We got home and mom had to turn around and leave again on Monday. We got the van towed back across the border at least and mom was able to find a ride home from the rental car place. We now have a new car and are making plans about what to do with the van. It all turned out ok in the end. Not like we may have hoped. But sometimes that’s just what happens.

Sometimes your plans go up in smoke, or steam as the case may be, but you need to make the best of it, keep pushing forward, sooner or later things will fall into place and cool down. We had fun at the reunion and we were able to get the van back to New York, mom found a way to get home from Pennsylvania without a car, and we were able to find a new car in a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the best of it. But I, for one, will not be going back to Pennsylvania any time soon.