Tuesday, June 27

We were supposed to be headed to the Grand Canyon today...but I am trying not to think like that.  We are making the most of what we are handed and enjoying being together...as a family!!

Tuesday, we were getting out of town...finally...as Abram says...bum, bum, bummm.  So much for making plans, they always fall apart.  The garage got the part and put it in but it didn't work, so they were going to come in early and try one more last ditch effort to get her running.  We started making other plans.  We had already contacted a towing company about getting Daisy home, to make a long story a little bit shorter, it was going to be really expensive!!  But after weighing the options and realizing how much money we were wasting staying in a hotel, renting a car, buying food, etc.  We decided in the long run getting her towed home was the best option for us.  We made the call to the tow company and they were amazing.  They had somebody in Conway, Arkansas-about 2 hours from us-who was ready to go and willing to tow Daisy home.  We called the garage and told them to stop working.  The head mechanic said, he couldn't figure out what was going on.  He couldn't get her to stop back firing but he did have her running just not about 40 mph.  So, lots started happening all of a sudden.  The tow company said somebody would be to us that night or the next morning.
We knew we were going to need a bigger vehicle to get us and our stuff home, so we went to the car rental place and tried to trade out for a van.  The only van they had out needed an oil change before we could take it, which would take about 2 hours, so while we waited we drove back to the garage to get Daisy and drive her back to where we were-that was a very interesting drive.
 The kids and I followed Daisy and Walter in the rental.  I think we got up to 35 at the fastest and then had to slow down to 20ish because she was backfiring so bad.  Let's just say it took us a while and lots of nasty looks from people on the interstate.  We got her parked and headed back to the car rental place.  Enterprise was amazing they were so easy to work with.  After waiting a little while, they handed us the keys to a van and said see ya later.  We headed back to the hotel.  We had just gotten to the hotel to start packing up all our stuff, when the tow driver called and said he was waiting for us outside.


Another interesting situation...I thought it would be a big wrecker, Walter thought it would be a big rig with a flat bed...it was a guy and his daughter with a Dodge 3500 and a long trailer.

 He seemed to know what he was doing and was really excited when I told him, she was running enough, he could probably drive her onto the trailer instead of having to wench her up.

After a few harrowing minutes as Daisy bent his ramps getting her on the trailer and trying to figure out if she weighed too much for him to pull her and watching as he put his bent ramps on the ground to run over them again to straighten them out.  They pulled out of the parking lot headed for North Carolina and we headed in for one more night at the Holiday Inn and Suites in Van Buren, Arkansas.