Since we couldn't leave until 1:00ish, I had time to whip up some pumpkin zucchini bread/muffins to take on the road. Just so you know, they were awesome.
Everything was going dandy until about 30 miles outside of Ft. Collins, Colorado. Ryan noticed that the car was starting to smoke and the back window was getting really "fogged up." Turns out our oil had been leaking... all of it actually... and we were dead on the side of the road. Of course, we didn't have road side assistance, but thank goodness I had a smart phone and was able to look up some towing companies. We waited for a while until the truck finally arrived. When they did, the driver seemed a little irritated that we hadn't told them there were other passengers. Well, dispatch never asked and I've never been towed, so I wouldn't know any better! Ryan said that he remembers being towed with he was younger and everyone just stayed in the car. Oh well. The three of us piled into the truck and Pierscen sat on my lap.
Though we were really worried about what this meant for our car, Pierscen thought the whole thing was a grand adventure. He only scowled in the picture below because he didn't want to take a picture with me. Haha. He loved the drive into town and turned it into a game by saying, "Let's catch that truck!" So we would act like we were trying to catch the trucks in front of us. Once we had "caught" them, he would spot another up ahead and the game would begin again. We could learn a lot from his attitude through this whole thing.
We were towed to Firestone because A. It was one of the only places open, and B. We had just had our oil changed at a Firestone a week previously. If they had done something wrong, it was best to take it back to them. We had no idea how long it would take to diagnose the problem, so we went in search of food. Ironically, on the way down I had been telling Ry we should stop in Ft. Collins for some Cafe Rio. He shot the idea down saying that it was too far out of the way. Imagine my delight when it turned out that Firestone was literally across the street from Cafe Rio. Haha! However, even with the fates aligning, we decided to pass it up for some Panda Express instead. We have nothing like Panda back home and we missed our good old American Chinese. Sadly, P doesn't really seem to appreciate Chinese food. That is, all except for the Honey Walnut Shrimp that we got. He downed the entire thing. Kind of a funny thing for a kid to like, but I'll take it.
When we got back to Firestone (it was in the same parking lot as Panda) we learned that unfortunately, it was not the oil change at fault. Everything was attached correctly. That meant that the leak had come from somewhere else and the investigation had to begin. Ryan had been in contact with his parents the whole time, so they raced down the canyon from Estes Park (thankfully not terribly far away) and rescued us. It was a really long day - way, way, WAY longer than intended (not to mention much more expensive) but at least his parents were able to come help us instead of us being stuck in Ft. Collins for the weekend for no real reason.
The hotel room we were in was pretty cool. It was a family suit with one big bedroom, (two queen beds and bath) and second huge room that had a couple couches and another bathroom, and then a third room with a kitchen and dining area. Ryan's parents, Ryan and I, and Pierscen shared the main room, Jessica, Kris, and a couple of the cousins slept in the living room on pull out beds and an air mattress. That first night was really rough because P was coughing all night and the beds were pretty awful - but it was just a relief to be with family.
The next morning my fish went swimming. I simply wasn't in the mood, but it was fun to watch the boys. I was especially impressed with Pierscen's endurance as he stayed in there for almost three hours. (I have learned only in the last few years really that Ryan is a swimming addict.)
"Nope. He's out." And just like that he was a gonner. No naps are hard on little tykes when they are having too much fun. He looked super uncomfortable - (can you even imagine sleeping like that?!) so Ellen took her jacket and balled it up and we leaned his head forward. We still had to support him so his head wouldn't fall back again, but at least it didn't look as painful.
As we were leaving, I snapped this picture of P and Ryan. I couldn't stop laughing at the imagery of Ryan's radioactive symbol on his shirt and the monster sleeping on his shoulder. Pretty classic!
After lunch, Jodi, Ryan, and their family arrived and we met up with them at a little park to celebrate Madi and Zach's birthdays with a ghost pinata. The kids loved it!
Here was the second big herd that we found. This bull elk answered Pierscen's bugle, but you could also hear the bulls from the different herds calling to each other. It was also amazing to watch some of the smaller bulls try to get close to the cows and the big bull in charge would lower his head and chase them off. It was fantastic!
That evening we had dinner together as a family at the hotel and I think we all went swimming again.
The next morning we all headed to a nearby park for playing, lunch and relaxation. It was so beautiful up there. We really lucked out with the weather. It was gorgeous!
The oil leak had come from a faulty oil line (Toyota's fault). We still had to pay for the fix, but planned on filing a claim with Toyota later.
We made it to Cheyenne and pulled off an exit to get gas and to see if we could find a car wash to get the oil off the back of our car. When Ryan turned the car back on after fueling up, he noticed a knocking sound in the engine. Talk about major NO BEUNO! I guess Ryan had been partially expecting this, but really hoped it wouldn't happen. We were on our way to the dealership when the knocking became really bad, the check engine light turned on, and we couldn't make it any further. The sad thing was, we were only a few blocks from the dealership! I pulled out my phone and started looking up towing companies - again - when a young man pulled over and offered us assistance. He was in his early twenties and was an air force boy. He happened to have towing straps in his car, so he towed us to the dealership (which was closed) and then drove Ryan around looking first for a mechanic who might be open, and then ultimately for a car rental place.
Ryan came back with this 2015 Chevy Sonic. It was pretty tiny, but it did the job. It had less than a 1000 miles on it. We sure changed that pretty quick! We had no choice but the leave our car and keys in the drop box with a note and head home.
Well, that was only the beginning. Without going into tons of detail - let me just say the car experience was a nightmare. (And it's still not really over.) We asked them to check the engine first (and the engine codes) but they wouldn't. They found the part that was broken, fixed it, then found that the neighboring piece was also broken. (How they didn't see this, we will never know). Anyway, again, omitting lots of time, phone calls, frustration, etc, the bill was up over $5000 and they were claiming that the oil line break was not responsible for the rest of it breaking. (Blantantly not true). After fixing those first two parts, they finally got to the engine and found that the engine was shot. Finally a technician who knew what was what looked at the engine as said without question, everything that had fallen apart was because of the oil line (no duh) and that they would be replacing our engine and other parts for free - with the exception of labor. (We are still fighting that one). We had the rental car for 5 days shy of a month before we were finally able to get our car back. Even if they don't pay for the labor, the truth of it is, we are getting a brand new engine with zero miles on a six year old car for about $2000. It's a pretty dang good deal, even if the whole situation sucked royally.
We drove down on a Wednesday to pick up the car. On the way we asked Pierscen where he wanted to eat and he said Panda. We asked him what he was going to eat there and he said shrimp. Haha. The boy has an incredible memory considering that's exactly what he had when it broke down in Ft. Collins. So we decided to go with that. We started the nightmare with Panda Express. We were going to end it the same way. :)
For days after we picked it up, Pierscen would randomly say without prompting, "I'm so glad we have our car back!" We couldn't agree more little man!
The trip to Estes Park was awesome. Granted, the car situation really sucked. However, it was a HUGE blessing that it happened on that trip because A. Ryan's parents were able to come rescue us, and B. It happened where we actually were able to get help. If that had happened on our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving, we could have been in MAJOR trouble. There is nothing between here and Rawlins and the majority of that stretch doesn't have cell service. I don't even want to think about it. Heavenly Father was definitely watching over us.
So there you have it. What an adventure indeed. And I, like Pierscen, am SO glad we have our car back!!!
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