The Vacation That Wasn't

Do you ever feel like you should be the star of the next National Lampoon Vacation movie? I never did - until this past week.

Hubby and I had planned to take the hobbitses to Seattle for four days of fun and touristy things, and we were all prepped; sandwiches were made for a picnic lunch, the van was packed the night before, and I had gone over the master list of what to take at least three times. The day before our trip, we had the oil changed on the van, ran it through AirCare and renewed the insurance. While at the insurance place, we took the added steps of getting travel insurance and paying for roadside assistance. Little did we know how that last item would come in handy.

Morning broke on Tuesday, and we got everyone up, dressed, fed and into the van. The "10 minute wait" at the border was actually 75 minutes, so we were a bit behind schedule, but we could still salvage the day. We stopped in Bellingham for groceries and super-cheap gas (our rewards card allowed us to save a further 30¢ per gallon on an already good price - it worked out to something like 87¢ per litre). We hopped back on the I-5 and continued on our merry way. The sun was shining and everyone was happy to be heading down on vacation. We were talking about our first stop of the day, the Museum of Flight, which Primus and Secunda had been to before with their grandparents. There was a lull in the conversation around the time we passed Burlington, WA, home of outlet shopping and auto malls.

I'd just put on one of my "feel good" CDs, and was enjoying my favourite song on it when I began to hear a very worrisome noise coming from under the hood. I quietly alerted Hubby, and as we grew more worried, we asked the hobbitses to keep quiet and turned off the stereo. We were now in that "no-man's land" that only seems to occur on US highways; the long stretch of nothing between towns. The noise started getting worse, so I silently began praying that we could limp the van to some form of civilization before our vehicle died - because it was making those awful dying sounds that make cash registers go KA-CHING. That's when I saw the tall 76 sign. I pulled off in La Conner and we two non-mechanical types tried to figure out what the heck was wrong with our van. All we knew was that running the engine was a Very Bad Idea. Thinking it may be the transmission, we bought some horrendously overpriced fluid and put it in the van, but the sound was still there. So the two of us sat at a picnic table while the hobbitses quietly read or talked in the van, and we tried to figure out what we were going to do.

Another customer came by and, bless his heart, he asked what the trouble was. We told him, and he asked us to fire the van up. He almost immediately told us to cut it, and said, "Now, I'm not a mechanic. But my uncle is and I worked in his shop quite a bit when I was in my teens. That's your engine." I felt just sick to my stomach. That's a very expensive thing to fix. Then this darling man gave us information on where the nearest dealership for our vehicle's make was, and we called Hubby's dad to figure out our next step.

Oh, the roaming charges we paid! But we sorted out that this vacation was not likely to happen today. The van would need repair. Calls were made to the dealership and a tow truck, and after another 20 minute wait or so, we were installing car seats in a courtesy shuttle and heading back to Burlington.

The dealership there was incredible; they offered us the use of their customer lounge until closing, which was the earliest that Hubby's dad could get down to retrieve us. They took a quick look at the van and were able to determine that we had thrown a rod in the engine - a death knell for any engine. So, I called the hotel with just enough time to cancel our reservation without incurring costs, and we prepared ourselves for having to spend our vacation fund on getting a new-to-us vehicle.

$3850.00. That was the best deal they could find on a rebuilt engine. Put that up to $5000.00 if we wanted new. Another quick call to Hubby's dad and we knew that this van was very likely going to be staying in Burlington. The staff were so kind; not only did they let us take over their lounge, but they made sure we were comfortable, allowed us to have their free coffee, made sure we knew where the washrooms were, and checked in on us every hour or so. We let them know that we'd have a final answer for them the next day.

We had our packed lunches, we had snacks and activities for the kids, so the time passed pretty easily for them.  At about 15 minutes shy of closing time, we had the kids help us tidy up the area we were occupying, and, as per SCA guidelines, we left it cleaner than we had found it. Everyone used the bathroom one last time, and we headed out into the muggy air to wait for Hubby's dad. We didn't have long to wait; he arrived about 5 minutes later. We unloaded *everything* from the van and drove back to Mom and Dad's place.

Dad and I drove back down to Burlington the next morning, and after letting them know that the van wasn't worth the investment, I signed over the van to a tow truck driver who contracts with the dealership. With that done, we then spent the next few days having a "staycation", enjoying Mom and Dad's hospitality, and doing things like going to the beach, making use of our Science World membership, and treating Mom and Dad to dinner at Montana's. Oh, and did I mention that they bought themselves a new van and sold their "old" one to us? Yeah, so we got a newer, more reliable vehicle for our family out of this whole mess.

So it turned out to be not too awful after all :)