Ah well - you're going to think I do nothing but complain, but here goes.
Day one of family summer vacation.
We spend several hours packing the car. This is because we're not really sure what we're going to do. We have a couple of destinations in mind: Montreal, Quebec City, some far-away random water park that the boys really like called Valcartier. We pack for camping, for hotels, for rain, for sun, for heat and for cold - because we've looked ahead in the 10-day forecast and we're getting all of that.
We finally leave and the air conditioning in the car doesn't work. Now, we don't often take car vacation trips, so I had actually taken the car into the garage two days before we left, because the a/c was only working for a few minutes, and then it would conk out. So I actually had planned for the a/c to be fixed so we'd have a nice cool car to drive in for the hundreds of kilometres we planned on travelling. I was being "pro-active" - I think that's what they call it.
So when the a/c conked out, it was really upsetting and I had a hard time getting past this. To help with the heat in the car, Hubby decides we should pull off the major highway to a road side rest stop and get some cold drinks with ice. When we pull into the rest stop, we hear a really loud noise. We figure this is because we're pulling into the 18-wheeler parking area because that's the only place that has shade and, as we all know, 18-wheelers make a lot of noise.
Nope - as you probably know - the noise was us.
We call road side assistance and figure out that it will be a long time before they can come to tow us. We have found a Canadian Tire in the next city over - about 20 km away - and we decide to forego the tow because the mechanic is leaving in about an hour and a half. We drive.
We get 10 km before smoke starts coming out of the engine. We pull over on the shoulder of the major highway. Hubby grabs the extra-large winnebago-sized Sprite that Kid#1 ordered and throws it onto the car engine to stop the smoke. No flames, but impressive smoke. Then he throws water on it, to wash off the Sprite. I'm sure our car engine never tasted so yummy.
Now we call road side assistance for a tow again. Good news! Because we're on the side of a major multi-lane highway, we're now priority. They'll be there in 30 minutes (which later turns into 45 minutes - they helpfully texted us to let us know. Guess we weren't that much of a priority.)
When the tow truck comes, the driver very helpfully tells us that we shouldn't be at the side of the highway in the shade, because it's poison sumac or poison parsnip or poison potatoes something or other. My 10-yr-old, who has been to wilderness camp, tells us it's just goldenrod. All I can say is, we hustled out of there, but to his credit, no one has broken out with anything yet.
Entertainment for the kids: watching the 10-yr old Echo get hooked up to the tow truck.
Further entertainment for the kids: riding in the tow truck.
Entertainment for me: the tow truck has air conditioning. (Except I broke a nail pretty badly digging around for the seat belt. The driver didn't wear his at all. Nice role model for the kids.)
We get to the Canadian Tire about 30 minutes before the mechanic goes off for the day. He was really super helpful and looked at our car immediately - and came back almost just as immediately with a very broken serpentine belt.
Now I don't really know a serpentine belt from a spark plug, but I gather that this is what happened: the air conditioning compressor completely seized up (despite, or perhaps because of, the repair two days earlier), which meant that the serpentine belt, which connects much of the engine to the rest of the engine, stopped rolling nicely and had to rub around the seized-up air conditioning compressor. This, of course, causes friction, which causes smoke and which causes the belt to break, which causes our engine to stop working.
We get a new serpentine belt, which the mechanic installs to by-pass the air conditioner (so yes, the engine works but not the air conditioner) so we get back on the road.
After a few kilometres, Kid#1's nose starts to bleed. A lot. We pull over again.
Finally, after what has been the longest drive of my existence so far, we pull into Montreal. Our hotel has no parking. The room that we've been given is a smoking room. I'm sure there are other things that I'm forgetting. You know - sort of like how you forget the pain of childbirth.
The next morning at breakfast, Kid#1 has another big bleeding nose.
It can only get better from here, right??
Either that or I'm never going on a family vacation again. Ever.
I need a vacation from my vacation!
