The dashboard was blinking frantically. Check engine. Battery. Air Bag. O/D Off. The car was sweltering without fans, without air condition, every electrical demand shut off. A child's bladder was going off, and the water bottle solution was not acceptable. Emily frantically parsed the map. No garage here. This town shut down. Only 10K left to the target zone ...
Yes, another Faughnan-Lagace road trip.
Three years ago John's back crashed spectacularly requiring an ambulance ride and 2 days of travel lying flat on the van floor. (I got religion about back therapy and have done fine since). Last year an Ottawa garage ripped our Yakima roof rack off. We've come to expect this stuff.
We made it to the ramp. Up the ramp, starting to turn -- total shutdown. Lost power steering. Eased the stiff sullen wheel onto a lovely open gravel area. We had landed.
Funny thing, on restart all was normal but for the check engine light. Ok, except for the mild burning smell. We made it the next 20K to Tom and Diane's, staying in the 50-60 range.
We've dropped the cursed van at the fourth garage across 2 countries and 3 state/provinces. We'll rent a car tomorrow, and visit with Tom and Diane and Derek and Tyler at the water park.
Friday we'll travel the rest of the way to Montreal by rental. Back to Ottawa Monday, then pick up the (we hope) repaired (again) van and ease our way back to MSP.
Where we'll be buying a new van.