Hi all, hope everyone is well.
Today was an interesting one.
A friend needed me to take her to the airport, Houston Intercontinental. An hour + away. She picks me up in her car, we go over there. Drop her off & bring her car back. It has to be started once a day, so bascially, I'm car sitting. BUT WAIT! The story doesn't stop here! Now why would it? I keep Murphy in my pocket y'know. His darn law caught me again! Go away Murphy!
I'm about halfway back. Service Engine Soon Light comes on. Oh goodie. An extra light that I'd prefer NOT to see! Then the temp gauge rises. Oh goodie, even better! My life has gotten stale & boring, so why not add a little spice to it??? Gee thanks Murphy. I pass my docs office on the way & need to pick up all medical data from them, plus other things for a "surprise" doc appointment that was made for me for next Monday with another doctor. So anyhow, I'm grateful to pull over & go in to let the el-sicko car cool down. Hmmm, I never thought to ask the doc to come out & take a look at the car! My bad. Then after I get paperwork, I need to head over to another clinic for more things. OK, put that addy in phone's gps. OK, it shows me the way. Then it shows me how well el-sicko car can do little tiny turns. It's so impressed with little tiny turns that it keeps asking me to do them! Grrrr, stop it gps! Tell me where I really need to go! Well it can't. So I pull over again, turn off car that says, hey, stop making me dizzy or I'll blow my hood! (thanks Murphy) So I call docs office, as it turns out, they didn't have what I needed anyhow.
OK el-sicko car, lets try to limp home without firing up...literally. I look around just in case. Nope, no fire extinguisher on board. Isn't it funny how us RVers come to depend on those? Although I hope to NEVER have to actually use one, I still want them on board!
Roll down windows, turn heat on full blast. Once I find the heater. This car is new fangled. The a/c is the same as the heat. You just turn the little arrow button to make it hot or cold. The hottest it goes is 85. So down go all the windows & off we go. Zooom...well, not really. But we go. We go back roads so I can pull over easily if I have to. Did I say easily!?? I get within 4 miles of the RV. I get a light. There's a long line of cars sitting at this light. Oh goodie!! Construction! Just what I need! NOT!
Car says, hey, I think I'm gonna puke. I have a fever! Oh joy. Ok, get out of line & drive to the closest pull over point! I find one about 3 miles down the road. Pull over in the shade, wait a half hour, then get back on the road. Whew, I'm the first car at that light. I don't want el-sicko to idle too long! Light turns green, all other lights amazingly are green, so I'm soooo relieved to pull into that lovely driveway!
All was not lost. We had a very interesting sunset, so I grab camera & head to the back pasture to shoot it.
Then I shot Wrinkles (not with that, with a camera!)
Then when I was by the RV, I noticed little white posies, so I had to shoot them too!
I think they are jasmine.
They are hanging off the big tree & caught my eye. I grabbed my eye back, got the camera & shot them.
Yes, the cat is that blurry in real life. Really. And the tree was planted here years ago. Many years ago. With me in mind. It likes to trip me with it's big fat roots. And it makes me go circles & circles & circles around it with the riding mower. It has a natural gps built into it that makes the riding mower do that. Really.
So all in all, the evening was a beautiful one. I even took time to stop & smell the jasmine. And well for the cat, he's planning on attending an AA meeting tonight.
PS, El Sicko car also has a bunch of windshield wipers. A rear one to wipe it's hiney too. I bumped the secret button that turned it on. Do you know how hard it is to find that secret button? Almost as hard as it was to find the heat button! So here I am driving El Sicko down the highway, it's wiping it's hiney on a bright sunny day. And I have the heat on. Going full blast. It's 85 outside & I have the heat on..Fun. El Sicko car is staying in the driveway & I will be picking Amy up with the big gas guzzling van instead! I'd surprise her with the RV (which would not thrill her one bit) but I'd have to take a loan out for gas. I feel the need to pay her back...maybe I'll take the riding lawn mower instead.
~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~
Yeah, make her ride on the lawn mower LOL!! What a day! At least you kept your sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteThe lawn mower has it's own little trailer. I found an old fold up chair. I found bungie cords for seat belts. I found the gas can. I'm ready! Her luggage will fit too :-)
DeleteWhat a memorable trip, but then again, Murphy and you sure seem to spend a lot of time together. You should consider filing divorce papers and send him on his way.
ReplyDeleteOH, can I take him to divorce court on TV? This could be fun! I wonder what the courts here would say if I walked in & said, I want a divorce. They ask, what's his name? My reply, Murphy..they say Murphy who? I say Murphy's Law. Will they be on his side since his last name is law? Hmmm, am I doomed?
DeleteYa know, I hate that you entertained me so well this morning but you had me in stitches. :) You did the right thing by turning on the heat but if you pop the hood you can see the coolant res... crap, can't spell it, ok, switching to wife talk "the thingy that keeps the engine cool" which would point me to too many things to be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI'll try again, if you check the coolant reservoir and it's way below the full line you could add water to it while it's running and the engine should suck it right up. That could get you where you're going but you definately did the right thing by cranking up the heat.
The fact it made heat says there was fluid in the system so it's hard to properly diagnose the problem.
The pictures are awesome and thanks for telling the story in such an entertaining way, I'm still laughing, not in a mean way. :)~
Erik
Hi Erik, having driven big vans for most my life, I do know how to check the fluids. I didn't want to open a hot hood on someone else's car, so tried the heat thing first. I El Sicko's owner this morning that I'd check fluids...once I figure how to open it's hood! No release button that I can find. I found the latch, but not the release to it..yet. Maybe it's in the heater too??? Or the windshield wipers?? Or lights? It's got to be somewhere!
DeleteIn the meantime, I'm planning on fixing up the lawnmower's trailer to pick her up in ;-)
Lol, GPS and tree roots. We had a tree with shallow roots that liked to trip me. At least you have a sense of humor about the days events.
ReplyDeleteI love your creative sense of humor! El sicko-car! Love it!
ReplyDeleteTeri, without a sense of humor, where would we be?? I don't want to ponder that one....
ReplyDeleteEl Thanko to ya Levonne. ;-)
oh my gawd... whatta day! and you still took sunset pictures... love it. well? furry blurry cat pictures too ...
ReplyDeleteHAhaaaaa and I'm sorry. Your Murphy really needs to take a hike... been hanging around you way too long.
sigh
great laugh ---- needed my liver massaged! g'night ;)