Wanted: Miniature Sleigh and Eight Tiny Reindeer.

Looking for alternative modes of transportation.


If you have been a reader of this blog for a bit you know that our adventure to Colorado started with  a bang.

A really Big Bang. 

Like the kind of Big Bang you get when the car is struck by lightning.

(You can read about it here.)

A reenactment of the night of August 10.

But we got past that. 

The baby Hummer got fixed and it only took six weeks.

Then my car presented a "check engine" light. 

That car is only 16 months old.

It spent a day, then two weeks at the dealer before it was pronounced cured.

While I had the loaner, this happened.

You would think with a gash this big, I would have noticed when it happened.

For all I know, it came from the dealer this way.

Don't know how or why. 

Also, the battery on the Hummer died. (I might have left a door ajar while we were gone for the weekend. Maybe.)  YouTube and the jumper cables saved the day there.

One of the many things I have learned from YouTube- 

how to jump start the car.

Two weeks of driving my own car and the light returned.

Back to the dealer. Been there for ten days now. 

In the meantime, I have a loaner. 

In ten days I have had to put air in the loaner tires three times. I refuse to do more. 

I've also gotten up close and personal with a snow bank.

And today I got a  call that there's something the matter with the keys and starter but that isn't why the "check engine" light comes on. After ten days of testing with the results being sent daily to the technicians and engineers in Germany,  they have decided the problem is...wait for it....the oil is too heavy. 

Really??

Somehow I don't believe that. 

But whatever.

I bring all of this up because we are supposed to drive 2000 miles in the next ten days.
With teenagers (including one with a permit that wants to do some driving).
And a large dog. 

And I'm not even sure which car I'll be taking on this drive. 

Should I be hesitant? Concerned? My luck with cars has not been that great.

In the past 18 weeks I have had a loaner of some sort for 10 of those weeks. More than half of the time  that I have been here I've been dealing with some kind of car problem or another. 

Cross your fingers and say a little prayer for us.