Until March of last year, Greg and I only had one vehicle. I have been a stay-at-home mom for a long time and this wasn't something we needed. If I ever needed the car, I would take him to work so I could use the car for the day...other than that I'm home all the time. Dakota and I are pretty much homebodies so this worked for us.
My daughter, Tina had a car given to her by her grandparents when she started driving. It was a '91 Toyota Corolla. The exterior didn't look all that great but it served its purpose for her while she was living here. Last March when she moved to San Diego with her husband she decided it wasn't worth it to take the car out there - she really didn't think the car would make it all the way anyway - so she gave me the car. I've been driving it now since April 2007 - when I got the title transferred over.
Today I think my little car has seen its last trip. Greg & I drove separately to church today because he wanted to leave straight from church to go watch the Playoff games at a guy's house. I had a mission trip meeting after church so it was almost 1:00 by the time Dakota and I got out of there and we were starving! We were headed to Wendy's to grab some lunch before going home when I realized I didn't think I had my money/credit cards, etc on me....I had put them in my pocket last night when I was out and when I got home I set them in my ring box and I didn't remember picking them up this morning.
I told Dakota we were going to have to go home and try to find something to eat there (which, by the way, there is NOTHING to eat here - I desperately need to go grocery shopping next payday!) All of a sudden I remembered I had a gift card in my purse that our family had received for Christmas. It was to Olive Garden, Smokey Bones, or Red Lobster - all of which are clear across town, about 30-45 mins from our house. I asked Dakota if he wanted to go to one of those restaurants and he chose Red Lobster - he LOVES fried shrimp. We had a wonderful lunch and great conversation over lunch!
We get in the car to leave and upon starting the engine, it starts shaking and sounds terrible!! Oh great! It was a longggggggg drive home. I had to drive 40-45 mph the whole way and I tried to take as many back roads as I could so as not to have to stop at red light after red light because it seemed when I stopped, the whole car shook, rattled and rolled so hard I was just waiting for it to BLOW UP! Dakota kept saying "Let's just call daddy and get out of this car!" I knew Greg was at the game and probably wouldn't answer his phone so that option was out. I called my mom to see if she could come meet us but she had an appt she was headed to. She told me to call my dad - but he has a little 2 seater truck and the 3 of us REALLY can't fit in there so I told her I would use him as a last resort. I just started praying fervently for God to get me home (please!!) and I would park the car and kiss it goodbye. LOL
I told Dakota to sit back and be quiet because I was already stressed to the max and didn't need his worry and carrying on to add to my stress, um - concentrated effort to get home safely. :-)
The closer we got to the house the more that poor car shook and the slower it drove...but most lights were green allowing me to breeze right on through...and we made it safely home.
Praise God and Thank you Jesus!
2 comments:
When you drive old cars, you have experiences like this. I know I've had plenty. Did you ever figure out what was wrong with it? Did it die? Did you have a funeral for it?
Nope, didn't even try to figure out what was wrong. I knew it was coming to an end. I feel blessed to have gotten as many miles out of it as I have! LOL Think we'll be one-car-ing it again for awhile.
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