Tuesday, May 31, 2011

yay for the adventures of marriage.

Braeden and I had our Salt Lake City reception this weekend. Yay! You can read more about that on our wedding blog. We'll also link to pictures once they exist on the internet.

However, the story I am here to tell to you today is one of tragedy and unexpected demise. No, no, no one died. Well, no person died. However, Braeden's beloved car Rocinante did. In Cheyenne, Wyoming. Or rather just outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming. On our way to Utah. Friday: the day before our reception. Good...

Luckily we were at a TA Travel and Gas station at the time, and at first we just thought that the engine was flooded (Braeden's car is a manual and I'm still just learning to drive it). We pushed it over to a parking spot and went and had lunch to let it dry out. However, when we tried to start it up again about an hour later it still wouldn't start. Hmmmm... By this time we enlisted the help of a few of the employees at the stop and after two hours and over six people looking at it (at least four of them certified truck mechanics) it was determined that the cam-shaft sensor was broken. Oh, no big deal. We called around with the help of our newest friend Nick (one of the truck mechanics), found a place that had them in stock and Nick drove us out to pick it up. $77 and a 40 minute round trip later we were back at our dear Rocinante. Nick popped that old part out, put the new one in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand nothing. That wasn't the problem.

Another mechanic walked over, within minutes had a protective cover off and showed us that the timing belt was broken. Oh. Good. That's the kind of repair that costs hundreds of dollars instead of just $77. And, lucky for us, because it was Memorial Day weekend all the garages in the area were closed not just on the actual holiday but also the Saturday before so the earliest we could get the car in to see an actual certified Hyundai mechanic would be Tuesday morning. So what could we do? We rented a car, loaded up all our wedding stuff, left our car in the hands of Nick and headed off into the then-sunset.

So, today: we finally got the car towed to a garage from the gas station where it sat all weekend and talked to the place today. The lady I spoke with told me that they won't be able to even take a look at it until tomorrow morning, but if it is in fact the timing belt that is broken then most likely there was piston head damage as well that could take up to a week to fix. A. Week. Good thing Braeden's sister just moved to Fort Collins which is just an hour away from Cheyenne so we can stay with her while we figure out what to do.

We'd been talking about selling the car anyway--we basically only use my car and have been since before we got married--but we were hoping that when we got around to actually getting rid of it it wouldn't be broken and leaving us semi-stranded only half-way home.

But you know what? It could be a lot worse.  We could have been left stranded along one of the many stretched of I-80 where there is no town within miles and no cell phone reception. We could have been unable to get a rental car and had to miss our own reception. We could have to be camped out in a hotel until our car is fixed instead of comfortably with Braeden's sister. We could not have the money to fix our car and have to hitchhike home. Luckily none of these were the case. We don't know what's going to happen, but we are not even going to worry about it until we hear from the garage tomorrow and know for sure what decisions need to be made. Until then we will just sit on Natalee's couch, eat pancakes, and watch TLC.

Thank goodness for small blessings. 

1 comment:

Eric and Andrea said...

Wow. Talk about a good luck/bad luck story. I'm glad you guys were stopped at a convenient place when the car died. I hope your reception went well!! Congrats to the happy couple!