(Newton, Kansas)
We're here. Those two words are among the finest I've ever spoken. Seriously.
The Road Trip:
In my humble opinion, road trips are vastly over-rated. I enjoyed them when I was a kid, but in recent years, not so much. It proved to be even more exhausting when I was doing all the driving. I've vowed that in the future, if I'm going anywhere further than a day's a drive, I'm flying or taking the train.
To make the road trip even more exciting, we had car trouble. Our Dodge--the car with less than 13,000 miles on it--decided to act up the first day out. We'd just pulled up in front of the hotel in Flagstaff, when I noticed steam coming from underneath the hood. I got out and pink fluid was spewing from below. Ack! Being pink, I was sure it was transmission fluid. Opened the hood to see it coming from the coolant tank--which was puzzling. The hotel manager was really nice and said we could leave the car there until we could get service for it the next day. Called my male relatives to pick their brains, but they were at a loss about how transmission fluid could get into the coolant tank.
In the meantime, I was so tired I could have taken my brain out and played it with it. Then had the added fun of having a full-blown anxiety attack about how long we'd be stuck in Flagstaff, and whether I could trust whatever mechanic I might choose.
Fast forward to the next day, and the hotel maintenance man had the front desk call me to tell me he didn't think it was transmission fluid and he'd look at the problem with me. Before I could get out to the car, my uncle called and told me his mechanic said that some coolant is pink now. (Pink! They had to make it the same freakin' color as transmission fluid? What's up with that?) So I met with the maintenance guy and he tells me it absolutely is not transmission fluid. He checked out all the fluid lines and determined there was no leak except out of the coolant tank. (The car never registered as being hot either.) Anyway, he looked at the radiator cap and found some grit under it. He said that could cause a pressure build-up. So he put water in the tank, cleaned the cap, and then waited while the car got up to temperature to verify that we wouldn't have a repeat performance. It's been fine ever since. What a lifesaver. Bless you Ryan!
The Cat:
Charley pretty much hated riding in the car. He yowled from Pahrump, clear to the other side of Vegas, then it became more intermittent. The intermittent protest was pretty much the norm the entire trip. (How can a cat cause such guilt?) The first night in the hotel he hid under the bed for 4 hours. At the next hotel stop he wasn't nearly so timid. By the time we arrived at the house, he was ready to explore. This house has stairs, and the first night, he really enjoyed running up and down.
At This Moment in Time:
The furniture has arrived with like a bajillion boxes. With the boxes stacked around, it looks like a bunch of hoarders live here. We're unpacking, but it hasn't made too much of a dent yet.
I need to make changes to my blog. Obviously, I'm no longer the "desert" quilter, and my weather app needs to be adjusted to our new location.
I hope to get back to blog reading soon. I've really been missing you all.
