This Could Be An Adventure

We loaded all our luggage in the van for our overnight trip to Monroe, Wisconsin.  The trip on which we will be departing, shortly.  I know it doesn’t sound like it could possibly be much luggage since it’s just an overnight trip, but for my family even a brief trip involves a significant amount of gear (and occasionally some livestock).

After the luggage was loaded I took the van to the gas station to fill it up.  Then, as I was driving back home from the gas station, the fun began.  The van stalled. 

I tried to restart it.

Nope.

I tried again.

Nope.

I tried several more times.

You know that sinking feeling you get when car troubles are happening?  I had that feeling.

After sitting for a while and thinking about how unpleasant it is to walk in the rain, I tried again.  Fortunately, the van started and I made it home.

When I pulled in the driveway I looked at all the luggage that had been loaded in the van and realized that—in light of what had just happened—I was not about to take this van on a road trip to Wisconsin that involved driving at night.

So, we took all the luggage that had been loaded in the van and moved it into the car.

This already seems like it could be an interesting adventure, huh?

Life Lessons And Car Washes

I pulled up to the pay station at a local automatic car wash.  The pay station did not accept credit cards, but that was no problem.  I had cash. 

I put my 5 dollar bill into the slot and it spit the bill back out.  I continued to feed the 5 dollar bill into the payment slot and the machine continued to reject the bill.  I needed a 5 dollar bill in order to pay.  I did not have singles.  I did not have any other 5 dollar bills.  And the machine did not accept 20 dollar bills. 

I tried to feed the bill into the payment slot at least a dozen times and then I realized it was futile.  The machine was simply not going to accept this bill.

But now what do I do?

To access this particular car wash requires some maneuvering into a narrow space that involves a very tight left turn and the aligning of the car tires with rails and a track system that ultimately pulls the car through the wash.  My car was already in this tight place with the wheels on the tracks.

Would I be able to back it out of this place?

Another option would be to drive forward through the car wash on the track system even though

the car wash was not turned on (because it wouldn’t accept my money).

That didn’t seem like a good idea to me.

The only other option was to jump out of my car and leave it there, unattended, at the pay station, then run across the parking lot into the gas station building and pay for the car wash with the gas station clerk.

I chose to jump out of the car and run to the gas station building.  I paid the clerk who was smiling at me as if she knew I was having trouble and yet found the whole situation amusing.  I ran back to the car and keyed the code that was given to me into the pay station.  Then the car went through the wash and came out beautifully.

On the way home in my shiny clean car, some mucky sludge came off of a garbage truck as it passed me.  Less than 2 minutes after my less than optimal car wash experience the car was dirty again.

There are some days when life likes to remind us that we don’t really have ultimate control of anything.