Detours

Day 54 - Photo 54. Family Vacation Day 1 of 8. This is my family. Domenick, son 1 of 2 and child 2 of 3, Georgia, wife 1 of 1 and Noah, son 2 of 2 and child 3 of 3. They're sitting outside of an auto repair shop, hoping that our van will get us to San Luis Obispo for our Thanksgiving vacation. It all started a little more then 24 hours ago when we bought two new tires for the van. Shortly after dropping off the van, the call came that we needed, a brake cylinder, brake pads and a water pump. When we went to pick up the van we were told we now needed a harmonic balancer. Huh? Brake pads...I get that. Water pump...I get that. Tires...I get. But a harmonic balancer? Harmonic balancer? Isn't that the thing in Star Trek that gets the star ship Enterprise across the galaxy? The next thing I'm expecting the mechanic to tell me is I'm going to need Dilithium Crystals for the van's warp drive. I'm starting to think I should tell the mechanic were only driving to San Luis Obispo.

Well, to make a long story long, $1,000 later we're driving away. But, this is Saturday night. Sunday morning, today, we get up, pack, load the car, start to drive away...and the van starts chirping like a cricket on crack. So, we drive the van back to the scene of the crime and ask why the van's chirping. The mechanic dives in under the hood, ruefully shakes his head and launches into an explanation that sounds like a lecture in quantum physics. So here we are sitting on a curb outside the repair shop wondering if we're going to make it out of the parking lot. And afraid to wonder if we'll make it out of town. I'm thinking we'll have to leave Noah behind to pay for the repairs.

As it turns out the original repairs we're completed by a young and inexperienced mechanic. Today's mechanic, Wade, who resolved the problem with the proper amount of torque, time and a plan language explanation had us back on the road with the rest of our finances in tow. And I'm now posting this blog from San Luis Obispo, a happy ending.

Before we left the repair shop Wade promised, "...when that kid comes in tomorrow I'm gonna smack him." A $1,000 is a lot of smacking Wade.