LIFE, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

After a fitful night's sleep, we received our hotel bill only to find out that someone had charged $16.00 to our room from the hotel bar. Thankfully, they did remove it after we complained. When we got to our car, we were elated that it started right up. The plan was to drive straight home without turning off the car. We first had to stop at my Grandma's house to pick up Nick's braces that we had left there last weekend. We then went through the Jack in the Box drive-through in an attempt to get one of their Angus burgers. We waited in line for an eternity only to find out that they were out of the burgers. We left and stopped at the gas station. Unfortunately, Jeff accidentally turned off the car. Of course, it wouldn't restart. After over 45 minutes of unsuccessful attempts, we called the Roadside Assistance number provided by our insurance. They could only tow it to the nearest dealer. We talked through dozens of plans from renting a car to having my father-in-law pick us up, etc. Jeff knew that it was the starter and that he could fix it if only he had the proper tools. My grandma had my grandpa's old tools, but not the metric sockets that he needed. He also didn't have a pneumatic jack or jack stands. Luckily, my aunt was still in town. She was able to borrow her brother-in-law's truck and tools. Jeff & I had lunch and wandered around Target for a few hours while we waited for my aunt and grandma to return from Washington, MO. We bought a new starter at Autozone and after an initial confusion about an elusive bolt, Jeff was able to fix the car. Pretty soon, we ought to have a new car. In the last couple of months, Jeff has replaced the alternator, the battery, the starter, and we had new struts and tires put on...

After we were on the road again, we stopped by Coldstone for some ice cream. We were both exhausted, but at least we got a good laugh when we saw the following sign on the Chinese restaurant next door...





We got home around 12:30am.