The Intrepid Writers have made it to Oregon! The bottom of the state, granted, but Oregon!
We woke up at You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me O’clock (after I’d been up till, I dunno, 2?) so that Mark could be first in line at the mechanic’s, though I’m not sure quite how much good that did…anyway, they got to puttering with our car mid-morning-ish, I think.
We showered and breakfasted and got out of our motel by the noon check-out, and kept wandering by the mechanic’s in between all that to check on their progress…the trouble was, the car was now starting up and driving fine. But even so, we were reluctant to take it out and over the pass in the middle of the Shasta and Siskiyou wilderness…especially in the hundred-degree heat. Eventually the mechanic got the car to replicate the problem, a bit, after it was warmed up, and that helped them narrow it down to poor connections on the spark plug cables–in fact one was all corroded and another had a broken-off bit.
So they pulled that all apart, and meanwhile fixed about ten other things, while I was watching the dollar signs mount up and up and up, in my mind…for a while, we distracted ourselves by wandering through the antique store next door. But OMG IT WAS HOT!! Everywhere, hot, hot, hot.
Also I walked across the street where, entirely coincidentally, there happened to be a Subaru dealer. After enjoying their air conditioning for a while, I had them show me the new Outback wagons, and discuss prices, and features, and colors, and interest rates, etc. I mean, why not? It wasn’t like he had anything else to do, the salesman. I’d made it clear I was from out of state, and that I’d only buy a new car if the mechanic could not resurrect my old one (hahaha).
I know you think you know where this is going–but no, we bought no new car. In fact the mechanic put our car back together, charged us $200 (!!!), and sent us on our merry way. Unfortunately, by then it was about 3:00 p.m., so there was no making it to Portland for us.
Fortunately, we reverted to the previous day’s plans, and agreed to stop with some friends just north of Ashland. The drive was…well, fairly uneventful. No car trouble! But LOTS of construction, and its attendant traffic:
but eventually we got here, AND THERE IS SWIMMING POOL oh my goodness. And wine and good food and nice music and air conditioning and great company. And yes, I can’t wait to get home, but this is a very soft landing indeed.
Now to go spend a few minutes research new Subarus online…. 🙂