Vehicles
I have been years without a vehicle while growing up and for a few years after Eric and Ryan were born because of the expense of two vehicles, gas, insurance... you know. Well my faithful suburban is now sitting comfortably in Leduc at a repair shop having died, not once but twice, on the way home from Camrose this weekend. I miss it... though I wonder if it is the anticipation of the expenses we are forseeing or the actual lack of wheels.

It all started after a wonderful day-long visit with Allan's parents and we decided to return home late so that the little ones could sleep, and once home, be carried to their beds undisturbed. Well that all ground to a halt just west of Miquelon Lake when the truck suddenly died for no apparent reason as we were passing another vehicle. We called Allan's Dad (Papa) to ask if he could come with his car to help shepherd our children to his house given that six people (our family sans Ryan who was staying over in Camrose + tow truck driver) and a tow truck bench seat don't work well together, especially if the tow truck driver wants to drive at all. Two hours later the tow truck finally showed up. As it was now 11 pm we took Papa's car and drove straight home and Papa went with the tow truck back home.

Sunday after church we drove back to Camrose to return Papa's car. I drove his car while Allan drove our car so we had our own wheels to return to Spruce Grove. We spent the time visiting again (don't want to miss another opportunity to spend time with family). Allan's friend, who lives close to us, just happened to be down visiting his parents too. They decided to drive over to where the truck was to check out a few ideas they had as to why it died... and lo and behold it was a blown fuse. Once replaced it worked perfectly. This time we drove up a bit earlier, just in case, with two vehicles as escourts, our car (me driving) and our friends car.

Sure enough, just out of New Norway it died again as we were accelerating on Highway 21. No fuse worked this time. After several fuses blew the second you turned the key we again called for a tow. This time I herded all the kids into our car and left Allan and his friend to wait for the tow truck, which only took a half hour this time. They towed it to Leduc and there it sits being looked at by experts in the field who charge more per hour than physicians for their diagnostic work. I hope it is a quick diagnosis!