Change of Turkey Day plans

[ximinez]

Well, we're in Gainesville. Though probably not for very long - there's a
good chance we're going to have to leave on Saturday.

• I took the day off from work so that we could drive up during the day
  and not get all stressed out and end up here in the middle of the night.
  
  
• One of Leslie's asshole professors uncancelled class on Wednesday and
  moved a major test to that day.
  
  
• Rather than spending the morning packing, she was in class taking that
  damn test.
  
  
• I spent the morning running the errands I had been planning to run.
  
  
• Les got back home around 1pm, after picking Anna up from school early.
  We tried to schedule it so that she'd nap in the car on the drive.
  
  
• We left the house around 2:30, because, of course, packing is never easy
  with a toddler.
  
  
• After stopping for gas, and getting stuck in a mass of traffic, we got
  on the Turnpike at about 3:30.
  
  
• Traffic on the Turnpike stopped somewhere in Palm Beach county.
  
  
• It was about this time that we noticed the car was making a strange
  noise when I accelerated.
  
  
• After about 1/2 - 1 hour, we finally got to the next Tpk exit got off
  and headed over to I-95.
  
  
• I-95 was going smoothly for a few miles, then it stopped. We were able
  to get off much more quickly this time, and headed over to US-1.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the strange noise was getting much more ominous, and started
  sounding like a bad serpentine belt.
  
  
• So Les called Saturn's roadside service. After a little time on the
  phone with them, it was decided we'd better get to the nearest Saturn
  service center so they could take a quick look at it. That would be West
  Palm, which is west of I-95 just north of the Palm Beach airport. We were
  on US-1, in Lake Worth, which is a bit south of the Palm Beach airport.
  It was about 5:00. Saturn was going to close at 6:00. It was only a few
  miles.
  
  
• Note that we left the house at 2:30, it was now 5:00, and we had gone
  about 50 miles.
  
  
• At about 5:45, we pulled into Saturn. Let me take this moment to point
  out how awesome Saturn is, because they had already arranged everything,
  including calling Enterprise to arrange a rental, which was covered by our
  extended warranty.
  
  
• It was relatively quickly determined that the power steering pump was
  leaking and had sprayed fluid all over the serpentine belt. The car would
  have become undrivable within a few hours, at best. Either the belt would
  have slipped uncontrollably, or the power steering would have locked up
  and would have locked the serpentine belt with it. (Or something like
  that.) Either way, the car would have become undrivable.
  
  
• We left Enterprise with a Ford Explorer around 6:15. Unfortunately,
  traffic on Military Trail was so heavy, that I wasn't able to turn around
  until I was south of the airport again.
  
  
• We went back to Saturn to pull all the stuff out of the trunk and put it
  in the Explorer. In case anybody was wondering how much SUVs suck, we had
  a tight fit getting everything in there without piling upwards. And
  because sudden braking would have sent any piled stuff flying, we didn't.
  
  
• By now it was about 7, and we were hungry. So we made the decision to
  find food, and try to continue north. If traffic didn't lighten up, we
  were going to turn around and go the hell back home.
  
  
• The rest of the drive was relatively uneventful, other than Anna not
  going to sleep until about 11, and me having two or three cups of coffee
  along the way. Traffic did finally lighten up once we got out of Palm
  Beach.
  
  
• Right about the time we passed the I-75 Williston exit, I turned to Les
  and said, "No, I think we should have just gone home."
  
  
• We rolled into Mom's driveway at about 1:45am. 11 hours and 15 minutes
  after leaving the house.

Between one asshole professor, one bitch of a traffic situation, and one
badly timed part failure, our trip time nearly doubled.

I blame the professor. Had we left at 8, 9, or even 11 in the morning,
none of the other problems would have been the catastrophe that they were.

So that's our trip up. Going down stands to be nearly as much of an
adventure.

See, Saturn is closed today, but they're open tomorrow and part of
Saturday. They'll almost certainly get the car fixed in that time. Once
it's fixed, they stop covering the rental. So, unless we want to pay even
more money for the monstrostiy, we're going to have to head back on
Saturday. As in, leaving first thing in the morning.

If we do decide to just pay for it, then we're going to have to find a way
to get the rental back up to West Palm on Monday, because, of course,
neither Saturn nor Enterprise are open on Sunday. This means me missing
work and/or Les missing class.

So, as it is now, we're here, and we're trying to relax and enjoy our
holiday, but no matter how it ends up, it's not going to be a good
weekend.

We are thankful, though. We're thankful that we were actually involved
in any of the dozen or so accidents that snarled traffic all through South
Florida. We're thankful that we didn't break down unexpectedly in the
middle of nowhere. We're thankful that we're not the guy that Les met at
the rest stop in Orlando who had left Key West at 8am with the kids, and
was trying to get to Pensacola (man, I hope he decided to stop at a
hotel). We're thankful that Anna, despite being bored was very well
behaved for the trip (and slept through big chunks of it).

We're thankful that I didn't roll over the Explorer. ;)

And we're thankful that we were able to bury Toi this morning near his
friends Killian and Snickers and Hairy.

We're thankful that there's an airline starting up with round trip tickets
between Miami and G'ville for around $100. (And we're hoping that Mom
will come to us rather than the other way around.)

But most of all, we're thankful that we're here, we're safe, and we're
able to enjoy this holiday with family, and if we're lucky, with friends.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

</rant>