ROAD TRIP!

As is true of any good road trip, our 4 ½ hour trip to Penticton turned into an 11 hour odyssey just outside of Merritt, BC. The children and I had finished having lunch with a client and resumed our journey in my VW Bug when, tunes blaring and torturous crooning abundant– a red light started flashing and beeping at us from my otherwise very cool indigo dashboard. Laurel, ever the diligent navigator/merging cohort, quickly rummaged for the car’s service manual to look up the meaning of the dashboard icon, while I searched for a spot to pull over. Luckily, right in front of us, on the side of the road was another stranded vehicle so we pulled in neatly behind him, using his roadside emergency pylon thingies to our advantage.

Ah! Engine coolant. But how can that be? The coolant reservoir was almost full, and although it was pink instead of green as is usually the case, VW assured me before we left that they use a proprietary pink product and that my levels were fine… Okay, so we were climbing a long slow grade at the time and maybe it was just too much for my little car to make, laden down with luggage, food, children and hockey equipment. Not to worry, we’ll just wait here, let the engine cool down and get on with the trip. But the Gods of road travel were pointing and laughing at our naiveté as we cheerfully waited and chatted about what we thought would be a small blip in the diary of our week-long trip.

The other stranded motorist suggested driving with the air-conditioning off and coasting as much as possible, so we opted to try that and set off again in 45 minutes. Merrily, we coasted downhill at about 80km/hour, barely touching the gas and only when absolutely necessary…. for about 2km, when …*beep* *beep* *beep* ….

Hmmmm… okay, this could be worse than we thought.

Finding the first pullout, which seemed barely large enough for my bug and meant that every vehicle that passed us made my car wobble in its draft, we set about waiting for the engine to cool.

To make matters even more ridiculous; at one point just when we were ready to get going again after Laurel cooled the motor with my bamboo Filipino hand fan, a cricket decided to join us in the car, crawling far under the driver’s seat and settling in among the springs (probably searching for remnants of the Scotch mints Laurel had unwittingly exploded all over the interior of the car two hours earlier). Well, anyone who knows me will be chuckling because although crickets don’t really bother me per se, there is no way I would travel on the highway wearing a skirt with one under my seat! Twenty minutes of coaxing, laughing, jabbing, and heebie jeebie dancing later, the darn thing reluctantly departed and we could once again begin our painstaking journey.

Often travelers on a road trip have the option of simply staying in the town nearest where the car breaks down.. but in our case we needed to get Adam to Penticton to start Hockey Camp early the next morning, so stopping in Westbank overnight was simply not going to work. We decided to pull over every time the light went on; wait for 20-30 minutes and start off again, hoping to coast into Penticton, find a garage and merrily begin our holiday. By now those Gods of road travel were rolling on the floor…

It got progressively worse until finally, after 5 attempts with this strategy, we made it a mere 200m down the off ramp at 40km/h into a little plaza in Peachland. It was time to admit that the circumstances were beyond our control and call the darn tow truck.

The tow truck driver’s name was Kenn. A man obviously near retirement whose customer service philosophy was, “I treat all my customers how I would like my wife treated in similar circumstances” – clearly, he wanted his wife chatted to death… as he recounted every big wreck he has ever had the ‘pleasure’ of clearing from the treacherous highway. To make matters more nerve-wracking, we had to sit on each other’s laps for the 42 km ride into Penticton in his rickety old tow truck – the kind with no front end, where, as a reminder of your mortality, you sit right at the windshield and are mere inches away from every bug that splatters on the glass. You know your children are growing up when, for the first time, you sit on your son’s knee instead of vice versa!

Kenn wanted me to stay overnight in Peachland to see Klaus, the region’s resident Volkswagen expert who was returning from holiday in two days, but I insisted we continue on into Penticton to see the first available mechanic. Reluctantly, he took us to the local Canadian Tire, which was closing in 20 minutes. We managed to register the car with the service desk, and they even had a quick look at it before closing time. Yup, the coolant was fine. Yup, the fan was working. Nope, there was nothing obvious that we could have done to prevent this. Maybe it’s the water pump? The thermostat in the coolant hose? As the garage doors were closing for the night, the children and I and two mechanics meticulously unloaded our luggage, groceries and hockey equipment onto the sidewalk to await a taxi to our hotel.

Much laughter ensued as we surveyed our mounds of belongings on the sidewalk and took photos of our predicament. Our mechanic Chris kindly offered us a ride in the courtesy van to our hotel and actually carried the luggage into the second floor room with the children while I checked in.

I have to say at this point how wonderful the children were during the whole fiasco – not once did anyone complain, especially Adam who had only this one afternoon to frolic in the lake before starting hockey camp the next morning. Instead they were perky, helpful and remarkably hilarious – we had a great day, a real bonding experience.

All is right with the world, because the situation afforded me the unique luxury of a 30 minute walk alone with Adam to and from hockey camp each morning and evening, and some ‘down-time’ with Laurel and Philip . Adam and I held hands and chatted like we did when he was little, and I had some great discussions with Laurel and Philip during our walks around Penticton … everything happens for a reason… *sigh* … too bad the car was ready in only 3 days…

New water pump and coolant hose thermostat = $628

42km tow truck ride with Kenn, the chatterbox = $110

A road-trip adventure with three great children - PRICELESS