Howdy Readers! Long time no see! I have taken a long hiatus, but I am now going to try to write at least two posts per week. It is good for me, kind of like eating a bowl of Wheaties, only without the support of sports icons.
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| Driving with Dad makes every trip an adventure! |
Today I would like to tell you the story of my trip to Charleston, South Carolina. About three weeks ago, my mom and I took a short trip to Charleston. Now, believe it or not, this trip was the first time my mom and I have ever gone by ourselves on a vacation. Whenever we have gone on family trips in the past, my dad has always driven, so my mom and I were embarking on a great adventure in driving the five hours to Charleston on our own. (When my dad drives it is also a great adventure, but that is usually because driving makes him sleepy, and the excitement comes in trying to keep him awake so he doesn't swerve into the median on the expressway.)
We decided to take my mom's 2002 Ford Explorer on the trip, because it is less old and more reliable than my 1994 Ford Taurus. On the way to Charleston, we took the "scenic route." Well, at least a man who commented on Trip Advisor said it was scenic. He claimed that the route would take us through several quaint small towns, and that it provided a pleasant alternative to the monotonous sights of the highway. I was the driver for the trip up, and I enthusiastically took this route in hope of maybe encountering some interesting antique stores during our trip.
Well, let me just tell you, you would only have thought the route to be scenic if your idea of the picturesque comes from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies! There was, like, one small town we went through, and the rest of the time all we saw were wide-open areas that appeared uninhabited, some small houses, and one rusty metal thing that looked like an old, unused chicken coop, and that probably housed Leatherface himself! Also, the "scenic route" added about an hour to our trip, and by the time we were approaching Charleston, I was beginning to feel like the protagonist of Into the Wild.
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| There's a creepy reflection in that window. |
Alas, we finally did arrive in Charleston, pulling into our hotel's parking lot, and promptly discovering that the back window of the car was falling off. We were quite thankful that it had not flown off the car during our drive, causing a calamitous, multi-car accident. (Calamitous, multi-car accidents are usually not a good way to start a vacation.) it was Sunday when we arrived, and after scouring the internet for open car-repair places, we learned that none were open on Sundays. We talked to my dad and my Uncle Scott, and they recommended that we take the car to the local Ford dealership the next day, because they were likely to have the necessary parts on hand, and then we wouldn't have to spend as much time waiting as we might if we went somewhere that didn't have the parts readily available.
The next morning, my mom and I headed to the Palmetto Ford dealership, where an affable fellow named Jim informed us that the repair of the half falling off window would not require us to pay anything because it was covered under an earlier product recall (I guess we missed the boat on that one!). We sat in the waiting room, where I knitted and my mom became the official Keurig Coffeemaker Usage Liaison to all patrons who came in to wait for their cars to be repaired. A man showed her how to use the machine when she came in, because It was a commercial model, so it functioned differently than the one she has at home. Once she learned how to operate it, she began to spread her newfound knowledge to anyone who looked perplexed and in need of a caffeine fix.
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| Do you feel a kinship with Liam Neeson
too? |
Also, the entire time we waited, the tv was tuned to the channel on Xfinity that shows you all the movies you can watch On Demand. After seeing Liam Neeson talk about a plane being hijacked for the 634th time, I asked the person in the office next door how to change the channel, to which she responded that the tv was on a timer, and that we would be subjected to Liam's fight against terrorism for the foreseeable future. At this point, after we had waited for approximately 14 days, and at a point at which I had begun to feel a real kinship with Liam Neeson, old Jim came in to inform us that, while they were trying to reattach the back window of the car they had broken the glass. Now, this was apparently not a problem because they had temporarily attached an unbroken window to the car, although the piece below the window was all scratched up. They could simply install a window without a scratched piece the next day when we returned to the dealership, but they would need until then to get it ready because they had to paint it to match the car. Oh joy! We had arrived at the dealership around 8 AM, and finally left around 10:30 AM, plus we would get to return in less than 24 hours!
Our trip to Charleston was very short, and we were leaving the next morning (Tuesday morning). When Tuesday morning arrived, we packed up the car and got to the Ford dealership at 7 AM, hoping that our early arrival would give us a shot at leaving the city by lunchtime. We returned to the waiting area, and my mom resumed her coffee liaison duties, and I knitted again. Sadly, Liam Neeson was no longer on the tv, so we watched Good Morning America instead. After only an hour, our car was ready. We thanked old Jim, and headed out, stopping at Publix to buy some drinks and crackers for our trip, and then at McDonald's for breakfast. Right after we had driven out of the McDonald's parking lot, and just before we entered the highway (No more scenic route for us!) mom received a call from Jim at the Ford dealership. He informed her that the technician who had repaired the car had left a drill in the back, and he was sorry for the inconvenience, but could we return the drill to the dealership?
We pulled over to be sure there actually was a drill in the back of the car, and discovered that the technician had left, like, all of his tools in the back of the car. I mean, we could have started our very own Lowe's or Home Depot with the stock left in the back of the Explorer. We drove back to the dealership, and Jim reclaimed the tools, apologizing heartily. We weren't upset because, by that point, the whole thing had just become comical.
We enjoyed our trip to Charleston, in spite
of our car troubles, and also gained some marketable skills in the process. My mom, for example, is now equipped to become a sales representative for Keurig, while I could now be Liam Neeson's understudy for any of his future movie roles. So, our trip to Charleston was not only fun, but also a boon to our resumes. And that constitutes a win in my book!
Sleeping man image courtesy of http://www.rmtracking.com/blog/2009/05/07/gps-monitoring-in-the-workplace-balancing-employee-privacy-and-employer-concerns/
Liam Neeson image courtesy of http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Liam+Neeson+Premiere+Grey+Red+Carpet+8r1qAiLkdIal.jpg
