We made it home, but…
Jul 9th, 2008 by justsimplyholly
Good morning and happy Wednesday! I wish I could say I was up and at’em this morning, but I’m struggling to wake up…LOL! The trip to Baltimore went very well and we arrived safely Monday afternoon just before 4. We had a really nice evening with my step daughter, as well as her boyfriend and grandmother and everyone fell asleep fairly early…LOL! We woke up around 8 yesterday morning got some coffee, sat out on the deck for a while talking then decided that we really needed to get our stuff packed up and hit the road because we had a 500 mile trip home ahead of us!
It was much more difficult than I thought it would be to pull out of that driveway and leave the kids there. I was on the brink of tears when my husband handed me a piece of paper and said “It’s a letter from brat gurl, she told me not to give it to you until we had driven away”. By the end of the first sentence, I was crying like a baby…LOL. The first sentence read, “While we are away, please don’t leave or get rid of any of the dogs, PLEASE”…..LOL! The hubby and I haven’t been doing the best lately and the stress we’ve been under has caused a few more arguments than what we normally have, and she’s been terrified that we’re going to split up. I’ve assured her that all parents argue and that just because we’re arguing it doesn’t mean we’re doing to get a divorce, but apparently she hasn’t believed me.
She went on in the letter to tell us to “NEVER, EVER, EVER drive fast because it could lead to bad things and I don’t want bad things to happen while I’m gone” and reminded us to take care of the dogs for her, which cracked me up because she doesn’t take care of the dogs when she’s here…LOL! And she ended her letter by saying “I love you guys very much and I will probably be having too much fun to miss you…..LOL, JUST KIDDING”, which really made me laugh! It’s definitely going to be strange for these next 23 days, but I have no doubt that they’re going to have a wonderful time with their sister!
The trip home went fairly well, although we ran into a HORRIBLE storm east of Cleveland that slowed traffic on the turnpike down to under 30 MPH with limited to times of no visibility! The rain was horrible and the strong winds were mind blowing!! I managed to get a picture of the sky just before we drove into the storm as well as a picture of traffic while the rain was coming down.
Heading into the storm
During the storm
We drove through heavy rain for about half an hour, during that time traffic never went about 30 MPH except a few idiots, which added some time to the trip home, but that’s OK, we stayed safe, and to the best of my knowledge, there were no accidents from the people that refused to slow down!
The rest of the trip went safely, and fairly quickly too. But with about 20 miles left until we were home, my van started acting up. We watched the gages on the dashboard, but none of them ever fluctuated, and we eventually realized that what was going on with the van was not engine related, but transmission related. Fortunately we did make it home, but unfortunately I’m going to have to replace or repair my transmission before we make the trip back out there on the 3rd of August 
I’m going to go through all these coupon books that we get in the mail and see if I can find a good deal anywhere around town to get it fixed. My hubby called around last night and he found a rebuilt one for about $400, but he’d have to put it in here in the driveway and I really don’t want him to have to do that! So cross your fingers for me, or if you know of any great transmission repair shops in my area, drop me a note and let me know!
I’m just really glad that we made it home rather than breaking down on the turnpike, that would have been horrible!
