Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig... FINALLY!!

We started out early...well, earlier (9:30 a.m.), after sleeping in, packing up, gassing up at the newly lowered gas prices in Hayward ($3.85 a gallon), we set out for home.... hoping to beat the traffic and get there by 3:00 p.m. or sooner.

But, alas, it was NOT to be... along the way my sister Chellie called on the cell phone and said their van suddenly lost power and they were parked along the interstate about 20 miles north of Eau Claire, luckily we were only about 20 minutes from them, so we stopped to see what John could do... another man also stopped at the same time we did, he hopped out, and suddenly struck up conversations with us all, telling us all kinds of various stories, and offering to help in what ever way he could. It was a nice offer, but my nephew, my sister's son, wouldn't allow his mom to go with this man to get a new battery, which is what we hoped was the problem. So off Joey went with this stranger (we made sure to copy down the license plate number and make of car, forgetting to get the guys name)....
as we sat behind their van and camper with our flashers going to divert the traffic to the other lane, we prayed for his safe return, and thanked God for this man, hoping he was just an over friendly guy and not some whacko. My sister however, who was in the van with Joey's wife and two kids and her daughter, was kinda freaking out after 45 minutes went by and they hadn't yet returned... the guy said the local WalMart was "just down the road"...so Chellie was thinking he'd been kidnapped, or worse...luckily that was NOT the case... the man pulled up finally after about 50 minutes, on the opposite side of the Interstate, and dropped Joey and the new battery off.

John and Joey got things put back together, (with the help of all the rest of us observing and taking pictures...*L*) and the van started again. Here's a few pictures of this part of our vacation..*L* It seems that a local roadkill was a van magnet as their van rolled to a stop right next to this yukky, dead carcas, that didn't exactly make the air smell so good there either! Avert your eyes if this picture makes you squeamish... I'm surprised Chellie wasn't gagging the whole time since stuff like this usually makes her do so..*L*

The new battery seemed to do the trick, the van started. but they also decided to stop at the WalMart and get the alternator tested, just incase there were other problems.

In the meantime, since it was going to be awhile before they could test it, John, Kasey and I headed to a nearby Good Will store to waste some time. While there (and getting NO good deals..shucks!), Chellie called and said the guy at WalMart didn't know what he was doing, so they went to Farm and Fleet, had the guy do the test, found the alternator WAS bad, and they would be another hour before it was fixed... since Kasey had to go back to IL that night too, we decided to not wait and head home.... sooo, after fighting more traffic, we finally arrived home around 6 p.m.... ugh.. unpacked the truck, some of the trailer, put stuff away, did 4 loads of laundry, checked mail, returned phone calls and we're back to NOT being on vacation anymore... *sigh*
I've decided I sure could get used to being retired once that happens... unfortunately, it probably won't be for another 10 - 15 years, so until then, I guess I have to wait for the next vacation time to roll around.....
Thank you Lord for our fun times, safe return home for us all, and times of refreshing and relaxing with family.