On the Road Again

The reunion was good. It was indeed a long drive to Plattsburgh, New York, but the return home was much longer. We had just reentered the USA from Canada on Interstate 69 when our radiator decided to die. I noticed that the 'Check Engine' light had come on and almost simultaneously, Amy pointed out that the thermostat needle had spiked. We pulled off the highway immediately. I opened the hood and the coolant reservoir was full of boiling liquid. It was only a matter of a couple of minutes until both the radiator and the reservoir were bone dry.

We called for a tow and after a thirty minute wait we found ourselves at a garage. After another hour, the mechanics insisted that they had found nothing wrong. Thankfully, the garage had not charged us for their time because we weren't on the road again for more than ten minutes until it became obvious that the problem was recurring. We had been closely monitoring the status of the engine temperature and it was slowly, but steadily creeping higher the further we drove.

Not knowing what else to do, we consulted the owner's manual a final time in an attempt to find any useful information. Luckily, the manual did indeed have a good tip that got us home without any more major incidents. Basically, we drove the remining seven hours home in 85 degree weather with the fan on its highest setting, the heat cranked, and the windows down. This rerouted the heat from the engine to a different system and kept it cool enough to be run for longer periods of time. At first I was a little worried that this solution was only a patch fix that made things seem ok on the surface, so I called my dad, who was also on the road returning home from the reunion, but he reassured me that we were fine to drive the rest of the way home with while cranking the heat. We did stop more often to give the engine a break, though. In all, the 15 hour trip turned into 20 hours pretty quickly.

In the end, we had the radiator replaced and the car is running well again. However, we are going to start shopping for a new car soon. I don't know how we'll afford it since we just spent so much money on the kitchen, but I don't feel 100% secure taking it on too many long trips. I think trips to western Pennsylvania are about as far as we'll be going for now until we find a new car.

After that incident, we headed for Cancun, Mexico from Friday, July 28th until August 1st. It was a welcome, relaxing break. The weather there was acutally cooler than it was here, but we didn't discover that until the pilot of our returning flight announced that the local temperature was 99 degrees Fahrenheit. Compared to the ninety degree days spent in the ocean breeze, the hundred degree days in an asphalt jungle were kind of shock.

We are now back home to stay, though. At least until we return to Grove City for Amy's brother's wedding.