Saturday's Adventure

Saturday our work project was planned to be tiling the upstairs bathroom floor.  Then Dad mentioned on Friday that he might want to take the time to replace the water pump on the Suburban.  So we had our work cut out for us.

At our family prayer Saturday morning, we prayed to have happy and cheerful feelings as we worked together.  We also prayed that whatever car repairs we did that they would go smoothly, without specifically mentioning the Suburban.

Because the Coeur d' Alene Lowes didn't have enough of the tile we wanted, we planned to go to a Spokane Valley store where there were 1000 tiles in the color we wanted.  Dad had also found a tile saw on craigslist for $60 and knowing that it is at least $40 to rent one for a day, thought the purchase option might be preferable.  The seller from Cheney agreed to meet us at Lowes at 8 a.m. Saturday.

As a prelude experience to our work project we decided to all go, reading our scriptures on the way and eating some cantaloupe and bagels.

Just after coming off the exit and getting close to the street to turn to Lowes, Dad heard a strange sound from the car.  At the next light, he had no power steering.  He muscled the car into the parking lot.  While Esther and I went in to look at tile, Dad and James looked at the car.

 It was a belt that was so fried that it wouldn't straighten in order to be placed back on.  So we all walked to the nearest Napa about a mile and a half's distance playing shadow tag along the way.  It was a lovely sunny day but not very hot.  At Napa we got the belt and a wrench, since there were no tools in the car, and also watched a video there of how to replace the belt.  Esther was Dad's mechanical assistant then.

Something still wasn't right because the car made a funny noise, and after trying again, the battery had died.  We knew previously that the battery's life was short, we just hadn't replaced it yet.  At this point we decided to call Triple A.  James reminded us that we had that membership, courtesy of Brother Small.

There was a Wal-Mart nearby.  We got a snack.  We comfortably waited in a shady patio area of the garden center of Lowes until a Tow Truck came.  I think they sent a larger one than needed so there was room for 4 passengers.

It was almost like an amusement ride to travel in the huge tow truck.  We were seated quite high.  The driver had a cooler of water bottles, which were quite refreshing.  After getting on the freeway there were about 300 or more motorcycles rumbling past us.  The tow driver couldn't get over to move into the lane that was not an exit lane because of all the motorcyles.  So he did exit and got on at the next on ramp.

We made it home about 1:00.   The water pump on the Buick was bad, frozen up.  Dad replaced that and the battery.  We're so thankful for his automotive skills.  

Our prayers were answered in bountifully.  We all were cheerful.  I was quite impressed with what good sports Esther and James were.  We did have safety.  We didn't break down until a protective parking lot. We had a way to get us and the car home quite effortlessly on our part.  The weather was very cooperative too, not very hot at all that day which was pleasant for Dad to work on the car outside where it had been deposited in the street by the curb.  Dad was able to pinpoint the problem fairly easily and the repairs went smoothly.  Even though it was not the day we had planned, we felt so blessed in many ways.