Two blog posts in one day? How do I possibly have this much time on my hands?
Saturday, we spent the night with no air conditioning in our room. But, we were happy to have a place to sleep. When we got up,we discovered people sleeping in their cars in the parking lot. I was loading the car and my hotel key stopped working. I had to walk around to the front of the hotel to get back in. I found most of the friendly hotel employees sitting on the curb, enjoying their morning coffee and cigarettes. They told me they had all been given free rooms because they still had no power at home. I asked if they knew there were people sleeping in cars. I was hoping they might have compassion and offer a free breakfast to these people. "Gee. I would sleep in my car out front of my house instead of in a strange place," said one. I explained that these people were traveling and were stranded. No luck. If Les had been with us, I would have invited some of these people into our room. But, at least they had cars. As we traveled farther west on I-64, we discovered people sleeping in the shade under the overpasses.
The morning passed, leaving us with beautiful impressions of rolling Kentucky hills and horse farms. Then, the AC in my car stopped working. This was a big surprise, as I just had my car serviced last week. We stopped at a service plaza in Somewhere In the Middle of Nowhere, Indiana. The friendly guy at the counter offered to call his buddy who ran the parts department at Sears and see if he would open up and try to help. Sears was about 25 miles in the opposite direction. This was too big a risk. The guy then offered the name and number of a friend who services cars round the clock. I reached this gentleman, who had just sat down to Sunday dinner with his family. He offered to get to me in 90 minutes or so. Hmmm. . . I could stand inside the service plaza with my kids, looking like a bunch of shoplifters. Or, we could bake outside. I thanked him and decided to push on.
We followed billboards advertising "Truck service 24/7," to Somewhere Else In the Middle of Nowhere, Indiana. Although the place was staffed, it seems that Sunday doesn't fall under "24/7." However, I met a very friendly lady trucker who admired my pink nail polish. We swapped trade secrets for awhile and I learned about the new, magnetic polishes while the girls washed their faces in the restroom. We decided to go on to the hotel and regroup. We reached the city of O'Fallon, IL, around 4:00 p.m. Incredibly, there is a Ford dealer right across the street from the hotel. The hotel clerk brought the girls fresh cookies and told me that he used to work for Ford. He explained that the service department opens at 7 a.m. and he was sure they'd be able to look up my warranty. Luck was really with us as I realized time had changed. We had the whole evening ahead of us plus one extra hour. We settled in, went for a swim and had a great dinner at Red Lobster. Our waitress stuffed a container with cheesy-garlic biscuits for our breakfast.
7:01 a.m. found us at the Ford place. Chris, the on-duty mechanic, listened to my story and told me that he had a line of waiting cars. I said, "Listen, Chris. My kids and I spent yesterday afternoon turning into puddles of liquid. We resorted to opening the windows and letting the searing, dry wind tear through the car. When I pulled off the Interstate and saw the Ford sign, I felt the way most people feel when they see The Statue of Liberty for the first time."
Chris softened. He came outside and turned on the AC. He couldn't find anything wrong. However, he advised me to leave the car so they could check the vehicle computer and see if it recorded a malfunction. We walked back to the hotel. The day crew told us we can stay as long as we need to, no extra charge. They invited the girls to help themselves from the collection of books. We are taking advantage of the unscheduled downtime to relax and enjoy each other's company. And, that is why I have time to blog!
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