After our very successful vacation early March, we were looking for more. It so happened that General Electric needed Johan in Wilmington NC to fix a piece of equipment. So we decided to all go and hit the beach once more. After all, what can possibly be the downside of hitting the road, right?
WRONG!
It started good enough. We took off after school on Friday evening with a couple of surprised and excited kids. Reached Wilmington NC the next afternoon and went to check out the Battleship in NC. That was fun.
We then decided to camp at a nearby quiet road. All was smooth until then. And then it started! We drove off the next morning and found a screw stuck in our rear tire. Johan tried to fix it, but the tire started to swell unevenly so we changed to a spare. In the meantime we also did the good stuff, beach, park, work etc. After Wilmington we went to Monroe NC at a garage where Johan wanted to pick up Chevy Volt batteries. There we noticed the spare was also leaking!
As it turns out, a car garage/user parts center is a good place to have car troubles. They helpfully sold us two “new” old tires and we were all set, or so we thought!
We left Monroe NC and moved on around 2:30 pm Tuesday, with full intentions of getting home for school on Wednesday. But it was not to be. A whiff of burnt smell was a warning of things to come. We assumed it was the other trucks for 30 miles or so after which we heard a clang and more smell. We pulled off at Salem VA. A bearing had come apart and we had to find a replacement, fast! Problem was, it was 6:35 pm and many parts stores were shut. We went to an Advanced Auto but their bearing’s mount was different. Luckily, the guy (read angel!) there was interested enough to call his friend who happened to have the exact right pulley with bearing just laying around! How lucky is that?! No pics here, we were too stressed to take any, which I regret.
The guys there actually hung around hungry and tired until 11:15 pm waiting for Johan to get the assembly back together. Didn’t take any payment either. We were blown by their generosity and our unbelievable luck!
We woke up the next morning happy and refreshed. Had breakfast, and drove off .. right into a ditch!! Oh no! Except that we had a bunch of good Samaritans (around 5 cars) stop to try to help. One had a winch, one with a jack and one with a tow chain. Some people just stopped to help/offer their ideas. But it was quite exciting! Took about an hour, after which we were out and then finally moseyed home with no further problems.
We actually had a great time with our misadventures. They served to remind us about the goodness in people. It was refreshing!
Tanya has made Toothless, the night fury from “how to train your dragon”. After many a tears, she came up with a great version of it. We also worked to make the chicken run a little nicer. The idea is to allow our chickens to turn our compost because they love scratching so much. Plus, they have the best poop in terms of fertilizer. So we laid dry leaves and throw our compost in their run now and watch them scratch and poop away. Hopefully we can work with them to come up with some quality compost for the garden.
S’long.
elfhut 
The experience though terrible will be memorable in future to recall. With extraordinary photographs you are able to capture them. Your blog is well written and presented. We enjoy reading it repeatedly.
I have few worst journey experiences. I can assure you that they are those which is always fresh in my memory.
Hee hee. Yes, the worst ones are what we remember the best!