With every holiday comes the visit to relatives. Not always the same relatives, mind you, but usually at least one set of extended family gets to host us for the weekend. We don't live very near anyone in our extended family, so that's the only time we get to see most of them.
Therefore, Easter = a day trip to my grandpa's to see him and my cousins/aunts & uncles, and an hour-plus trip to said location. I love going to see them, but I almost got roped into driving the van up. I hate driving. Mom usually drives, but she had had maybe six hours of sleep the night before (she's not in college anymore... can't pull that) and had been planning to take a nap.
Well, she was wide awake after lunch, so she drove after all and I was happy to take a back seat and watch the scenery. I love being chauffered.
And it's a good thing... about an hour into our trip, when we were still miles away from my grandpa's, the car suddenly started shaking. Mom tried to pull over, and barely got onto the berm before the steering locked up further and we started drifting back into the lane. Of course, she stopped the van at that point, and there we were, sitting just off the left lane of an interstate and waiting for AAA to send out a tow truck.
My brother went ahead of the van, walking in the berm, to take a look a the front wheels to see what was wrong.... and this is what he saw:
Our van was pigeon-toed, as my mom put it. She and Dad thought it was the tire rod on the driver's side that broke. Something like that anyway.
My grandpa came to get us, and the tow truck arrived soon after. A nice cop had come by and turned on his lights so people wouldn't run into us, since we were very near being still on the road (as you can see in the picture). His lights warned people to get out of the left lane (and attracted a ton of rubberneckers).
God had to have been looking out for us. We were lucky to get as far off the road as we did, and that Mom was driving (not me), and a bunch of other stuff (including that we didn't run into the guardrail or anything instead of managing to pull off).
We did get to my grandpa's, eventually, and had a lovely Easter dinner with the rest of the family. My uncle drove us home last night in my grandpa's van. And we all woke up this morning, safe and sound. Thank the Lord.
Therefore, Easter = a day trip to my grandpa's to see him and my cousins/aunts & uncles, and an hour-plus trip to said location. I love going to see them, but I almost got roped into driving the van up. I hate driving. Mom usually drives, but she had had maybe six hours of sleep the night before (she's not in college anymore... can't pull that) and had been planning to take a nap.
Well, she was wide awake after lunch, so she drove after all and I was happy to take a back seat and watch the scenery. I love being chauffered.
And it's a good thing... about an hour into our trip, when we were still miles away from my grandpa's, the car suddenly started shaking. Mom tried to pull over, and barely got onto the berm before the steering locked up further and we started drifting back into the lane. Of course, she stopped the van at that point, and there we were, sitting just off the left lane of an interstate and waiting for AAA to send out a tow truck.
My brother went ahead of the van, walking in the berm, to take a look a the front wheels to see what was wrong.... and this is what he saw:
Our van was pigeon-toed, as my mom put it. She and Dad thought it was the tire rod on the driver's side that broke. Something like that anyway.My grandpa came to get us, and the tow truck arrived soon after. A nice cop had come by and turned on his lights so people wouldn't run into us, since we were very near being still on the road (as you can see in the picture). His lights warned people to get out of the left lane (and attracted a ton of rubberneckers).
God had to have been looking out for us. We were lucky to get as far off the road as we did, and that Mom was driving (not me), and a bunch of other stuff (including that we didn't run into the guardrail or anything instead of managing to pull off).
We did get to my grandpa's, eventually, and had a lovely Easter dinner with the rest of the family. My uncle drove us home last night in my grandpa's van. And we all woke up this morning, safe and sound. Thank the Lord.
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