Hot!!

Wes and I made it to Lake Arrowhead yesterday, but not without mishap. We were on our way to join Dave, his mom (Grace) and Connor, who left the day before to check in at the timeshare where we're staying. We had to wait a day because I needed to pick up high school registration stuff for Wes, as well as to turn in a first-come-first-served application for a locker for him (there's a limited supply, and not everyone will even get one!). I figured we'd hit the road after Wes got home from Jr. Lifeguards, and we could avoid traffic.

Now I really do like my Mercury Villager minivan. It has served me well for something like 15 years. But last month the AC went out. Okay, it's an old car. But ya gotta have AC, so we got it fixed. So Wes and I had set out yesterday, and I noticed that the AC was intermittently not working. GRRR! We just got it fixed!! I wasn't excited about driving to Arrowhead without AC. It was HOT! Oh, well, c'est la vie.

There we were, flying along the 55, almost to the 91, with the windows open, and it was HOT! As I wiped sweat out of my eyes, I glanced down at the temperature gage. YIKES! It was above the very top line, above the "H!" As the adrenaline kicked in, I cranked the heater to full blast, turned on the hazard lights, and tried to coast to the next exit. I got off the freeway with my heart in my throat, fully expecting the engine to burst into flames. It was the Lakeview exit, and I turned right, only to find a long road with nowhere to turn off! We coasted along close to the shoulder, praying for a gas station to appear. About a mile later, we came to an intersection, and praise God, a gas station! I pulled in, and stopped right in front of the air/water machine.

I'm embarrassed to say I know nothing about cars. I opened the hood and called Dave, who was already in Arrowhead, on his cell to ask what the radiator looked like. Okay, yes, I'm embarrassed. Are you happy? It felt like a blonde joke in the making as I walked into the mini-mart to ask the cashier if he would mind showing me the radiator. He rolled his eyes and came out to help. He was very nice as he poured most of the Inland Empire's water supply into my radiator, which he said was "empty." No kidding.

Everything seemed like it was going to be fine until it was time to put the cap back on the coolant container. I had taken it off before the guy came out because Dave said I should put water in there, as well as in the radiator (which I definitely "should not touch until it was cooled off." I remember setting the cap on top of the coolant container, thinking I would be able to see it there since the cap was black and the plastic container was white. Well, when the guy put three wet towels on top of the radiator to unscrew the radiator cap, I believe the towels dragged the coolant cap from where it was sitting, down into the engine somewhere. We searched everywhere. It was gone. Poof. So the nice guy went back in the store and found a makeshift cap from some bottle. It was too big, but he wedged it on with some plastic to hold it in place.

I tried to give him some money, but he just smiled and wouldn't take it. I'm sure he was thinking, "dumb blonde!" If he only knew it wasn't really blonde! Ha.

I found out later that one of the freeze plugs in the radiator has been leaking for some time, which is why the radiator loses water, albeit slowly. They would probably have to drag the whole engine out and charge a fortune to fix it. I won't ever go on a long trip again without checking the radiator first! Hey, I'm learning.

By this time, needless to say, we were no longer able to avoid the traffic. On the bright side, the AC worked like a charm.