The Anniversary Trip

(And now for a short break from Flash Fiction)

You really don't want to know about my trip to the Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge -- but I am going to tell it to you anyway.  It is a 193-mile trip to the refuge which is just across the Missouri border.    We left at a little after three in the morning so we would arrive at dawn.  It worked, too!  We arrived at 5:58 am and started a nice, slow drive through the place.

About 6:40 am (going by digital photo timestamps), Russ decided to nap for a few minutes, so we stopped by a lovely pond.  I got some great shots of herons and frogs!

Russ only napped for about ten minutes, and we were ready to move on.

Only the car wouldn't start.  There was battery power.  He guessed (rightly) that the starter had gone out.

So, there we sat. Usually, we couldn't drive through this place without dozens of other cars along the way.  Today?  Not so lucky.  Russ called to find a tow truck out of Mound City, which is pretty close, but there was trouble connecting with the guy, and the phone battery was fast going dead.  Four cars went by the entire time we sat there -- somewhere over five hours by the looks of the timestamps.  It was hot and miserable, and I do not do well with warm.

On the other hand, I got lots of great pictures.  (I might add some others later after I've sorted the nearly 1000 pictures out.)

One guy stopped twice as he checked out the refuge.  The first time, Russ tried a jump-start, but it wasn't the battery like he'd guessed already so there was no luck.

Someone from a local motel came and picked us up. (The Audrey, think was the name.  Great people, nice place!)  We left the car and went there to collapse.  The car got towed in not much later, and the guy said he'd have it fixed by the next morning.

We had not prepared to stay a night since the plan had been to drive there, do a few tours of the place, and head home.  We had no books, no Nook -- no battery charger for the phone.  The phone was dead before the night was out.  I had a notepad and handwrote out part of a novel (Summerfield 4), and Russ found a book to read in their collection.

The next morning --the 22nd -- was our anniversary.  The local shop did the repair work on the car, and we had it back at about 8 am.  Yay!  So we packed it up and headed out -- and yes, we went back to the refuge and drove around until just a little after noon and then headed for home.  Annoying, but it was one of those things that just happen.

We made a stop at a rest area and even walked around a bit.  Beautiful day!

As we were pulling back on the Interstate Highway, Russ said the power steering seized up for a moment, but it came out of it.  Then, no more than a mile and a half later, we were broken down on the side of the road with the engine badly overheated and steam coming out of it.  That was about 1:30 am.  And you do remember about that dead phone, right? 

We sat for a while.  A long while.  Hot, but at least there was a breeze.   Russ started walking back to the rest stop.  Two different women, both of them heading the opposite way, saw him, took the next exit, and came back to help him out.  Nice people!  A shame no one could get through to AAA.  Finally, a State Trooper pulled up and was able to get us a tow to the nearest town, Glenwood.  We were there by 4 pm, so only about 3 hours of heat torture this time.

I can't tell you all that is wrong with the car (air compressor?  AC unit?  I know one belt was destroyed).  The car is still sitting in Glenwood (about 120 miles away), and we have a rental car.    We drove home.  We did not stop anywhere, even for food.

It's going to be a day or two before we can get the Crown Vic back.  Between the two repairs, two tows, night in the motel -- the quick day trip to the refuge is going to cost us about $2,000.  And we'll still have to drive down and get the car back, risking what ever other bad luck the car has planned for us.

Two totally unrelated things had gone wrong -- and stuff that would have given out no matter where we were, but you know ... past the anniversary trip would have been nice.

On the other hand, it is a trip we won't forget.

And I did get some good pictures.