Chris and I made the decision to drive through the night on Christmas Eve from Florence to Birmingham to repack and on to North Atlanta so we could wake up on Christmas Morning with Chris' family. We thought this would be fun, an adventure! We were both excited to see his family and couldn't wait to get to the Lake. We left Birmingham around 10:00pm Christmas Eve night, Red Bull in tow, excited about our trip... but there was one thing we didn't count on- CAR TROUBLE!!!=(
As many of you know, we have had MANY problems with my Mercedes since we got it. We really should have considered it, but of course I never thought twice about driving 3 and a half hours so late on Christmas Eve... of all the times something unfortunate could happen, surely it won't tonight! It's CHRISTMAS, after all!!=) We threw caution to the wind and set off FLYING down I-20.(Thank goodness for radar detectors, even if there weren't any cops radaring on Christmas Eve;-))
Just as we crossed the Georgia state line we started hearing a loud, grinding THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. My heart immediately jumped into my throat and I just knew we had a flat tire. No big deal, right?! We can just pull over on the side of the road and pop on the spare. WRONG... Right as you enter the state of Georgia they are doing a lot of road work at the moment, widening lanes and what-not. It's after midnight and of course pitch black outside, not an area that has interstate lighting.
So what do we do?? We decide we have to forge on to the next exit. We have no idea how close or how far away that may be. As luck would have it, Every exit we came to was closed, yes CLOSED for the construction! Now, I'm a nervous wreck, poor Chris was having to talk me down from a heart attack;-)
The more we listened to this noise coming from my car, the more it didn't sound like just a flat tire... it sounded more like something was falling out of my car. At this point it wouldn't have surprised me if my car just quit. It has before, I wouldn't be surprised if it did it again.
I was having visions of Chris and I pushing the mercedes down the interstate as the sun came up on Christmas morning! Or better yet, I could just see the car bursting into flames as we drive down I-20. I mean, it is making a grinding noise, and is that SMOKE that I smell?!?! ;-)
So of course, I start a prayin'!! "LORD PLEEASSE HELP US! Actually, ya know, I could do without an all-out intervention on this one,(I would hate to ask for too much!!) but if you could just please make sure that we safely make it to the next exit- I would really appreciate it!!!"=) I didn't know where we were and was about to break out the tears... not that it would have helped the situation, so I refrained! ;-)Finally, as we continued to THUMP, THUMP down the highway we saw a sign- REST AREA- 1 MILE. I promise, I seriously heard the Hallelujah Chorus in my head!!! Ok, maybe it was just the radio, but it was VERY fitting at the moment! I felt so relieved and Chris did too--- mostly just because I released my ridiculously tight grip from his arm!;-) But still... It felt GOOD!
Once we made it to the rest stop, we both jumped out as soon as the car was in park. We both walked around and checked the tires- No Flat. Boo... so this might not be a quick fix after all. Chris took a peek under the car and what does he see??? The cover that protects the engine and what not from road debris had fallen down in the front but is still attached in the back and is scraping the road and the thumping? It was caused by the large cover flapping around as car went 60...70...80+(bad, I know!) miles per hour down the interstate. After a quick call to my dad(the Car Man) we decided we would be ok to drive on. Yes, I did wake my dad up on Christmas at 12:30 in the morning... but he was really great about it!=D
Now that we knew what was wrong, we did feel better about it. We knew it would continue to Thump-Thump and scrape, but we could handle that. My only concern was that something might bounce up into the engine area and bust a hose or something. (See, I know a little bit about cars!! OKAY, a VERY little bit;-))
We drove slowly with the Christmas music on low the whole rest of the way to the Lake. We knew our Christmas was still going to be wonderful and we were going to be just fine!!! SShhoo... but my nerves- THEY were shot!;-)
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I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that none of your Holiday Stories involve the dreaded words, CAR TROUBLE! Yuck!;-) However, this Christmas for us, it was one for the books!!!=)
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