On Monday evening, I was taking dinner to a friend who just had a darling little baby girl. Since we're down to one car, and it hasn't been the most reliable thing in the world, I said a quick little prayer before I went off on the drive: "Heavenly Father," I asked, "Please bless this car to spare me from trouble today and that the drive will go smoothly." And then off I went, while Jesse stayed home with the kids.
10 minutes later, just after I got onto the highway, the van seemed to be lacking in uumph. Wasn't speeding up like I thought it should. So I glanced suspiciously down at the RPM gauge, which often shows me when the van is acting up. When it drops below the number 2 on the highway, it's usually during a hiccup. When it drops below .5 at an idle, it dies. So I glance at the RPM gauge, and it looks fine. Huh, I thought. Must have been my imagination.... And then, my eye notices the temperature guage. Instead of hovering happily halfway between C and H, it is right up next to the H. And seems to be moving even closer. Uh-oh. That's not normal. Just after I notice that, I see the little thermometer light come on at the top of the dashboard. Crap.
So I quickly dug out my cell phone and pressed the speed dial button for Jesse. I usually avoid the cell phone while on the highway, but I wasn't sure what to do about this situation, since it hadn't ever actually happened to me before. Luckily, Jesse answered his phone on the 2nd ring. Sometimes he leaves it on vibrate, or forgets about it back in the bedroom, or whatever, and so he won't even answer his phone after 2 or 3 calls that go to voice mail. When he answered, I said, "Uh, hi. So, the temperature guage is all the way up next to hot, and now the light is on...." Jesse immediately says,
"Get off the road. Pull over as soon as you can." ...I continue, "And, uh, now the light is beeping at me and not stopping."
Long story short, by the time I had dialed his number, and figured out what to do, I was right near the next exit off the highway. So I went ahead and pulled off there, and stopped the car in a striped-out zone right at the busy intersection, turned off the car, and turned on the hazards.
Jesse then walked me through locating the radiator cap:
"It's a steel cap, sort of in the front frame area of the car...If you follow the tube from the reserve tank, you should be able to find it." I wasn't finding it. He started describing what a radiator looks like.
"Is it sort of honeycomb-looking??"
"YES!! That's it!!"
"Great, I found the cap, then!" I open it up, and woooooo! There was a ring of greenish liquid inside. Score!!
Jesse had somehow managed to stow no less than 3 large bottles of coolant in the van without me noticing. Well, the van is typically pretty messy, so I guess it's not terribly unusual for me to not notice some of the contents. But it took an entire bottle and then some to fill up the radiator, and then I used up the 2nd bottle and a portion of the 3rd to fill the reserve tank. That radiator was basically bone dry. And, as Jesse explained to me, if I hadn't managed to get the car stopped soon enough, it would have overheated to the point of the engine seizing. Our only car's engine. That would NOT have been good.
So yeah... not exactly an ideal, smooth, flawless trip down to deliver a dinner to my friend. BUT, I later realized, if Heavenly Father was going to answer my prayer with a no, He couldn't have picked a better time. It has been so hot and humid these last few days. Can you imagine if I had the kids with me? They would have had to remain buckled in their seats without the benefit of the A/C. It would have been unbearable. Or what if it was while Jesse was at work, where he often doesn't get cell reception these days, and I hadn't reached him in time to figure out what I needed to do? I'm not sure my instincts would have led me the right direction, to pull of the road immediately. They obviously weren't kicking in yet when it happened, you know? Or what if Jesse hadn't put the coolant in the car? I would have had a fun little walking trip to find a gas station. Or at night time, when I couldn't see what I was doing? Or, or, or.... Truly, if my car was going to overheat, it chose the best possible time, when I was without the kids, Jesse was a phone call away, and I had everything I needed to fix the problem and move on.
Oddly, I was sitting at a busy intersection, with my hazards on and the hood up, for about 10 minutes. Cars were stopped next to me waiting for the light to change. Many, many cars passed me. Only one car stopped, and an older woman got out to see if I needed help. She called me honey and said she stopped because it just as well could have been her and her family in that situation. I was just about finished up at that point, so I thanked her and sent her on her way, but I was feeling pretty incredulous that nobody else stopped. NOBODY. When an obviously young woman was alone and probably needing help. I mean, I'm glad I can take care of things myself, usually. I can certainly change a tire, and now I can also fill the radiator, too. ;) But why on earth wouldn't people stop to check? I know I would have, even if I was running late and had all three kids with me. The only exception might be if it was a man alone... that might not feel safe to me. But I might pull over and see if they need me to make a phone call or something, you know?
Anyway, it all worked out. No lasting trouble- we just have a slow leak in the radiator that we've forgotten to check on for a good while, so it was our fault, I guess. I'm glad we had things on hand. I'm glad Heavenly Father said no to my prayer, so that things would work out at the best time. And I'm also glad for an awesome husband who knows his way around a car well enough to walk me through it.
And by the time I'm through with this stupid hunk of a van, I'll probably qualify as a mechanic. When the time comes, if I could kick it into a junk yard, I would.
Just sayin'.
