Our no good, horrible, very bad weekend .... or not.

We were leaving here Saturday afternoon once Mark got home from work.  We were taking his truck so that we could take Jenni and Dustin the adirondack chairs Mark had made for them.  We would swing by their house, drop off the chairs, visit a little and spend the night.  The next morning we would get up and head on to Mark's parent's house to help celebrate his father's 80th birthday with most all of his family.

Those were our plans.

But you know what 'they' say about plans.
How do you get God to laugh?  Tell him what your plans are.

So, yeah, those were our plans.

That is NOT how our weekend turned out.

(flashback:  Mark has an 87 GMC pickup which he loves.  Recently Mark had the engine rebuilt.)
(flashback to the flashback:  We met this extremely nice couple who were a bit 'down on their luck'.  They were nice, kind people, and we really wanted to help them.  He fixes engines. He 'fixed' our engine.)

Around Refugio we can tell the engine in the truck is running hot.  The temperature doesn't show it, but we can 'smell' that something is burning and not quite right.  We pull into a gas station/convenience store and buy some water.  Mark lets the truck cool a bit, and he puts fresh water into the radiator.  We press on.  We have extra water.

A little bit before Victoria, the truck starts smelling again.  This time it is also sounding bad.  (OK, so I'm not mechanical.  "Bad" is as good as I've got.)  We are hoping and praying that we can make it into Victoria.  We can't.  Eight miles outside of Victoria, we die.  (I know this, because later the tow truck driver told us.)

Thankfully we do have roadside assistance.  We called and a tow truck was sent to us.  This guy was great.  While the truck was being loaded, Mark called and got us a hotel room.  The tow truck driver, Jaime, decided he would drop us (and our adirondack chairs off at the hotel), and then he would drop our truck off at Firestone.

Not only did Jaime drop us off at the hotel, he carried in one of the chairs for us.  As he was leaving, I remembered that I had two dozen eggs in the truck and asked if he liked eggs.  He has two teenaged boys, he was thrilled to get the eggs.  Mark tried to give him a tip, but he would not accept it.

Mark and the chairs in our hotel room.

I decided I need alcohol.  There was a Mexican restaurant close to the hotel.  Perfect.  Beeritas and fried stuffed avocado.  Perfect.

Got up Sunday morning, called a cab to take us to Firestone, went to breakfast.  We dropped by the front desk of the hotel to explain what was going on with our day.  They weren't there when we, and our chairs, came in the night before.  Jerry told us that he would change our check-out time from 11:00am to 1:00pm.  Thank you, Jerry!  Off we went to Firestone.

The manager at Firestone was also so helpful with us.  Flushed out the radiator.  Had to flush it again.  And again.  But even with all that, something was still not right with the truck.  (remember, I'm not mechanical.  That's the best I got again.)  Mark knew at this point we would not be going to Houston.  The truck may have been able to make it home, but Mark did not want to risk it.  Especially with me along, so he decided to rent a trailer to get the truck home.

We called U-haul.  Here's the fun part:  Victoria had a truck for us, but we had to go to Rockport for the tow trailer, then back to Victoria to pick up our truck then home.  See?  FUN....!!

After we got our U-haul, and before we got the tow trailer, we went back to the hotel to pick up the chairs.

And after all of that .... we made it home.  With our truck.  And the Adirondack chairs.

Now I realize that probably doesn't sound like a good weekend, but we honestly had a good time.  We were not happy the truck broke down.  Not happy we'll have to spend even more money to get it fixed...and RIGHT this time.  Not happy we missed Mark's father's birthday.  Not happy we missed Mark's family.  Not happy we didn't get Jenni and Dustin their chairs.  Not happy we didn't get to visit with Jenni and Dustin .... and Eden.  But the fact is, all of those things did happen, and being upset or angry or mad or sad would not change any of those things.  (Now, in all honesty, Mark did get all of those things ... for about 10 minutes, and then ... he got happy again.)

Mark was also questioning, and I was, to some extent, why, when trying to help someone out, it kicks us in the butt.  He was a bit upset with himself for taking the truck to this guy rather than someone else. But seriously, I love that Mark likes helping others out.  I don't want him to lose that.  I want him to keep helping people.  Even if, on occasion, it does end up hurting us.......

So while our weekend was not what we planned, and not even what we wanted, we made the most of our unexpected adventure.  And we talked.  And we laughed.  And I read Mark my USweekly magazines while he drove, because Mark is all about celebrity news.  (OK, maybe not, but he entertains me.)

...and we enjoyed ourselves.  anyway.