So last week - as I wrote about here - I had two kids dealing with pneumonia and a husband who was in South Dakota for the week. On Wednesday, Brianna and Brecklyn were feeling better, though they weren't ready to go back to school yet. I noticed on my way to drop Brenson and Brooke off at school that the van was making a strange noise. It got progressively worse as I drove back home from the school, but it was a super cold morning so I thought that maybe the weather was to blame.
When I went to pick up Brooke in the mid-morning, the noise was gone. The van seemed to be running fine. After leaving the school, I drove to McDonald's to get a drink and noticed the noise starting up again. Once we got to McDonald's, I called Chris and he listened to the noise. He immediately thought it sounded like the transmission and told me to go home immediately. That's exactly what we did, and by the time we pulled on to our street the noise was very loud and the van was "missing". It clunked loudly right as I pulled into our driveway, and I coasted it into our garage.
In the meantime, Chris called my dad and asked him to come look at the van. Dad came over and took the van to the closest mechanic he could get it to. When he first started driving it, it seemed to be okay, but just like it had done with me the noise and functionality of the van got worse as it warmed up. The mechanic looked at it and had no doubt the transmission had gone out on it. UGH. It had been five years (almost to the day) since we purchased that van.
Deciding whether to replace the transmission or to buy a new van is a big decision, and one that Chris and I really needed to sit down and discuss. This whole situation was complicated by the fact that Chris was half way across the US in South Dakota. However, no matter what we decided to do in the long term, I needed a vehicle to get me through the next few days. That afternoon, Dad came to pick me up to take me to get a rental van while Mom stayed with my sick ones and Brooke.
The rental car company in town had one van in stock (thankfully!), but the whole situation was pretty stressful. I definitely wasn't feeling like this was a great day, and unexpectedly dropping hundreds of dollars on a rental vehicle wasn't improving things. While I was filling out all the paperwork to get the van, my Dad was standing in the lobby but back away from the desk. The guy who was helping me had the nerve to ask me if my Dad was my HUSBAND! Ummmm, what?!? I just looked at him like "Are you kidding me?!?" and said, "Uh, no." I didn't even bother to tell him who he is! Talk about making a bad day worse, lol. I was so put out with that clown!!!
Chris got back into town on Friday, and we spent that evening and most of Saturday car shopping. Definitely not our idea of fun, but one of those things in life that is unavoidable it seems. I told Chris that every guy who helped us while car shopping smelled like cheap cologne and lies to me, haha! The kids were great for the most part, but after about five hours they were DONE. Yaaaay for car dealerships that have playgrounds!!!
We found some really good options on Saturday, but wanted to sleep on it before we made a purchase. We returned the rental van that evening, and Mom and Dad graciously let us borrow their car (since Chris was back home we could drive his car and their car to get places). On Monday, Chris took the day off work, and Mom and Dad picked the twins up from Pre-K so we could make a purchase.
We decided on a Toyota Sienna. It's used, but is a 2019 with low miles and in great shape.
For now, our other van is still sitting on the mechanic's lot while we decide if we're going to fix it then sell or just try to sell it. We hope and pray that our new van will last us more years than we got out of our other one! I could go a long, long, long time without car shopping again!
No comments:
Post a Comment