Sweet Home Alabama

Well we got an unofficial estimate for repairs to our vehicle; between $1400 and $1800 to rebuild our transmission. Not exactly what we wanted to hear right after Christmas, but that’s life, right? Of course it will take time to have the work completed. The highly recommended mechanic can’t get to it for about three weeks. We certainly couldn’t stay in Ohio that long. So we weighed our options.

A. My husband could fly back to Alabama (where it has been decided that we will stay for a while) and the kids and I could stay in Ohio until the repairs were made.

OR

B. We could rent a car one way (a steep $250, but cheaper than a last minute plane ticket) and leave my vehicle behind for the time being. I won’t have a vehicle, but we will be home…together.

We decided to go with option B. However, it certainly was an interesting drive; we’re used to driving a 7 passenger SUV with plenty of room for everyone. The largest rental car I could get was a 5 passenger Nissan Altima- for all five of us- did I mention that my kids are giants? Plus let’s not forget our faithful travel canine, Vincent.

We couldn’t fit our luggage in the trunk so we packed everything in garbage bags and left our suitcases behind- along with my super soft fleece sheet set that I got for Christmas that I really couldn’t wait to put on my bed and snuggle into. But we all need to make sacrifices right? With people and stuff shoved in every possible spare inch of space, we departed.

We hadn’t gotten very far into our drive when the grumblings began and our puppy started drooling and shaking uncontrollably- which I’ve been told is an indication of something worse to come…we made our first stop 60 miles from our starting point so the puppy could get some air and the kids could stretch. Every time our dog opened his mouth wide to yawn, we held our breath hoping it was indeed only a yawn.

Since I was driving my husband decided to take pity on the kids and trade places with them so each one could have a chance to sit in the front passenger’s seat and start the car, which really was neat. This car had a remote starter so to start it all you do is push in the brake and push the ignition button and presto, it’s like magic!

So, at last we’re back in Sweet Home Alabama with no lasting stomach virus and our Trailblazer was delivered to the mechanic today.