The moving van departed with many of our earthly belongings on Tuesday, June 16. I had to stick around until Thursday, June 18 because of an immunotherapy treatment. This was just as well, as we still had some clean up to do on Wednesday.
After some last minute packing, sweeping, and double-checking, we left on Thursday afternoon to begin our trek to Lake City. We had planned on getting past Chicago, which seemed like a very achievable goal. (Did you hear God snickering when we made that goal?)
About 90 minutes down the road, the dashboard of our Honda Pilot noted that the transmission was overheating. ARRRRGGGGHHHH! We stopped at a rest area to check under the hood. We saw some steam coming from the engine and fluid spattered across the engine. We had just had the oil changed that morning, and we were hoping that the oil filter had not been put on correctly. That would have been an easy-enough repair, but it would not account for the transmission alert.
We found a Honda dealer on the west side of Kalamazoo, Zeigler Honda. We got it there shortly before they closed, meaning the inspection would not take place until Friday. We camped that night at Fort Custer StatePark, between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. If you consult a map, you will note that this is well short of Chicago. ARRRRGGGGHHHH!
The next morning, we were informed that repairs and a new transmission would amount to $16,000. ARRRRGGGGHHHH! I don’t know if God laughed or not, but we kind of did—a laugh of absurdity and despair. Sometimes an ARRRRGGGGHHHH! just isn’t enough. We had too much packed to simply shove it all in our Flagstaff Microlite and abandon the Honda Pilot. We ended up getting a new (to us) car. Apparently, it was driven by a little old couple who put precious few miles on it. A win for us!
Then came the financing. We were asked, “What’s your address?” That is normally a simple question. Our response: “The one we just left, or the one we are moving to?” Follow up: Where will the car be located? Answer: In Minnesota. Follow up: Do you have proof of residency there? Answer: We haven’t even moved in yet! ARRRRGGGGHHHH! We got to enjoy a similar routine at the DMV in Red Wing.
After some comical back and forth (and by this time, how could it not be comical?), Ali Kabil from Zeigler Honda managed to get the work done. Then he had the car, which had just arrived on the lot the previous day, detailed. Then he had it done again so that he found it satisfactory. Then he had the oil changed. We finally left Kalamazoo about 5:00 PM EST.
We drove around Chicago (mercifully easy) and crawled through Milwaukee due to construction—ARRRRGGGGHHHH!—and pushed on through Wisconsin as the night fell upon us. We grabbed a short 4-hour sleep at a parking lot near Tomah, Wisconsin which was referred to us by Laura’s brother, David. The parking lot was for a business which belonged to a shirt-tail relative of his. We never met his relative since we were up and out of the parking lot by 5:30 AM CST.
We rolled into Lake City about 20 minutes before our moving van. We prayed fervently for a swift completion of their duties. Once they moved on, we settled in for a long, glorious nap.
And that’s how we got to Lake City, Minnesota—one ARRRRGGGGHHHH after another.
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