Great Trip - Part 4

This is going to be a quick wrap up of the trip because I am ready to move on to other things. But I feel that I must finish. I kind of hinted about the car problem and it wouldn't be very nice of me not to ease the terrible amount of suspense you must be feeling. Let me reassure you that it all turned out great. It just took a bit of $$$ to make the problem go away.

Two days before we left Craig, Ryan and my father changed the spark plugs in the van. I had been getting really, really bad gas mileage and we needed to remedy that. We did all we knew how to do. We got new tires, changed the air filter and looked at changing the spark plugs but realized that we needed a lift to do that. My Dad (being a mechanic and having his own shop) had the tools and equipment Ryan needed to get the job done. So we planned on him doing that while we were visiting over Christmas.

Ryan braved the freezing cold (no heater in the shop) and after much straining, the job was done. He ended up having to change the back three spark plugs while laying on the ground under the van and reaching up around the engine. It was all done by feel. It really sucked. The van worked great afterward. We took it on a test drive and it felt like it drove smoother than it had before. I was very grateful for the effort my husband and father put forth and looked forward to better gas mileage.

When we left my parents house to head down to my sister's place, Ryan drove. About halfway we switched out and I had a turn. I noticed right away that something was wrong. There was almost no power and when I was stopped the engine made a putt putt noise. Something broke along the way. We were still good enough to continue but I called my sister and asked her to find us a mechanic that could look at the van when we got there. I didn't want to get stuck in Colorado longer than we could afford. Kids needed to be back to school and we were on a schedule.

She had a guy who said he could look at it the next day and he was good to his word. Turns out that one of the spark plugs in the back was either bad to begin with or got dirty when it was installed. Either way it wasn't firing. He replaced the plug and had the van back to us that evening. It all worked out. For a good amount of $$$ that is.

We spent a couple of days in the Springs and really enjoyed spending time with my sisters. We took all the kids rollerskating. They had a blast. We stayed up late on New Years and talked about random stuff.  Just spent good time together. I loved it.

I also loved getting home at the end of it all. Thanks to everyone who made this vacation possible and so much fun!! Love YOU.