Happy Independence Day

First of all, thanks to all of you out there who have served in the armed forces and have helped make the celebration of Independence Day a continuing reality for the rest of us....

Family+ Vacation this year has dwindled into Mom's Vacation.
G-man and CareBear opted to go home half way through - they are not as content as I am with doing absolutely nothing for a week.

Apparently my car does not like family vacations either...Last year it started acting up on the way down to Myrtle Beach. Actually, it was acting up a little before hand, but nothing too bad. However, a couple of hours into the trip, it stalled out as we were driving through the mountains of a West Virginia. I cruised to the side of the road amid lots of shouting and hand gesturing from other mountain travelers. That was the first of many such experience on that trip - until, on the way home, just south of Marietta, it stalled one final time, blowing a fuse and refusing to restart.

Thank goodness for AAA+ and the foresight we had to bring two cars along on the trip. We piled everything we could into the dead car, called a tow, and we all piled into CareBear's car. It was a long ride home - and I was told I was never allowed to take care of the packing again.....

This year, I had a safety check on the car because it was not sounding right. A $1000 later, I had new tie rods and some other stuff it needed....I should be good to go for the summer.

Through the mountains we go and on comes the E-check light. Naive me, I assume it is the altitude and mountain traversing that tripped the light and I wait patiently for it to go off...no such luck....

Next pit stop for food and guess and this car sounds really bad when it starts. But the noise settles down within a minute or two and all seems fine....

So when the kids decided to go home, they naturally took the larger car - mine. They made it home without incident. However, G-man tells me that when he pulled out of the drive yesterday, something snapped in the front end - and that car is not going anywhere. So back to the garage and no more vacations for this car....