we got there at 3:00 on tuesday (after a great lunch with kiza!).
hooooly rust bucket. we've got a project on our hands. haha
we were going to spend the night somewhere but decided that since we were done at like 4 we would try to just make it home.
we stopped at walmart to buy walkie talkies and then again for a while so the boys could run around. there was a big rainbow across the sky. we were pretty excited about that. we got back on the road at like 7.
half way through phoenix, in the center lane of 5 lanes, the breaks locked up on the bus. it's like 9pm so it's DARK. none of the tail lights or the turn signals work on the bus. and it won't go over 45. so i'm tailing steven SUPER close with my hazards on and he starts coasting to the right pushing everyone out of the way. we made it on to the TINY shoulder somehow. noah was asleep but nicholas was WIDE awake.
a cop came but luckily he was really nice. he called a tow truck to come help us.
the tow truck guy came and towed us to right outside a shop. he had a key for the gate but wanted to see if he could fix it on his own.
he looked underneath and saw a hole in the break line. they are air breaks so in order for the breaks to work there has to be pressure. but because of the holes, there was no pressure. so he told us where to go to get a new hose.
nicholas was finally asleep by now.
on the way, we saw an advanced auto and pulled in. it was 11:03 and they closed at 11. grr. but there were a couple guys in the parking lot that needed a jump so we got to help them out.
we had to go to 2 other places to get the hose. oi. once we had it we headed back to the bus/tow truck.
the tow truck guy put the new piece of hose on and steven started the bus to see if the breaks worked. they didn't. when he looked closer he notice FIRE coming out from the exhaust manifold. there were bolts missing and there was an opening shooting fire out. the fire melted the break hoses.
so the guy pulled the bus into the shop yard and we had to leave it until morning for the actual bus/truck guys to fix.
we owed him $260 for the tow but gave him $300 for the help. all he had to do was tow us but he ended up helping us for like 2 1/2 hours.
we got a room at a roach motel around the corner. it was 1am by the time we fell asleep.
we got up at 7. steven went over to the shop to see what was what while i gave the boys a (much needed) bath and some (also much needed) play time.
when he got back he said they were almost done! woot! he told them to change the oil while they were at it and that we would be back in a little while.
we went to walmart again to get a little ice chest, some gatorade/water and a bandana for neck cooling for steven because the bus doesn't have a/c. i needed some ziploc bags for noah's diapers too. because for some reason, i thought one would be enough. i don't know what i was thinking haha
by the time we got back to the shop they were all done and we were set to go. it was only like 10am! awesome! the total was $250. i was expecting it to be way more so that was good.
about an hour later, steven calls me on the walkie talking "uh... i think i'm out of gas." so he coasted for a while and juuuust made it to an off ramp and to an empty gravel lot. luckily, there was a 5 gallon gas can in the shower of the bus so we grabbed that and headed to the next exit because that one didn't have any gas stations.
while we were there, i thought i'd fill up too but didn't notice that it was almost 20 cents more than any of the other gas stations we'd seen. oi. ($2.89 vs. $2.69)
we went back to the bus and had to rig up a funnel with a water bottle and a fast food cup because the gas station didn't have any. what a mess haha. i had to change my clothes because i got gas all over myself.
we put $140 in the bus and went on our way.
like an hour and a half later, i thought i heard the van squeaking. we pulled over but it turned out my door just wasn't shut all the way. ahem.
we wanted to stop at this bbq place for lunch that we had seen before but when we got there it was closed for business so we ended up at carl's jr. eh.
not 5 minutes before we got into town, noah poop explosioned. ev.er.y.where.
we got to steven's grandparents (where we are storing the bus because we live in a nazi-style hoa.) at 4pm.
on the way home, noah sat in nicolas' carseat and nicholas sat in the regular seat. i was nervous the whole way.
we had to pull the carseats out and put the covers in the wash as soon as we got home. they were filthy and/or poop covered.
we got the whole car unpacked and almost everything put away. steven took stuff out and i put it right away. team work! unpacking it always the worse part.
i'm exhausted.
No comments:
Post a Comment