In the summer of 2012, I went to Salem to spend a few days with my best friend Dawn and her family. We had a great time visiting and spending time together. We took her boys up to Portland to a warehouse that is nothing but trampolines. We jumped for an hour and I don't think I have ever been so sore afterwards.
The next day Dawn and I went to the Portland Saturday Market. We browsed around and found some treasures. On our way back from Portland, about 10 miles from the exit for Dawn's house, I looked down and noticed that every light on my dashboard was on. I made the split-second decision to not say anything to Dawn. No reason to panic both of us. I figured at this point that we were still moving forward, getting closer to her exit. My car was still running, and as long it didn't start smoking, we would just keep going.
I started inching over from the fast lane, to the middle lane, to the outside lane. Dawn was continuing to tell me some funny story about her boys, completely oblivious to my racing heart. Finally we reached her exit. Once I slowed down my car, I realized that my car no longer had power. I could not accelerate anymore. I calmly said to Dawn "don't panic, but I think my car is dying." I have to give her credit that she didn't panic too much. Luckily we had made it off Interstate 5 and were on the Parkway (which is still a busy road, but nothing like I-5).
We made a few calls, one to the local Hyundai dealership service department and one to Dawn's husband. It was 3:30pm on a Saturday and the dealership closed at 4:00pm. They would not open again until Monday morning. I called AAA and was lucky enough to get a fast tow to the dealership, just minutes before they left.
Meanwhile, Dawn's husband came from home a few blocks away and picked up Dawn. She took him back home and then met me at the dealership. Feeling bad for me, Grant decided to come along and treat me to a cupcake at his favorite place downtown.
So now I am stuck in Salem with a car that won't be ready for a week to 10 days depending on what they find when the service department opens in two days. This was also about the time we were going to Gold Beach to go fishing for a few days so it seemed like a waste to rent a car to get home and then get back up to Salem in two weeks. After talking with Scott, we decided that he would drive up on Sunday and pick me up. We are housing one of our boys spare vehicles at our house so once we got back home I had something to drive.
So I made it back home, leaving my car in Salem for a diagnoses. This is one of the times in the story where I tell you how blessed I was that my car broke down when it did. It could not have happened in a better place. There is no dealership in our town; the nearest one being 77 miles away. Had my car broke down at home, we would have had to had it towed all the way to the dealership. That would have been a little expensive. I was blessed to have Dawn with me, and to have her husband so close that he was able to come help us. I was blessed that we made it off the Interstate before we had to pull over. I was blessed that my husband had the next day off and could come and get me, never complaining once about driving 9 hours roundtrip in one day. I was blessed that we had a spare vehicle to get us around for two weeks. And I was especially blessed that my car was just under 100,000 and still under warranty.
Flash forward two weeks and a new alternator later. How to get back to Salem to get my car? Our town is right on the mainline of the Amtrak train. Fortunately, so is my hometown. We researched taking the train north as an option. The final cost of a one-way ticket, with our AAA discount, was $44. That's well below a tank of gas to have someone drive up in a second car. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to ride the train to see my family, but I guess when the opportunity arises, you take it.
When my car was fixed my brother-in-law and my nephew ran up to Salem to pick it up. (Again, count your blessings!) They were not going to be in town the weekend I was planning to go pick it up, so they dropped it off at the train station in Albany. Scott had to work so he took me to the train station on his way to work.
Seven hours later I got off the train in Albany, got in my newly repaired car, and drove the four hours home.
Ok, so I know this is a stretch to say I rode the train to see my family. But we are getting close the deadline for this list, and the stretch is going to have to do.
Riding the train was fun. It would have been nice to have a partner, but I got lucky and got a nice kid to sit next to. I plan to do this trip again, for fun next time. Maybe in the winter when the view from the train will be completely different than in the summer.
