Survival

We finally made it.
It took a bit longer than expected, but we made it.

Remember that timing belt that caused all our problems?

See how those ridges are missing? Bad news. 

Wednesday was a roller coaster day. When I wrote the post that day, the coaster was only beginning its ascent...  
(How's that for a dramatic beginning!?)

To make a long (as in, hours of waiting and phone calls and fretting) story short, they originally told us everything should be just fine because the belt didn't actually break. So that was where I left you. We got another call saying they got a new belt on and tried to start the car and couldn't, which meant that there must have been engine damage after all. The repairs would probably cost upwards of $1500. 

O.U.C.H.

So then Kirby and I were trying to decide if we wanted to make the repair (basically replacing half the engine block) or maybe use that money we would spend as a down payment for a different, newer car? Just as we got into the thick of that conversation, we got another phone call from the mechanic telling us not to give up hope just yet. Turns out when they install a new timing belt they have to reset the timing mechanism, and a different mechanic had over-rotated some pin thingy by 360 degrees. This didn't mean our car was okay after all, but it meant that there was still a chance. He told us he'd call us back after they re-reset the timing and all that.

We were back in waiting, not-knowing land. Yuck. 

Meanwhile, the super sweet ladies at the hotel let us stay in our room until 2pm (checkout is normally 11), which meant that Emily was actually able to get a REAL nap. 2pm came, though, so for the next hour and a half we were hanging out in the lobby with the funny receptionist lady. She LOVED Emily (okay, let's be honest. Everyone here does...), and her love of babies offset her chronic grumpiness. :)

We finally got a call back and learned that our car was going to be just fine after all, and the guy was going to come and pick Kirby up at the hotel. HUZZAH! Suddenly the $600-somethin' it was going to cost seemed much less serious. But let's be honest--still a huge hit to the savings account! GRRR...

So we finally got on the road around 3:30 or 6:00--not exactly the 10am we'd been hoping for! We drove a couple hours and found a hotel for the night, planning to finish off the hours Thursday.



Which we did.

We got to Lakeland, FL around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and checked in to the Comfort Inn and Suites. This hotel was like heaven compared to the other 3 we had stayed in... Emily's knees weren't filthy after 10 minutes of crawling around on the carpet, and there wasn't mysterious yellow stuff on the floor of the bathroom. Hah. Emily had a great time exploring!

Who knew how much fun a plain ol' phone book could be? :)

So yeah. We're here. I'll get posting about "HERE" soon! :)