horror of horrors
I am in Wichita now, but the trip here was absolutely harrowing
I was nervous about the trip because I knew my car was leaking coolant somewhere. I hadn't gotten far from Jacksonville when the coolant started seeping out of the heat vents and condensing on the inside of the windshield and windows. I had to rub the windshield with a t-shirt every few minutes just so I could see out of it. I ended up stopping at a garage in Hannibal, MO. After they had been poking at my car for a while they told me that they had figured out what the problem was. They could replace the offending part, but it would cost 400-something dollars and take them 6.4 hours to complete the repair. Or--they could could bypass the problem so the car could run, but then it wouldn't have any heat. If this were an episode of Firefly, this is where Wash or somebody would say "We're humped!"
Total Hobson's choice. I ended up going without heat because I my new employer had already made reservations for me in Wichita. If I had waited in Hannibal while they fixed it, I might have had to pay for a hotel room there. Or not been able to make it to Wichita that night because I was too sleepy. It was a miserable, miserable trip without heat. I had to stop a few times just to drink some hot chocolate and wait for my feet to thaw. After I made it to Kansas there was just enough snow for some of the dirty slush on the road to make it onto my windshield, where it eventually froze. For a while I could barely see out of it and I'm lucky I was able to stay on the road. Eventually, I had to pull over and just scrape that crap off. I am very lucky that I was able to make it to Wichita alive and unmaimed.
I was nervous about the trip because I knew my car was leaking coolant somewhere. I hadn't gotten far from Jacksonville when the coolant started seeping out of the heat vents and condensing on the inside of the windshield and windows. I had to rub the windshield with a t-shirt every few minutes just so I could see out of it. I ended up stopping at a garage in Hannibal, MO. After they had been poking at my car for a while they told me that they had figured out what the problem was. They could replace the offending part, but it would cost 400-something dollars and take them 6.4 hours to complete the repair. Or--they could could bypass the problem so the car could run, but then it wouldn't have any heat. If this were an episode of Firefly, this is where Wash or somebody would say "We're humped!"
Total Hobson's choice. I ended up going without heat because I my new employer had already made reservations for me in Wichita. If I had waited in Hannibal while they fixed it, I might have had to pay for a hotel room there. Or not been able to make it to Wichita that night because I was too sleepy. It was a miserable, miserable trip without heat. I had to stop a few times just to drink some hot chocolate and wait for my feet to thaw. After I made it to Kansas there was just enough snow for some of the dirty slush on the road to make it onto my windshield, where it eventually froze. For a while I could barely see out of it and I'm lucky I was able to stay on the road. Eventually, I had to pull over and just scrape that crap off. I am very lucky that I was able to make it to Wichita alive and unmaimed.