Comments | syntonic_comma: finally, back at home

syntonic_comma

finally, back at home

Aug 13, 2009 01:31

We got home about 00:30, so we did the return trip in 6 hours. Stops in Somerset, PA (potty, snacks) and Breezewood, PA (gas, McD's, potty). Eastbound on the PA Turnpike we saw westbound construction delays, but nothing much for us. There's a stretch of I-70 in Maryland that consistently has severe congestion when we get there late on Sunday ( Read more... )

poodles, van, camping, broken, dog, pets, pennsic, batteries, anniemal, dglenn, chevrolet, packing, travel

Comments 4

dglenn August 18 2009, 08:24:10 UTC

I got home okay despite having made a wrong turn somewhere (apparently took a wrong fork at the "exit here to stay on I-79 instead of accidentally being shuffled off to I-70" interchange) that took me forty miles out of my way. (I went I-79 to I-68, through WV.) Was pretty damned exhausted but did make it to rehearsal and back after a shower, and unloaded most of my stuff after rehearsal. (The immense tarp and the footlocker of ordinary tarps are still out in the minivan.)

I'm glad you got back in your own van, and left on the same day. I didn't feel good about leaving you wheel-less, and worried about the hassle that would result if they hadn't managed to render your van driveable by the end of the day.

The combination of being charged more for the estimate and driving home on a not-really-fixed kludge seeems kind of insulting. Yeah, they spent a lot of time on it, more than expected, but they weren't able to complete the job!

crwilley August 18 2009, 13:05:07 UTC

I have to agree. It seems wrong, somehow, that they charged you that much to not fix your van.

patches023 August 18 2009, 13:32:31 UTC

What an ordeal. Sorry you had to go through this. You mentioned that renting a van is problemmatic, did you investigate renting a U-Haul type small truck/van? It's much better to be able to drive your vehicle home, but U-Haul might work for future situations.

syntonic_comma August 18 2009, 20:45:50 UTC

If getting our van going had been out of the question, I would have called more rental agencies. I think the places I called first (recommended by the Chevy dealer) might not have had cargo vans in the first place, just mini-vans, and I can see how those are popular for vacation season. A U-Haul would have been fine for us. Not knowing how long we would want to keep it though was still a problem for renting. But the guys doing the repair really didn't know what the problem was; they were just going step by step with each next-most-likley thing, and each step required waiting for parts, and they couldn't give any assurance about when they'd succeed. (They already thought they had, at one point.)