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sarahmichelefYeah, it's an SCA event report but I'm doing it publicly because really, it's not much about the event at all. I'll talk about the actual SCA elements of this thing sometime later.
Sometime the middle of last week rapierlady put the call out for somebody to take her hubby down to Cooper's because she & J wanted to go down earlier in the day Friday but B had to work. We wanted to go down Friday too, but didn't want to be arriving at or after dark, with the kiddo, and still have to set up the tent. Perfect - we sent the tent down with them & they set it up for us, and we brought B down with us.
As we made the left onto 422 coming off of 79, the car gave a tremendous shudder. It continued to have difficulties getting moving from a complete or near stop, but was ok after that. We got ourselves checked in, drove over to where we were camping with further tremendous shudders from the car (right by West gate - those Lochac folks have it MADE - it's a gorgeous spot, central, and FLAT. Loved it.), unloaded the crib for TRex and I got her changed into it while M unloaded everything else. Then M went to park the car, which continued to misbehave and apparently was making some pretty horrific sounds by the time he got to parking (on the serengeti, right behind chiurgeon's point/the motor pool), and when he came back, he discovered a trail of leaked fluid. What sort of fluid, we didn't (and still don't) know. So we went to sleep and figured we'd deal with it in the morning.
Saturday morning, TRex woke up at her usual time (6 am); I got up with her and we toddled off to the bathhouse to go to the bathroom and then got dressed and food just started appearing. Somebody put a plate with pancakes on it in front of me.rapierlady made eggs and coffee. And so on. I wasn't complaining. TRex made a new friend, Thalia, who was camped next door and was nine. All of our campmates fortunately found TRex totally charming (she was on her best behavior).
So M gets up around 9 or so, and heads to the Cooper's Store to ask where we could take the car. They make a couple of suggestions (including the shop up the hill on Currie Road) but none of them were answering their phones (nor did they ever through the whole course fo the day). Later we tried Butler Co. Ford, but that was at like 11:40 and they closed at noon. So at this point we had a couple of options in mind:
So we punted on the final decision until Sunday morning. Sometime, kinda by osmosis, it was decided that the best course of action would be to try to tow the car back to Buffalo, provided we could find the necessary equipment. We learned that Penske outlets are not open on Sundays. We learned that the closest UHaul franchise that had the necessary equipment on hand was in Youngstown. And B was the one doing all the phoning, bless him. So J caught a ride back to Buffalo with C, we loaded as much stuff as we could in the Suburban and some friends took the rest in their trailer (to be dropped off at r, B, and J's house). Once we knew that there was tow equipment to be had, M stayed at Cooper's with S and the other 3 of us took 422 to Youngstown. We got a little lost, found the place, got lunch, gassed up the car, and went and parked the truck next to the trailer. Did the requisite paperwork, got the thing hooked up, and discovered that it was riding way too low. They had to flip over the hitch and ball. Whereupon we discovered that the lock was either sans a key or so full of road grit that the key wouldn't go in. So they cut it off with an oxy-acetalene torch. That was pretty entertaining. Then there was the huge process of getting the ball off (it was pretty goopy with road grit, too) and so on. Eventually, about 2 hours after we had left to go get the thing, we were on our way back to Cooper's.
By this time M had a raging migraine because he hadn't had lunch and had been out in the hot sun with TRex all afternoon.
We got back to Cooper's, got everybody pottied and let TRex have one more go at the playground, the boys got the car on the trailer, I snapped a handful of shots of a completely empty Cooper's Lake Campground (which I will post later), and we headed out at around 6:00. M was feeling REALLY bad by this point, and nobody had any painkillers handy. By the time we hit Erie to stop for dinner, it was 7:30 and he was dry heaving and couldn't open his eyes - I got some motrin in him and he kept it down, B conned him into eating some saltines, and the rest of us had Steak & Shake for dinner. Oh, I forgot about TRex experiencing Complete Pullup Failure in the restaurant. That was fun, since I had no clean pants for her. (Pullups, yes. Pants, no.)
Back in the car headed north, rapierlady has gotten the feel for the rig and can do about 60. About 20 minutes after we hit the road again, the painkillers kick in and M eats the rest of the saltines, drinks a glass of water, and scarfs down a grilled cheese sandwich that we had left over from dinner.
TRex passed out sometime around 9. We got back to Buffalo, rapierlady discovered that she COULD pull through the garage's tarmac quite nicely with the full rig, put the car on the lot & dropped the key, and were home around 11. This morning I took the bus/train in to work where I cobbled together a lecture. M and TRex are currently back in the Suburban with rapierlady having just dropped off the rig and are going to collect the rest of our stuff from their house. And the garage is going to look at the car today.
Sodagonell, sorry I didn't track you down after court, but things were more than the average level of insane on Saturday. Will you be at Pax? I now have a face to put with your name, but you don't have mine (unless you noticed us - we were sitting kinda behind you after you handed off your baldric, with the silly two-year-old who was climbing all over all the grownups.
rapierlady put the call out for somebody to take her hubby down to Cooper's because she & J wanted to go down earlier in the day Friday but B had to work. We wanted to go down Friday too, but didn't want to be arriving at or after dark, with the kiddo, and still have to set up the tent. Perfect - we sent the tent down with them & they set it up for us, and we brought B down with us.As we made the left onto 422 coming off of 79, the car gave a tremendous shudder. It continued to have difficulties getting moving from a complete or near stop, but was ok after that. We got ourselves checked in, drove over to where we were camping with further tremendous shudders from the car (right by West gate - those Lochac folks have it MADE - it's a gorgeous spot, central, and FLAT. Loved it.), unloaded the crib for TRex and I got her changed into it while M unloaded everything else. Then M went to park the car, which continued to misbehave and apparently was making some pretty horrific sounds by the time he got to parking (on the serengeti, right behind chiurgeon's point/the motor pool), and when he came back, he discovered a trail of leaked fluid. What sort of fluid, we didn't (and still don't) know. So we went to sleep and figured we'd deal with it in the morning.
Saturday morning, TRex woke up at her usual time (6 am); I got up with her and we toddled off to the bathhouse to go to the bathroom and then got dressed and food just started appearing. Somebody put a plate with pancakes on it in front of me.
rapierlady made eggs and coffee. And so on. I wasn't complaining. TRex made a new friend, Thalia, who was camped next door and was nine. All of our campmates fortunately found TRex totally charming (she was on her best behavior).So M gets up around 9 or so, and heads to the Cooper's Store to ask where we could take the car. They make a couple of suggestions (including the shop up the hill on Currie Road) but none of them were answering their phones (nor did they ever through the whole course fo the day). Later we tried Butler Co. Ford, but that was at like 11:40 and they closed at noon. So at this point we had a couple of options in mind:
- Somebody (M) stays behind with the car (either camping at Cooper's or in a hotel) and gets it towed & fixed there on Monday. Logistical problems with this one include how M would travel between wherever he's staying and the shop, and so on.
- We try to locate a car trailer to haul the car back to Buffalo behind rapierlady's truck. Logistical problems with this one include the fact that the truck only seats 5 and there are 6 of us, how we're going to get 2 vehicles of stuff back to Buffalo in one vehicle, as well as the obvious location and acquisition of the trailer.
So we punted on the final decision until Sunday morning. Sometime, kinda by osmosis, it was decided that the best course of action would be to try to tow the car back to Buffalo, provided we could find the necessary equipment. We learned that Penske outlets are not open on Sundays. We learned that the closest UHaul franchise that had the necessary equipment on hand was in Youngstown. And B was the one doing all the phoning, bless him. So J caught a ride back to Buffalo with C, we loaded as much stuff as we could in the Suburban and some friends took the rest in their trailer (to be dropped off at r, B, and J's house). Once we knew that there was tow equipment to be had, M stayed at Cooper's with S and the other 3 of us took 422 to Youngstown. We got a little lost, found the place, got lunch, gassed up the car, and went and parked the truck next to the trailer. Did the requisite paperwork, got the thing hooked up, and discovered that it was riding way too low. They had to flip over the hitch and ball. Whereupon we discovered that the lock was either sans a key or so full of road grit that the key wouldn't go in. So they cut it off with an oxy-acetalene torch. That was pretty entertaining. Then there was the huge process of getting the ball off (it was pretty goopy with road grit, too) and so on. Eventually, about 2 hours after we had left to go get the thing, we were on our way back to Cooper's.
By this time M had a raging migraine because he hadn't had lunch and had been out in the hot sun with TRex all afternoon.
We got back to Cooper's, got everybody pottied and let TRex have one more go at the playground, the boys got the car on the trailer, I snapped a handful of shots of a completely empty Cooper's Lake Campground (which I will post later), and we headed out at around 6:00. M was feeling REALLY bad by this point, and nobody had any painkillers handy. By the time we hit Erie to stop for dinner, it was 7:30 and he was dry heaving and couldn't open his eyes - I got some motrin in him and he kept it down, B conned him into eating some saltines, and the rest of us had Steak & Shake for dinner. Oh, I forgot about TRex experiencing Complete Pullup Failure in the restaurant. That was fun, since I had no clean pants for her. (Pullups, yes. Pants, no.)
Back in the car headed north, rapierlady has gotten the feel for the rig and can do about 60. About 20 minutes after we hit the road again, the painkillers kick in and M eats the rest of the saltines, drinks a glass of water, and scarfs down a grilled cheese sandwich that we had left over from dinner.
TRex passed out sometime around 9. We got back to Buffalo, rapierlady discovered that she COULD pull through the garage's tarmac quite nicely with the full rig, put the car on the lot & dropped the key, and were home around 11. This morning I took the bus/train in to work where I cobbled together a lecture. M and TRex are currently back in the Suburban with rapierlady having just dropped off the rig and are going to collect the rest of our stuff from their house. And the garage is going to look at the car today.
So
dagonell, sorry I didn't track you down after court, but things were more than the average level of insane on Saturday. Will you be at Pax? I now have a face to put with your name, but you don't have mine (unless you noticed us - we were sitting kinda behind you after you handed off your baldric, with the silly two-year-old who was climbing all over all the grownups.
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Date: 2007-06-18 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-18 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-10 01:59 pm (UTC)I'm only kidding, of course. I hope this comment didn't freak you out. But really, I think you're an awesome mom- and it sounds like your problem solving skills are top notch.
Meghan Quigley
*NY/CA/NJ/VA/FL/ND/failed
Home is that place we all keep looking for*