A Not-So-Quick Trip
We arrived back home from Florida Wednesday afternoon. A few minutes after getting everything out of the car and into the house the kids came up and asked "Can we go to Sea World tomorrow?" Our answer was "No!" But after a good night's sleep heading to Sea World to finish out our week didn't seem like a terrible idea. So we found a pet sitter and cheap hotel for a quick trip to Sea World. The plan was to leave Friday morning, drop off the pup, and head to Sea World. After Sea World check in at the hotel and go to bed. Day two would have us back at Sea World in the morning with us leaving in the early afternoon to return to Houston. Quick and simple right?
All was going according to plan and then 30 miles outside of San Antonio (in Seguin) while driving on the freeway the car died. We had just stopped for gas so the tank was full. The battery is only a few months old and there had been absolutely no problems with car up until that point.
Some nice people drove by and gave us a jump but the car quickly died. They tried again and this time the car would stay on but would no go when the gas pedal was pushed down. Nice!
We didn't waste time getting on the phone with our Nissan roadside service. Good thing too since it turns out they have no idea how to read a map! It took three hours to get a wrecker to us. They tried sending us three different wreckers with one coming from San Angelo, Texas and two from San Marcos. Did I mention that we were 30 miles outside of San Antonio? We gave them our location over and over again and I spoke with several reps trying to get them to understand how close we were to San Antonio and so there was no reason to send the car to places like Austin, TX or San Angelo or San Marcus (these were supposedly the locations of the closest Nissan dealerships). I mentioned we were outside Texas' 3rd largest city right?
Aside from a car stuck on the side of the road there was also the little problem of Texas temperatures in July. It was hot and thankfully we were traveling with our cooler (that cooler has logged thousands of miles over the years) and it was stocked with water and juice. We also had a full bag of snacks for the kids. They stayed pretty happy the whole time and were such troopers! Then there was the other little problem with Texas weather...the ever present "chance of rain". Any weather person can say "high in the 90's with a slight chance of rain" nearly every day and they would probably be right! Well as it so happens we had rain, a mini torrential downpour. Great to cool down right...maybe, but we had rolled down a window when the car was jump started and without the car starting there was no way to roll it back up! But thankfully this prepared family travels with towels! I think only Joshua is immune to car sickness so it is a constant threat. We travel with towels, wipes, and everything we would need to take care of a case of car sickness. On this day the towels were used to block the rain from soaking the car. The rain lasted all of 5 minutes so it wasn't terrible. Just another one of those things that we may look back (way back) and laugh about in years to come.
Our wrecker Ken and the people at the Nissan dealership (World Car Nissan) were very nice and extremely helpful and we owe them a big thanks. It turns out the car's alternator went out and had to be replaced. We got the car to them Friday night when we were finally towed there and they diagnosed and fixed the problem the next day. We were biting our nails that we'd be stuck in San Antonio for another day or worse that we would have to rent a car to get back to Houston if the repair took longer and then head back again to pick the car up.
We did make it to Sea World Saturday morning and stayed there all day while the car was being fixed. Not quite the trip we were hoping for, but we got it done!
I am just thankful that this happened here in Texas and not in route to Florida or back!
Earlier tonight Riley asked "Where are we going tomorrow?" My answer "NOWHERE!" I plan on traveling no further than our mailbox tomorrow!
not so much!
our 3 hr drive to San Antonio turned into a 6 hr one
Some nice people drove by and gave us a jump but the car quickly died. They tried again and this time the car would stay on but would no go when the gas pedal was pushed down. Nice!
We didn't waste time getting on the phone with our Nissan roadside service. Good thing too since it turns out they have no idea how to read a map! It took three hours to get a wrecker to us. They tried sending us three different wreckers with one coming from San Angelo, Texas and two from San Marcos. Did I mention that we were 30 miles outside of San Antonio? We gave them our location over and over again and I spoke with several reps trying to get them to understand how close we were to San Antonio and so there was no reason to send the car to places like Austin, TX or San Angelo or San Marcus (these were supposedly the locations of the closest Nissan dealerships). I mentioned we were outside Texas' 3rd largest city right?
Aside from a car stuck on the side of the road there was also the little problem of Texas temperatures in July. It was hot and thankfully we were traveling with our cooler (that cooler has logged thousands of miles over the years) and it was stocked with water and juice. We also had a full bag of snacks for the kids. They stayed pretty happy the whole time and were such troopers! Then there was the other little problem with Texas weather...the ever present "chance of rain". Any weather person can say "high in the 90's with a slight chance of rain" nearly every day and they would probably be right! Well as it so happens we had rain, a mini torrential downpour. Great to cool down right...maybe, but we had rolled down a window when the car was jump started and without the car starting there was no way to roll it back up! But thankfully this prepared family travels with towels! I think only Joshua is immune to car sickness so it is a constant threat. We travel with towels, wipes, and everything we would need to take care of a case of car sickness. On this day the towels were used to block the rain from soaking the car. The rain lasted all of 5 minutes so it wasn't terrible. Just another one of those things that we may look back (way back) and laugh about in years to come.
Our wrecker Ken and the people at the Nissan dealership (World Car Nissan) were very nice and extremely helpful and we owe them a big thanks. It turns out the car's alternator went out and had to be replaced. We got the car to them Friday night when we were finally towed there and they diagnosed and fixed the problem the next day. We were biting our nails that we'd be stuck in San Antonio for another day or worse that we would have to rent a car to get back to Houston if the repair took longer and then head back again to pick the car up.
We did make it to Sea World Saturday morning and stayed there all day while the car was being fixed. Not quite the trip we were hoping for, but we got it done!
I am just thankful that this happened here in Texas and not in route to Florida or back!
Earlier tonight Riley asked "Where are we going tomorrow?" My answer "NOWHERE!" I plan on traveling no further than our mailbox tomorrow!
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