Guardian Angels

Do you ever have something bad happen and you realize "Man! We must have had a guardian angel watching over us tonight."?

I decided to take the kids to a museum 20 miles away for a few hours to give us all something to do. We have a year membership so the only cost to us was the gas getting there and back. No big deal. Even with being greatly outnumberd (4 kids to 1 pregnant adult) things went amazingly well. Only had a few "interventions" with Power Ranger. Jabber Box was a HUGE help with Power Ranger.

After 3 1/2 hours we felt the day had been seized and we were all ready to head home. The kids all fell asleep in the van on the drive home. It was dark already outside which helped to lull them to dreamland.

We had already determined that as a treat we would stop off at Arby's for dinner. We rarely eat out and I thought this might be a nice treat for us all.

I continued on the highway past our usual offramp to go to the one close to Arby's. In this short distance I felt like something had just happened to the van yet I couldn't see or feel anything different - yet. I got in the left turn lane and was amazed to find that the light had recently turned green and I wouldn't have to actually stop. As I entered the intersection I could now feel what had happened. The surpentine belt broke. My dash was dimmed and all the guages were varifying my guess. I lost my power steering and all the other goodies that come with having a fully working belt.

Much to my amazement... EVERY light I passed was GREEN. I had to make another left turn to head towards home and I typically have to stop at this light. Not tonight. There was a nice break in the traffic waiting for me to pass through.

I was able to get all the way home and into the garage. I unlocked the house door and turned on a light then went around the front of the van to open the sliding door and wake all my peacefully slumbering kids. It was when I was rounding the front when I heard the radiator blow.

Looking back on this trip.... If that belt had broken at any point prior to when it did we would have been stuck on a cold highway - in the dark - waiting for someone (if I could find anyone home and able to help) to come pick the kids and I up as well as waiting for a tow truck.

I feel truely blessed to have had this happen so close to home. I have had several experiences with this dang van having a fit about something and I was in an area where I could either get home or could pull into an autozone or checker parking lot and fix it myself. The last fit was when the breaks completely went out (some rear seal burst) and I was only 1/4 mile from home.

I tell ya.... I think we have an army of angels watching over us with the volume of problems with old cars that we've had over the recent years. One angel would simply not be enough. They would be much overworked.

(we are now accepting donations to our "get a new and reliable vehicle fund")