Saturday, March 22, 2014

2009: Mission To The Moon

When the Apollo mission passed behind the dark side of the moon, a nation’s heart stopped because the astronauts were completely out of touch with earth. Everyone waited for the radio communication announcing they had cleared the moon.

We awoke to an empty world because it's not just your car, it is your freedom. We were stuck somewhere in North Carolina with no vehicle. But not to worry! We could rest easy because Enterprise had reserved us a van if we needed it. If needed, we could leave our van at the mechanic for the week and take the rental to Disney!

When I called Enterprise to arrange for the pick-up, the salesman said, "I don't know why they gave you a reservation. We don't have any vehicles".

I was blown away with shock. "You have no vans?" I asked in disbelief.

"We have no cars at all. It is Valentine's Day. The flower shops rent all of our vans so everyone has to take cars. As a result, we are all out of cars," he explained.

"But... I have a confirmation number."

"It doesn't matter. Everyone knows that every rental agency is out of cars on Valentine’s Day. It is just a statement of fact", he reasoned.

"No one has cars anywhere?"

"No."

"Will you have a car on Sunday?" I asked hopefully.

"We are closed on Sunday. But you can try back on Monday. We should have cars then."

Oh... this wasn't good. If we were going to be stuck in Nowheresville, we had better tell the Hotel office. "We don't have any rooms," the hotel office explained.

I was blown away. "You have no rooms?" I asked in disbelief. I mean, it wasn't like I could walk half a mile with 37 pieces of luggage to another hotel!

"We have no rooms at all. It is Valentine's Day. Everyone knows that on Valentine's Day there are no Hotel rooms available," he reasoned.

This was unacceptable. I started to envision us sitting in the parking lot all day atop our giant pile of luggage. "Look... you have to help us out. I have three children and nowhere to go!"

There was a long silence on the phone. Finally, he spoke, "Well... OK. I have a room with one king bed that I could free for you."

I took a giant sigh of relief. Thank God! I didn't even care that the room was on the second floor with no elevator. With minutes remaining before checkout, I carried all 37 pieces of luggage to the new room and collapsed.

"I have good news!" Linda announced.

"What?" I groaned from complete exhaustion.

"Alamo at the airport has a mini-van. I confirmed it. They are holding it for us until midnight. But the airport is thirty miles away."

Great! I could walk there in only ten hours! Ahhhh... we have options again. If they repaired the van before midnight, we could take our van. If they didn't repair our van by midnight, could take a $75 taxi ride to the airport and rent the last remaining van in the country!!

We spent the day watching the clock. Would they have the van repaired in time? Or would I need to take an expensive taxi ride to the airport to rent one? Should I start walking? As we approached 10pm, we were running out of time! If we weren't careful, we would be screwed on Sunday with no van!

Finally, the garage called. "The van is repaired. We are loading it on a tow truck and sending it back to you." Hurray!

When the van arrived, I took it for a test ride. The van had 3 bad coils and the mechanic had to replace one of them to get the van running again. But when I gave the van a test drive, I could still feel a subtle misfiring coming from the engine! Oh no! I don't like were this is going!

Holiday Ro oh ohohoho ohoh d.
Holiday Ro oh ohohoho ohoh d!

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