The day after Disneyland we headed to the beach to wiggle our toes in the sand, enjoy some sun on our skin, and feel the COOLNESS of the Pacific. We ventured to Huntington Beach where Kyle got the itch to give surfing a second chance. It was fun to watch him from the warmth of a beach chair and the comfort of a good book.
The real adventure came after the beach. Our car had been acting a little funny that morning when we left the hotel and by the time we were done at the beach and had enjoyed a yummy lunch (it was neary 4:30 by this point) the car was acting really odd. We searched for an AutoZone on the gps and found one that was a little over 5 miles away. The car at this point was acting very, very strange. Kyle would floor it and our speed would max out at 40 mph. It was making funny noises and I was just praying we would make it to the Autozone and figure out what was wrong. Well, we made it within a block of the AutoZone before it COMPLETELY died on us...at an intersection...turning left. Kyle jumped out and pushed from the back while I pushed from the front and steered. We made it across the street and pushed it into a gas station. I was near tears by this point (me + car problems = bad, bad, bad combination) as Kyle pulled out his jumper cables and we looked for someone who was just dying to help us. Two little hispanic men came to our rescue. They pulled right up, snagged the cables from Kyles hands and gave us enough of juice to make it the half a block to the Autozone parking lot where we literally rolled into the parking spot. We purchased a new battery (the old one was under warranty so we got a new one for 28 bucks) and found that it was the alternator giving us problems. It was dead. Gone. Hasta lluego. Bye Bye. I started to freak out because it was near closing time for most shops, but we were lucky enough to get a recommendation from the AutoZone worker. He gave us the phone number and address. We plugged it into the gps and had him verify that the instructions looked right. He was wrong. We followed the directions and ended up back nearly where we had had lunch in the parking lot of an elementary school. We gave the mechanic a call (he spoke little English) to find out where we went wrong and were notified that we were too late. Kyle explained the predicement and he informed us that we needed to be in Costa Mesa, not Huntington Beach. We back tracked our way over to his shop, and ended up less than a mile from the AutoZone.
After an hour of sitting in the nastiest waiting room on a broken chair while passing the time playing cards with Kyle (who assured me that we would laugh about this later), the car was fixed and running like normal and we were headed out of town with a fresh battery and a new alternator. Thank heavens for answered prayers and two men who were willing to work a little late.
And yes, I did laugh about it later.
After an hour of sitting in the nastiest waiting room on a broken chair while passing the time playing cards with Kyle (who assured me that we would laugh about this later), the car was fixed and running like normal and we were headed out of town with a fresh battery and a new alternator. Thank heavens for answered prayers and two men who were willing to work a little late.
And yes, I did laugh about it later.
