Just Drive it Home

We haven't even had the van 24 hours, and the fun with it has already begun.

Here's our first adventure. Matt needed to run into the office to make a few phone calls. It wasn't going to take very long, so of course I jumped on the opportunity to take the van for a spin! We didn't go to church this morning because Zoe still had a very slight discharge and the doctor said her pinkeye was contagious until the morning she woke up clear (or 3rd day of drops, which will be tomorrow). I wanted to get out of the house! Besides, the low fuel light just came on, and we could fill it up after his quick task. Did I mention my eagerness to take any opportunity to drive the new van?

We sat in the car and waited for not more than 20 minutes for him to finish. I spent that time doing the floor mat jigsaw puzzle. I didn't even unbuckle the kids, just opened both doors to allow a gorgeous breeze flow through while they read their books.

When Matt rejoined us, it was a complete shock that all we heard was rapid-fire clicking coming from the starter as we prepared to leave. Not the noises you want to hear when you turn the key of your "new" car.

Assuming the owner's manual would help, we read that you should depress the brake pedal and turn to position III on the ignition, waiting no fewer than 10 seconds between tries to start. If this didn't work, the helpful manual suggested something was wrong, and we should call a tow. (Thanks, Honda!).

It didn't work, and we had to assume the car's fuel level was too low. Matt made a quick trip over to the PX/gas station (about 1/3 mile away) to get a can and some gas. I let the kids crawl around the van to occupy themselves. You know those cute pictures in the previous post pointing out how Ian and Zoe have enjoyed the van so far? Yep. Those were taken while we were waiting. It was a cute & fun time.

Look, here's Mommy trying to get a nice picture of her and the van for all the nice folks in cyberspace!

Matt returned, slightly frustrated, and tried to put gas in the van. All I heard was grumpy noises, since the can wasn't functioning properly and spilled gas all over the asphalt. Ian began his line of repetitive questioning about this time too.

I: "Mom. Why isn't the car going? I'm ready to go home. Just drive it home."

M: "Me too. Daddy's putting gas in it, and we'll try it again."

I: "Is it broken?"

M: "No, it just needs gas. Remember, gas is car food. It needs food to go."

I: "It's hungry?"

M: "Yes, Daddy is trying to feed it, or put gas in it."

I: "Oh. Ok. Why isn't the car going? I'm ready to go home..."

After finally getting enough in the tank, we buckled the kids up and tried again. Here we go! Click-click-click-click-click. Nada. [Insert sounds of frustration here, and gas can hitting the ground].

At this point, I had tried making calls to a few friends. The next culprit was presumably the battery, and a jump would be a good next step. No innocent bystanders in view. Unfortunately, most people we knew were in church, or farther away than the second option.

I wish I had a picture of the light bulb going off in Matt's head, or the smirk on his face as he rolled his bike back from the office.

Wait. I have been given a different narrative for this portion of the story. Ahem...

The sun glinted brightly off the steed's bike's frame as our knight in shining armor's handsome stud in the Dr. Pepper jersey rode into view. With a nod of his head, he graciously turned to wish us well as he embarked on his quest ride to save the stranded damsel in distress desperate pregnant woman who now endured the vexed cries of the monsters children about to strike.

So, aren't you glad I got the bike now?" he asked. YES. (Look, I'm so thankful, I even put it in writing!). For goodness sake, how long is this going to take you? I hope you've been riding that bike a LOT and have a really, REALLY fast speed!

It took him 15 minutes to bike home, and 10 more to ride back and pick us up in the car. When he returned, I was about to start pulling my hair out.

Eventually, we ended up with a new battery in the van. It works just fine now. I'm thankful for a friend's husband that gave us the sounding board for figuring out the problem! And, I'm hopeful that our next adventure of this nature will not be for quite some time.

As it stands, I think all the electronics in the van were perhaps overused while the car was off. We'll be a little more conscientious about this in the future. Perhaps also being shown to people on the lot had already put the battery in need of a good charge. Maybe we don't live far enough away from anything to let the alternator do its work? Anyway, I think we'll be good for a while.

There was some other fun later on today. I learned that the van's navigation controls can be voice operated. Which is a phenomenal feature (if you don't have preschoolers). So, I was yelling, "GO HOME!" to the microphone, trying to get it to register while the kids chattered in the back.

Ian suddenly was quiet while I tried a few more voice commands. It actually does work even with background noises when you actually follow directions. But, I continued yelling at it. When at first you don't succeed, keep trying the same thing over and over again, right? Then I sat and began flipping through the manual again.

Ian then informed me, "Mom. The car doesn't like you yelling at it. Just drive it home. We can go." :)