Thanksgiving debacle
Dec. 2nd, 2009 08:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganSo, we ended up in the U.P. longer than we meant to. The trip started off well-- good weather on the way up, enjoyed J.'s family. He gave one of our old digital cameras to the 5-year-old niece and we enjoyed seeing what she took photos of. Had a good time at my mother's place later in the weekend, good food, got to see my brother A. and his wife again, which was nice.
However, on the way home on Sunday, I was driving and hit a deer, just a few miles away from my mom's. We're OK, but the car wasn't driveable as is. The tow company thought they could bang out the metal and get us on the road so we could at least get home and start on insurance and collision repair and everything at home. We were thrilled to be on the road with the car by early Monday afternoon, but...
... then it started overheating and we had no heat in the car about an hour and a half out. We ended up stranded in the middle of BFE and had to call for roadside service. Thank goodness I actually had signal on my cell phone, because that's not guaranteed up there.
We were told it'd be 40 minutes for the tow truck and that the repair place they were towing it to had rental cars (another thing you can't be guaranteed of with these small towns up there!). Well, apparently the tow driver was wrangling with our insurance, and it was more than 2 hours before they showed up, and this is in a car with no heat on a 35-degree day. Finally got a tow, but Jeff had to sit in my lap in the cab of the tow truck for a 20-ish minute drive. Got to the dealership just 10 minutes before they closed, got the paperwork signed with the tow truck and got the rental car agreement signed. As soon as we had a key in hand, it started snowing.
As if we weren't miserable enough, we hit really awful, blowing snow on the Mackinac Bridge and just south of there. J. was completed frazzled and freaked out- it had pretty much been the worst couple of days of our lives, and we were tired and the visibility was terrible. We finally ended up getting a hotel room in Gaylord (about 4 hours north of home) and stayed there Monday night, and drove the rest of the way home yesterday. We spend Tuesday afternoon dealing with insurance, running errands, doing laundry, making calls to workplaces to let people know what was going on, and I actually had some assignments due, so I had to work from home for 5-6 hours as well.
Finally, I think we're pretty much back on track today, but we still have to find out what the adjuster says, what they'll pay for, and when we can (oh joy!) drive back to the UP to get the car when it's fixed.
Not exactly how I wanted to spend my four-day holiday, but at least nobody but the deer is dead.
How was yours?
Still playing catch-up on my LJ friends list. I'm about 200 posts behind, but I'll read and comment soon!
However, on the way home on Sunday, I was driving and hit a deer, just a few miles away from my mom's. We're OK, but the car wasn't driveable as is. The tow company thought they could bang out the metal and get us on the road so we could at least get home and start on insurance and collision repair and everything at home. We were thrilled to be on the road with the car by early Monday afternoon, but...
... then it started overheating and we had no heat in the car about an hour and a half out. We ended up stranded in the middle of BFE and had to call for roadside service. Thank goodness I actually had signal on my cell phone, because that's not guaranteed up there.
We were told it'd be 40 minutes for the tow truck and that the repair place they were towing it to had rental cars (another thing you can't be guaranteed of with these small towns up there!). Well, apparently the tow driver was wrangling with our insurance, and it was more than 2 hours before they showed up, and this is in a car with no heat on a 35-degree day. Finally got a tow, but Jeff had to sit in my lap in the cab of the tow truck for a 20-ish minute drive. Got to the dealership just 10 minutes before they closed, got the paperwork signed with the tow truck and got the rental car agreement signed. As soon as we had a key in hand, it started snowing.
As if we weren't miserable enough, we hit really awful, blowing snow on the Mackinac Bridge and just south of there. J. was completed frazzled and freaked out- it had pretty much been the worst couple of days of our lives, and we were tired and the visibility was terrible. We finally ended up getting a hotel room in Gaylord (about 4 hours north of home) and stayed there Monday night, and drove the rest of the way home yesterday. We spend Tuesday afternoon dealing with insurance, running errands, doing laundry, making calls to workplaces to let people know what was going on, and I actually had some assignments due, so I had to work from home for 5-6 hours as well.
Finally, I think we're pretty much back on track today, but we still have to find out what the adjuster says, what they'll pay for, and when we can (oh joy!) drive back to the UP to get the car when it's fixed.
Not exactly how I wanted to spend my four-day holiday, but at least nobody but the deer is dead.
How was yours?
Still playing catch-up on my LJ friends list. I'm about 200 posts behind, but I'll read and comment soon!
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Date: 2009-12-02 02:22 pm (UTC)I've actually tried to sleep in a car when it was about 25 degrees out. It was much too uncomfortable, even with blankets; I made it about an hour. At least the two of you had each other for body heat, if it came to that.
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Date: 2009-12-02 02:22 pm (UTC)To better days ahead!
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Date: 2009-12-02 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-02 04:41 pm (UTC)I'm glad you both are okay.
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