London Adventure Attempt 2

Its always nice to start a blog with a pic of our little man! check out his new shades!!!!

Our car hadn't overheated since that first trip to London and we were just adding water and constantly watching the temperature gauge. We kept telling each other, we need to take this to a mechanic, we need to take this to a mechanic but we never did. A week went by and it was the 4th of July. We decided we would try London again and then come back in the evening in time for the fireworks on one of the bases. We decided to get subway breakfast sandwiches for the road. I went in and Matt stayed in the car with Ty. When I came back Matt asked if I'd brought any aloe vera. I said no, why? He had tried to top off the water and had opened the radiator cap and a "volcano" of hot water and steam shot out at him and burned his hand. (The cap wasn't very hot at all and it still did that)We both didn't think much of it, just that it was strange and so we started our journey. (just an FYI if you hadn't already figured it out, Matt and I know nothing about cars)

It was a beautiful sunny day at about 10am when we started out. Luckily it was only supposed to get to the high 70's which is perfect. We drove about 20 minutes and Matt noticed that the temperature gauge had shot up way above the red. We were both confused by this since Matt had just topped off the water. We started looking for exits to a mechanic but we live in a very rural area and no exits were close. The car started shaking maybe 2 or 3 minutes after we noticed the temperature and it literally died on the carriage way. Luckily we were both praying that we would make it off the road cause we were able to coast onto the emergency shoulder (which is every few miles or so). When we opened the hood smoke came out, first bad sign. Matt called his dad (it was 3am there, sorry!) and he suggested just waiting it out and so we waited on the side of the road for about an hour before the temperature got down to cool and the car would start again.

Here is our dumb car!!!!!

We figured the car would make it to Cambridge which was the next exit 6 miles away. We drove for 30 seconds and the heat gauge started rapidly rising and I urged Matt to pull off onto the next emergency shoulder. We made it to the shoulder and I told Matt that we needed to get someone to tow us and start working on this car. He thought if we waited it out we would eventually make it there. After we'd waited for 30 minutes and the gauge hadn't gone down Matt thought since the car hadn't died maybe he could make it further. When he tried to start the car it was completely dead. So we started calling mechanics but they all said, if you can drive it over here we can take a look at it. Well, we needed someone to tow us. Matt remembered about our roadside assistance through USAA (our insurance), so he called them. They got a man to come and pick us up an hour later. We found a mechanic in Lakenheath Village that is literally 3 blocks from our house. The car got picked up and by the time we made it to the mechanic it was 2pm. We wasted 4 hours of our day on that dumb car.

The mechanic said he would do a vapor test to make sure it wasn't the head gasket and call us later that day. We walked home and ate lunch and waited for our rental car to be delivered. We were pooped.

We were so depressed about our day that we scrapped our fireworks plans and got food for our little 4th of July celebration at home. We started a prison break marathon and though it pains me to say it, I really like that show. It's so intense ALL the time. I HATE T-Bag, but he says some funny things. I think my favorite character besides the usual is Haywire, just cause he's so wacky. The mechanic called and told us that it was the head gasket and the car had to be scrapped. We were super depressed since we'd only had the car for 2 weeks. We truly bought ourselves a lemon.

Matt emailed a scrap yard and they said they would give him 100 pounds for it, the mechanic said he would scrap it for Matt and give him 120 pounds. Matt thought sure, then he didnt have to move it. Luckily one of the employees pulled Matt aside and told him that he knew of a place that would pay us a lot more than that for our car. Matt called them and they said they would give us 230 pounds so almost double! They picked up the car and scrapped it for us.

Our car being towed away, its the one on the top. We were just driving around looking for a new car and we randomly saw it.

You definitely can't say our life here has been boring! It's crazy that every time something lame happens Heavenly Father blesses us throughout and after. So it seems like trips to London are doomed to fail. Where will we attempt to go next? Hopefully 3 times the charm!!

London Adventure attempt 1

So we've been in our house for 2 weeks and we FINALLY got internet. So much has happened so I am going to be breaking it into multiple blogs instead of one huge one that is super daunting to write.

First lets start with London Adventure attempt 1. We decided we would go to London and see all the sights. So we started driving and Matt had found this underground station to ride the tube in from Epping. But we saw that we would have to drive an hour to Epping and then still ride the tube for an hour. I started looking and found park and rides that seemed close to all the sights but outside of the congestion charge zone. (to deter people from driving into the city center the government charges people 10 pounds to drive within a specified zone) Problem with my idea was there wasn't an address for the park and ride. So I was using our GPS and my iphone to try to find it. I thought my iphone had found it and so we decided to go for the park and ride. This one decision changed a day of potential fun to...a day of DOOM!!!!

So we're following the directions and we start getting excited because we're getting so close to everything. We start seeing signs that say turn off to avoid congestion charge and nothing that mentions a park and ride. Also, the closer we get to the city center the more chaotic and congested the roads become. Matt is just a little frazzled (understatement) and I begin to realize that we are going to be going through the congestion zone to get to the park and ride. I had found a park and ride that would've worked if we were coming from the other side of the city. So we drive through the center of London passing the tower of London, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and we see the Eye of London. Problem is we are in the worst traffic ever and nobody drives well in England. They all drive like maniacs. Plus there are people walking everywhere across the road with no care of being hit! Matt is frantically asking me, where do I go and getting a little frustrated at me for putting him in this situation.

Big Ben from our car.

Then to make things even more interesting Matt sees smoke coming out of our Engine and the heat gauge is maxed out. (Just a side note, it was supposed to get to 90 degrees that day). Lets just say he loses it and he really starts putting the pressure on me to find the park and ride or just some place to pull over. In case you didnt know. There is no place to park in downtown London. You can't just pull over cause there is no place to pull over. So I am still guiding him to this alleged park and ride and we make it to where my iphone says it should be but, IT'S NOT THERE!!! So we drive around in a few circles with Matt making some very difficult right turns that almost end with us dead and all I can think is find a place to park, find a place to park. We drive on through the traffic and finally find a place to pull over. We park for a half hour or so and put some water in the engine (not in the right spot) and then start off looking for a place to park or just to get home.

We begin driving and run into a huge traffic jam because of an accident ahead of us. London is HUGE by the way and it's not easy to get anywhere (in a car atleast). Then Ty starts in and since we had to turn off the A/C and turn on the heater to try to keep the engine cool he is burning hot. I was sitting in the back with him wiping water all over him to keep him cool. Up to this point Ty had been a little trooper and had been Mr. Perfect but he was getting hungry and he was sick of being in his seat and he was hot. The car starts overheating again and we are at a stand still  in traffic. We start moving and we make our way towards the outskirts of London. We pass by a huge mall called Westfield and I suggest to Matt that we should go there and park and let the car cool down again. Unfortunately we missed the turn off. Ty is still screaming and the car starts shaking (literally shaking feeling like its gonna blow or something) and we start to have the feeling like it will just die. We get off of the motorway on the next exit. Again, traffic is at a stand still and just inching forward. We are sitting in this car and Matt starts saying, what do we do, what can I do, This car can't break down now, we'll completely block traffic. There were no shoulders, no parking spaces, nothing. And I told him, all we can do is pray. We finally start moving forward as we are praying over and over that we'll make it to a place to park and we see this side street that has a sign for Westfield parking. We turn in and follow this random car into what we think is a parking facility but is actually this huge complex of car mechanics.

We drive past a few garages and Matt hops out to ask if they can help us out and as he is asking the car dies. We find a mechanic that can help us and Matt is able to start the car again and drive it to this man's garage. We then walk to that mall, Westfield and eat some food and just walk around enjoying the air conditioning.

double decker bus by mall

We ate at the worst Italian restaurant on the face of the planet where I ordered a caesar salad and asked them to not put anchovies on it; but it was so terrible and bland that I think the anchovies would've made it better.

Ty and I at the restaurant

Happy cause I didn't know my food was going to be terrible.

We picked up our car and though it took several more hours we drove home safely and the car didn't overheat again until we got through the gate on base.

Though it definitely was a failed attempt to go see London and it was a day that neither of us would wish to repeat it was a testimony builder. It truly was a miracle to drive into that auto mechanic complex when we did.

One cute thing that happened on the way home was Ty was making silly noises and making funny faces. Here are a couple videos of the action.