Riverdance and Timing Belts Part 2

Back to the car. (That is Shannon and the car with the hood up.)

So, after enjoying the second half of Riverdance (which we greatly did), we headed down south to deal with our car.

Our plan is this. Jump-start our car and then go, no more stopping. If we get on the highway, we wouldn't need to stop until we got to Manhattan, which is a better place to leave the car to get fixed than Topeka. Jenette and Chris pulled their car up, we attached the cables, let her go and.. nothing.

Tried it again... and nothing. No luck. So I called State Farm's 24 hour number. I waited on hold for about 15 minutes for a person. Then finally got someone, told her of our situation, and she started to look for a tow truck. I waited on hold another 15 minutes while she called about 8 places and then finally got one to answer! Shawnee Auto Towing.

They wouldn't be able to get there for another 1.5 hours (which means at about 1:00 am) AND we'd need to pay cash since it's after hours. Jeepers. The six of us didn't have the necessary cash. Luckily there was a Wal-mart about 1 minute aways. So we drove there to get the cash. While walking it, Shawneed Auto Towing called and said they had a call cancel and they could come get us in about 15-20 minutes! Sweet. So we got cash, went back to the car anda bout 5 minutes later, the truck was there.

We watched him put the bed down, then he got in the car, tried to start it and said "Timing belt." He didn't even think, he just said it. That is actually good news for us. This summer we were told it would need to be fixed, but we haven't been able to bring our only car in to the shop. So, hoped the tow guy was right.

Okay, car on truck. Truck to Ford dealer's service shop. Paid for tow. Said bye to Newgen. Went to Steak and Shake. mmm...


The service shop wasn't open Sunday, so we drove Jenette and Chris' second car back to Tulsa on Sunday. Then Monday, the service shop called and said it was indeed the timing belt and it would be 600.27$ (parts, labor, and tax) to repair it. We said "do it." Then they called around 4:00pm said it was done, and now our car is all better. Granted it's in Kansas and we are in Oklahoma, but Jenette and Chris are gonna bring it down for Thanksgiving and we'll trade cars back.

So, we are going to get a new car. We don't want to have to keep dealing with these issues. This is the third time this year we've had a problem with our car. It's only 10 years old, but I think she's about done. We'll keep it for a second car, but we will likely be buying a larger more reliable mobile in the nearish future. Sounds expensive...

But for an ironic twist... Jenette and Chris were going to pick up our car in Topeka after work Monday and then bring their new car to a different shop because parts they needed to get fixed were in. Well, their car died! So since we had their second car and they hadn't got ours yet, they had no car! I feel SO bad! Luckily, Shannon said they dealer gave them a car to use. I think he also said they are gonna get a different new car because that Kia they just got has had a great deal of problems since they got it. That sucks.