I Think I Broke My Car

Oh, my! I've been hearing odd "sounds" from the van every so often. I just chalked it up to it being cold outside. Nothing more. Tonight was different.

I stopped by a couple of stores on the way home to get the kids from daycare. As I was pulling out of the drug store parking lot, I felt my car 'lurch' for lack of a better word. It almost sounded like the van axels were going to snap off. Thankfully, nothing major happened on the way home (well, besides almost being t-boned on the way out of the drug store parking lot...let's just say this was not a good day!).

I get to daycare and turn down the street and hear the same "axel noise". It sounds worse this time, but I figure I'll get home and have Robin drive the car around and check out the "noise". I get the kiddos in their carseats and start the van. Drive down the street and turn left. Same "noise", but this time, it's substantially worse and it's sounding kinda screechy. I slow at the stop and the noise gets worse as I try to steer. I stop and when I try to move again, I feel something "drop" from the bottom of the van. :S It was one of the scariest things. I had no idea if my car was actually in pieces or what...

I have a mini-internal-breakdown while the kids are asking "What happened, mommy?" and "When are we going to be going home, Mommy?" I calm myself down enough to call Robin and just about sob "I broke the van!" when he answered.

He made it over to where I was stopped and helped pushed the van back. My boys saw this and said "Daddy's a real superhero!" as he was pushing it back. He called a tow truck and we loaded the kids into his Taurus. Only one car seat...ack! We got everyone into a seatbelt and I drove slowly and cautiously home while Robin waited for the tow truck to arrive.

We'll have to wait 'til tomorrow to find out what's wrong. We think it's the transmission. Robin feels fairly confident that it will be covered on our extended warrantee. I sure hope so! Ack! That's all we need to replace right now!

Now, tomorrow, Robin will stay home with the kids 'cause we can't get them to daycare safely (3 carseats will not fit in the back of a Taurus!). I'll take the Taurus to work and pray that our van gets fixed tomorrow so I have it for Wednesday.