Well, I finally got out of town for a night this weekend. Well deserved and VERY needed. I need to leave at least once a month in order to get away from the constant reminders of everything I need to do at the house. I can never really relax at my house because there's always laundry to do, dishes to be done, straightening to be done, then there's the bigger projects....
So, we went to Tyson's Corner this Friday afternoon and had an absolutely wonderful time.
Let me rewind a little.
For Christmas, Phil bought me a car. It was a very sweet gesture. Great thought, poor execution. It was a SAAB 900 convertible - 1995. He even traded his Bradley GT for it. (Everyone say "Awww") The problem is, it was a total piece of crap. The seats were rotted, truly. The paint was so flat that even with a full detail, it looked like it had gone through a sandblaster. The engine wasn't really great. The shocks and struts needed replaced. The power seats, mirrors, and seat heaters didn't work. The dashboard lights wouldn't stay on and I had to drive with my left hand on the dashboard toggling the switch to keep the lights on after dark. The stereo didn't work. When you shut the doors, the windows didn't match up, so it constantly pulled air. When I turned the wheel left, it changed the radio station. BUT it ran and the convertible top worked. The gas mileage was better than my Expy, and it was easy to park, so I figured I'd drive it for a couple of years and trade up. Until two weeks ago.... We'd already changed the latches on the convertible top (to the tune of 350 dollars), and then the motor went out on the top. Now, our guy (who's amazing, by the way - Automedic in Elkins - Mark Lentz) said he could easily replace the motor and it would cost less than the darn latches. I was DONE, though. I put my foot down and said, "I love you babe, and I appreciate the gesture, but that's it." The convertible top was the ONLY reason I was driving the darn thing and I couldn't do it anymore. The car was going to nickel and dime us to death.
Off to Fairfax! We looked online and found several dealerships with convertibles less than 10,000 dollars that we could trade this heap for. We went and looked at a few different places. There was a Volvo that I really liked, but, wow. What a place. We went to the "dealer" in Manassas, VA. When we got there, it was in the back of a cluster of these really large metal buildings that housed a few dealerships. Very shady looking in their own right, this place wasn't even one of them. It was a small office with no real lot - the cars were parked in front of the building and in a warehouse in the back. So, we take the thing for a test drive and first thing, the check oil light comes on. Then the AC doesn't work. Then, as I'm driving, the speed drops three times down to 30 on it's own - can we say "bad transmission"? When I took it back, I told them no deal because it had a bad transmission, and they were appalled, then they said they'd fix it for us. Um, no.
Long story even longer, we ended up going to Fairfax Auto Gallery and bought a 2002 BMW 330Ci convertible in really nice shape. Everything seems to work (knock on wood). We went out for Mexican food, then back to the hotel.
The next day, we met some of Phil's high school friends at a Dim Sum restaurant and had a great time with them. Great people - I hope we can see them more often. Plus, Matt's Duck House near Vienna, VA, is AMAZING!!! Great Peking Duck.
So, the terror comes in now. We were following the Garmin home. Normally, there is a bit of corridor H that we follow to Moorefield, then get off and take smaller roads back home. This time, it was extended. Now, Corridor H is supposed to go to Elkins eventually, so we figured we'd follow it as far as it went and see where we ended up. (Note to readers, the BMW is rear wheel drive, and it does not have great tires on it right now.) So, we followed the road, and, even now I'm not sure where it ended up. Somewhere about 30 miles from Davis, Thomas, and Mt. Storm. The Garmin tells us to take a left on some road that leads to Dolly Sods, and we didn't because last time the Garmin was navigating us in rural WV, we had the now second most terrifying driving experience of our life involving the Expedition on a 4 wheeler track with no way to turn around. (At one point, I had the left wheels on the side of a mountain so that the right wheels could stay on the road with a 10 foot drop off the right side of the vehicle. Here's the the 4wd capability of the Expy!). So, we didn't follow the Garmin. Bad idea.
We ended up going to Mt. Storm, and it started to snow. We made it to Thomas, and then things got REALLY bad. I've never been so terrified in my life. It had been warmer in the daytime, so when we got to the top of the mountain, we were driving in pea soup fog and driving snow. We could only see, literally, about three feet in front of our car. We couldn't stop because the visibility was so low and the roads were so bad that if someone came up on us, they'd never be able to stop. At one point, there was a tree across the road, and we didn't see it until we were about 4 feet from it. Honestly, it was like a BMW commercial. Phil swerved and narrowly avoided hitting the tree. The car handled great. Phil was driving because, as a Texas girl, I've never driven a RWD car in the snow. Thank God. Anyhow, it took us an hour to drive the 16 miles from Thomas to Parsons. It was THE most harrowing drive I've ever experienced in my life. I'm surprised that I didn't put a hole in the floorboards with my "imaginary brake".
We made it to Parsons, and a guy at the Sheetz station tells us that earlier in the day, that road had been closed because of so many accidents because the state road vehicles hadn't been able to even get up there. In fact, we saw one stopped before it got really bad.
So, we grabbed a snack at Sheetz. (Diet be damned at this point, I needed something to destress me!)
Got home at 9:30 last night.
It's a nod to the car that we didn't wreck on that mountain.
Phil said he was really worried about messing up my new car. I told him that I knew that, and that I wanted to say, "I don't care if you wreck as long as you try to keep us safe," but I didn't know how to say that and not jinx us, so I didn't. He laughed. I laughed. I had a glass of wine and we breathed a big sigh of relief.
BTW, I LOVE the new car, and I'm so glad that our guardian angel was on duty last night.
Cheers!
Dr. Mindy
So, we went to Tyson's Corner this Friday afternoon and had an absolutely wonderful time.
Let me rewind a little.
For Christmas, Phil bought me a car. It was a very sweet gesture. Great thought, poor execution. It was a SAAB 900 convertible - 1995. He even traded his Bradley GT for it. (Everyone say "Awww") The problem is, it was a total piece of crap. The seats were rotted, truly. The paint was so flat that even with a full detail, it looked like it had gone through a sandblaster. The engine wasn't really great. The shocks and struts needed replaced. The power seats, mirrors, and seat heaters didn't work. The dashboard lights wouldn't stay on and I had to drive with my left hand on the dashboard toggling the switch to keep the lights on after dark. The stereo didn't work. When you shut the doors, the windows didn't match up, so it constantly pulled air. When I turned the wheel left, it changed the radio station. BUT it ran and the convertible top worked. The gas mileage was better than my Expy, and it was easy to park, so I figured I'd drive it for a couple of years and trade up. Until two weeks ago.... We'd already changed the latches on the convertible top (to the tune of 350 dollars), and then the motor went out on the top. Now, our guy (who's amazing, by the way - Automedic in Elkins - Mark Lentz) said he could easily replace the motor and it would cost less than the darn latches. I was DONE, though. I put my foot down and said, "I love you babe, and I appreciate the gesture, but that's it." The convertible top was the ONLY reason I was driving the darn thing and I couldn't do it anymore. The car was going to nickel and dime us to death.
Off to Fairfax! We looked online and found several dealerships with convertibles less than 10,000 dollars that we could trade this heap for. We went and looked at a few different places. There was a Volvo that I really liked, but, wow. What a place. We went to the "dealer" in Manassas, VA. When we got there, it was in the back of a cluster of these really large metal buildings that housed a few dealerships. Very shady looking in their own right, this place wasn't even one of them. It was a small office with no real lot - the cars were parked in front of the building and in a warehouse in the back. So, we take the thing for a test drive and first thing, the check oil light comes on. Then the AC doesn't work. Then, as I'm driving, the speed drops three times down to 30 on it's own - can we say "bad transmission"? When I took it back, I told them no deal because it had a bad transmission, and they were appalled, then they said they'd fix it for us. Um, no.
Long story even longer, we ended up going to Fairfax Auto Gallery and bought a 2002 BMW 330Ci convertible in really nice shape. Everything seems to work (knock on wood). We went out for Mexican food, then back to the hotel.
The next day, we met some of Phil's high school friends at a Dim Sum restaurant and had a great time with them. Great people - I hope we can see them more often. Plus, Matt's Duck House near Vienna, VA, is AMAZING!!! Great Peking Duck.
So, the terror comes in now. We were following the Garmin home. Normally, there is a bit of corridor H that we follow to Moorefield, then get off and take smaller roads back home. This time, it was extended. Now, Corridor H is supposed to go to Elkins eventually, so we figured we'd follow it as far as it went and see where we ended up. (Note to readers, the BMW is rear wheel drive, and it does not have great tires on it right now.) So, we followed the road, and, even now I'm not sure where it ended up. Somewhere about 30 miles from Davis, Thomas, and Mt. Storm. The Garmin tells us to take a left on some road that leads to Dolly Sods, and we didn't because last time the Garmin was navigating us in rural WV, we had the now second most terrifying driving experience of our life involving the Expedition on a 4 wheeler track with no way to turn around. (At one point, I had the left wheels on the side of a mountain so that the right wheels could stay on the road with a 10 foot drop off the right side of the vehicle. Here's the the 4wd capability of the Expy!). So, we didn't follow the Garmin. Bad idea.
We ended up going to Mt. Storm, and it started to snow. We made it to Thomas, and then things got REALLY bad. I've never been so terrified in my life. It had been warmer in the daytime, so when we got to the top of the mountain, we were driving in pea soup fog and driving snow. We could only see, literally, about three feet in front of our car. We couldn't stop because the visibility was so low and the roads were so bad that if someone came up on us, they'd never be able to stop. At one point, there was a tree across the road, and we didn't see it until we were about 4 feet from it. Honestly, it was like a BMW commercial. Phil swerved and narrowly avoided hitting the tree. The car handled great. Phil was driving because, as a Texas girl, I've never driven a RWD car in the snow. Thank God. Anyhow, it took us an hour to drive the 16 miles from Thomas to Parsons. It was THE most harrowing drive I've ever experienced in my life. I'm surprised that I didn't put a hole in the floorboards with my "imaginary brake".
We made it to Parsons, and a guy at the Sheetz station tells us that earlier in the day, that road had been closed because of so many accidents because the state road vehicles hadn't been able to even get up there. In fact, we saw one stopped before it got really bad.
So, we grabbed a snack at Sheetz. (Diet be damned at this point, I needed something to destress me!)
Got home at 9:30 last night.
It's a nod to the car that we didn't wreck on that mountain.
Phil said he was really worried about messing up my new car. I told him that I knew that, and that I wanted to say, "I don't care if you wreck as long as you try to keep us safe," but I didn't know how to say that and not jinx us, so I didn't. He laughed. I laughed. I had a glass of wine and we breathed a big sigh of relief.
BTW, I LOVE the new car, and I'm so glad that our guardian angel was on duty last night.
Cheers!
Dr. Mindy
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