Conestoga Woes and Mercies in Limon

July 4th started out as a glorious day in the heartland of America. We had the patriotic marches belting out from the CD player, while we talked about the founding of our country with the kids. Everyone was in high spirits—it was our Family Vacation---woo hah! Birds in the fields were singing the national anthem and the fruited plains were bobbing along in rhythm.

All was well till we hit Stratton, Colorado (a town smack-dab in the middle of the eastern plains). We had stopped for a pee n’go (a very nice benefit to having three boys), when Scott noticed a release of pink fluid from under the right front bumper of the van. “Hope it’s not yer transmission,” said a local guy passing by in his truck. We crossed over the interstate bridge to the first available service station. I took the boys in for a while while Scott examined the situation. After about 30 minutes we were back on the road again, Scott having determined that the problem was an overflow valve for the radiator coolant. We stopped again in about 10 minutes to check things out, but there continued to be unexplained leakage problems. Scott had been calling back and forth to Greg, who then (thankfully!) found us a mechanic open in Limon, about 20 minutes away.

We made it fine to Limon. The boys were starving by this point, so while Scott went into the mechanic I was frantically putting together lunch. I had to get the food together pronto or we would be stranded for who knows how long with our gigantic laundry basket of food and cooler in this shop (we have to travel well-stocked because GF food that the boys will actually eat can be hard to come by on the road). Just in time, I finished up the plates as the mechanic rounded the corner to drive the van into the shop. There we were in the blazing sun at 7000 feet above sea level—3 little boys with their plates and only a curb to eat on.

I can think of sob stories that are much worse, but at the time, it was a bit discouraging—and the day had started so well! Just then the attendant at the shop desk came out. “We have an air conditioned lounge upstairs, if you’d like to eat your lunch there,” she graciously said. Little mercies.

The lounge was just what we needed, and even more, to Blane’s delight, provided a bird’s eye view of the entire garage. The boys were about halfway through their lunches when the mechanic called up to Scott that our van was ready. Apparently, the altitude climb commonly causes overflow of the coolant, and when checking the fluids, Scott had not screwed the radiator cap on tightly enough, which caused the second overflow. We were good to go.

The shop exit was actually the exit we needed to take to cut down to Colorado Springs and within minutes we had sighted Pike’s Peak. Back to excitement….