The saga continues…

THE VAN!

Big Mister called me a couple of weeks ago as he was on his way to work.  He was about half way to Phoenix and had to pull over because our van was overheating.

Ugh!

My first thought was that it couldn’t be the radiator because we replaced it last year.   But, why else would it be overheating?  Maybe a leaky hose?

Big Mister eventually made it to work after letting the engine cool down and adding radiator fluid.

On the way home from work is where the drama really begins. 

A couple of side notes.  1) Big Mister did not have his cell phone because it wasn’t working at the time.  2)  He was in charge of providing refreshments for the Young Men and Young Women (he doesn’t have to do this, but he ALWAYS volunteers me to bake instead of the organization providing their own….but that’s for another post!)

Big Mister called me from a pay phone when he was half way home.  It was about 6:00 p.m.   He said to call the YM/YW organizations if he wasn’t home by 6:45 p.m. to let them know he wouldn’t be there.  The time came and he wasn’t home.  I called and made arrangements to deliver the refreshments myself. 

When I arrived back home at 8:15 p.m. I fully expected to see the van in the garage.  It wasn’t.  With no cell phone to contact him on, I became increasingly worried.   Another pay phone call finally came at 8:30 p.m.  He was about 20 minutes from home and was letting the van cool down again. 

To make this short, he arrived home at 12:30 a.m.  A full 6 1/2 hours after he left work.  CRAZY!  From the 20 minutes away from home location, he had to stop every couple of miles to let the van cool down.  He was not happy but was too stubborn by this time to call for a tow or call for me to come and get home.  If he had known at the beginning of his drive home that it would have taken so long to get home, we would have called the towing company for sure. 

The next morning we drove it right to the mechanic.  It ended up being the new radiator.  A piece of plastic had lodged into the radiator from a minor rear-ender that Big Mister had last year.  Over time, the plastic wore a large hole in the radiator.

We were lucky that the mechanic was able to get a new radiator under warranty.  We did end up having to pay for a new thermostat and the labor, but it could have been a lot worse. 

We hope this ends the saga for a while.  

Previous van saga posts:  HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE