An unplanned adventure

My car died today. I actually had the same problem last night, but this morning it started up just fine. I had (mistakenly) thought all was well. We had a few errands to run, so I decided that we'd take a chance.

In retrospect, this wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made.

We had managed two of the four stops with no problem. The third stop was Wal-Mart, one of my Least Favorite Places. The store itself was relatively painless, which was very surprising since it is the Christmas season. It wasn't terribly busy, and I managed to get everything on my list.

We finished up and went to the car at about 3:30. It wouldn't start. It gave the usual "rrrr. . . rrrrr. . . rrrrr" as if it wanted to get us home, but it wouldn't ever start the engine. I called my dad to see what I could do. Ultimately, the answer was not a thing. I called several friends who live nearby, but no one answered the phone. Skeeter was out of town for the day, so he couldn't help.

The urchins and I ended up leaving everything in the car and walking home. Oh yes we did. We walked 3.5 miles in heavy traffic, then in the dark, with Sass in her Princess shoes. Of course there were no sidewalks, plus we had to cross a 6-lane road, a 4-lane road, and several small business connector roads. WHEW! We started walking around 3:45 and made it home around 5:30, but that did include a rather long bathroom break. Luckily we were almost home by the time it got really dark, but it still wasn't easy. Our neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks (grrrrr!), so we had to walk through the yards. The street is just too busy to walk on it instead though, especially when people are getting home from work.

I am thankful that the weather was nice today. It was warm when we started out, and no one was really chilly until sunset. We had only bought two small items that needed to be refrigerated, so I didn't have to worry about food spoiling in the car.

Spyder thought that it was a grand adventure. He called it the "Treasure Trail" since he found loads of little things for his pockets.

It could have been much worse. One thing is certain though: we were all tired at the end of this adventure!