Our Yu Adventure

Yesterday morning was beautiful. Ed went to the driving range for two hours while I prepped for our trip to Edmonton. Ed returned home and we were on our way by about 1:30pm. Since Lexi has to be rear facing for another 6 months we decided to take our Neon as the body is bigger than the Jetta. When we all take the Jetta my knees are cramped against the dash.


Anyway so here we are on our way to the City of Champions when Ed starts complaining about the car. He told me that the car wouldn’t go any faster than 100km/h. Since the Neon is getting old it really doesn’t like to go fast and I will rarely push it past 100, so I suggested that he not drive faster than that. I didn’t understand that he meant the car wouldn’t really go any faster than that. As we continued on Ed couldn’t go any faster than 80 km/h. At this time we felt we should turn around and go home. So we stopped in Olds, filled the tank, and headed back home on the country roads.

As we continued on our way back home our max speed was becoming less and less. We found that we could only go about 50 km/h and we were really struggling to make it up the hills. Finally our max became about 20 km/h and Ed suggested that I call a friend to come get the kids and me as we were only about half an hour from home.

As we putted along I asked Cali to say a prayer that we would get home safe. Not a second after this prayer my cell phone rang and a friend of mine was on her way to rescue us. We continued to putter along and then it started to rain. Then the rain quickly turned to freezing rain and wind began to blow. The freezing rain then turned to snow and Ed decided it was time to pull over and wait to be rescued.

With winds reaching the speed of 100km/h, and wet snow surrounding us, we waited. Due to the white out conditions our rescuer got lost. As I am always prepared for long car trips I had packed cookies, bread, apples, and lots of water to snack on. We also had plenty of blankets, and each other as sat in the car but our poor rescuer was all alone.

As Ed and I worried about our friend Cali filled the time in with wiping the condensation off the windows, singing songs, and eating snacks. To her it was a great adventure filled with cookies. Lexi also was a little trooper for everything she needed was there as well. I am just so glad that Lexi is a breastfed baby otherwise we would have been in trouble.

About an hour into our wait Cali informed us that she had to pee. I suggested putting a pull-up on so she should pee in it. Cali wouldn’t go for it. She was a big now and that was that. Luckily I packed a potty in the trunk… but it was in the trunk. Ed offered to go and retrieve it but he couldn’t open his door because the wind was blowing so hard. So I jumped out in my flip-flops and grabbed the potty. I sat the potty between Ed and me and Cali had a pee. Then a few minutes later she told me she had to poop. So we repeated the process and Cali had success. I opened the car door and flung the poop into the storm. Then a few minutes later Cali informed me that she had to poop again. Once again more poop was subjected to harsh weather outside. I am so glad that I thought to pack the potty.

After about four hours (that actually few by) our friend came to our rescue. The weather remained crumby but we made it home safe at an average speed of 30 km/h.

All in all everything went well. Ed was able to get a ride out to the car today and brought it home safely. Let me tell you that car will be replaced ASAP.

Thank Heaven for answered prayers, good friends, and family that can make you laugh even in the worst weather. With every adventure we are building memories.