On the Road to Idaho

We decided to spend the last few weeks of summer visiting our families. We went first to Idaho where my family lives in Idaho Falls. We left early, but not that early since we are not morning people :P We were a little worried about how our old car would do going through the desert (we were driving from Pasadena through Las Vegas and up through Utah) and we hoped it would do well.

Well, we made it to St. George, Utah and as we pulled into a gas station for one of the numerous potty stops, the car starts stalling and then dies. Aaron and I groaned loudly, and said, "Well, at least we're in a city and at a gas station. Thank heavens we're not in the desert!" Turns out we had pulled into a large travel center with a mini-mart, Burger King and Taco Bell. I said a quick prayer, and while the boys headed to the bathroom, I headed to the mini-mart counter to borrow a phone book to look for a mechanic.

I took the phone book over to a quieter corner in the restaurants eating area and had a seat. My heart was pounding and I was praying really hard. We were making this trip on a tight budget and certainly couldn't afford expensive repairs. I took a deep breath and called my parents house to let them know what was happening and that I wasn't sure we would make it all the way there today, like we had planned.

As I was talking, two men seated in the booth next to me, turned and looked at me then at each other. When I hung up, one of them came over and said,"We're mechanics. Do you need some help?"

"YES! Oh, thank you!" I exclaimed and at this point, Aaron and the boys found us and we all trooped out to the car to have a look under the hood. After about 10-15 minutes, the men were pretty confident that it was just a clogged fuel filter. The car had started right up when we turned it on, but would start to stall if the air conditioning came on (that takes more gas and if the filter is clogged and is getting even more clogged with the bad gas going through it, then it cuts off the fuel supply).

They informed us that our old car needs a higher octane of gas, and that most gas stations are watering down their fuel. The higher octanes are still good, but the lowest octane fuel can be watered down by 20%! Crazy! They gave us directions to the auto supply store 2 blocks away to get the bottle of fuel treatment we needed (cost $9) and then told us to fill the rest of our 1/2 full tank with the highest octane of gas. We were then to let it run for a bit and that should clear it up and from then on to fill the tank with unleaded plus. We thanked them PROFUSELY and right away did everything they told us. We decided to take our lunch break then and ran the car for the whole hour, with the air conditioner on full blast to make sure everything was working. They had also given us directions to their shop if this didn't fix it.

After that, we were back on the road again and a few miles down the road, as we were going uphill, the car stalls again and Aaron is able (thankfully) to get the side of the road safely and we wait a few minutes and the car starts right up again. After another hour, we decide that the last stall was just the fuel filter clogging with the last of the gunk in the tank and the car is running somewhat smoothly for the rest of the trip.

We were giving prayers of thanks for those men to be there at the same time and place as us. What an amazing answer to prayer! We were (and are) so grateful for the cheapness and quickness of getting back on the road.

And our boys were so good during this whole trip! They know it takes a long time to get to any grandparents house and they just settle into their seats for the ride. This last trip was even without a DVD player since our car adapter quit working! What good boys!