Well, that might have been our plan, but it wasn't what happened. . .
We did leave for Chicago early Friday morning, and were on schedule to make it to Wrigley about an hour prior to game time. We had decided that since we weren't taking the kids and didn't need a lot of cargo space that we would take our older/smaller car, a '98 Altima. We don't drive it often since Billy now rides the van pool, but it's generally been a very reliable car and gets much better gas milage than our Murano. At one point while traveling (fairly early in the trip), I picked up a bag I had on the floor by my feet (front passenger side) and noticed it was damp, but couldn't figure out why. Billy guessed that my travel bottle of iced tea had leaked, but it didn't seem like much tea was "gone." A couple hours later, we were about an hour from Wrigley, and Billy said, "Something's wrong - I can't accelerate" -- totally out of the blue. I had my shoes off and feet up, and when I sat up, realized that the floor was now SOAKING wet. Yikes! Luckily we were in the suburbs and an exit was coming up that we were able to get to. The car seemed to somewhat resume the ability to accelerate, so we headed down the street on the lookout for a gas station. We ended up pulling into a mall parking lot and the car died.
:(
. . .but on the bright side, we had Dad's GPS with us, and were able to look up a service station and found that there was a Sears Auto at that mall. We were able to get the car started, and just barely made it to the Sears Auto and the car died again.
. . . but on the bright side, a very helpful service guy came out and looked things over and said they would try to figure out the problem. While we were definitely concerned about the car, we were also really bummed that we were likely not going to make it to the 1:20 Cubs game, and would be stuck at Sears Auto instead. The service guy noted our Cubbies gear and Iowa plates, and asked if we were headed to the game, and we said that we were, but it didn't look like we'd be able to go.
. . . but on the bright side, he suggested that we call a rental car company down the street and take a car in to the game while they serviced our car. He said they would first do a free diagnosis, and once they figured out the issue, would call us before doing any repairs/charging any fees, and said we could come back after the game, or if it got late, come back in the morning for the car.
We decided to go for it. Thankfully, Enterprise will come pick you up (it was too far to walk, and we were already late for the game at that point), and they got us on the road fairly quickly. At that point it looked like we'd miss the first pitch, but we'd still get to the game. As we were driving we mourned our bad luck, but realized that on the bright side, we were very fortunate to have broken down when/where we did. We were in a safe place (and not in the middle of nowhere), didn't need a tow to get to a service center, and seemed to have found a trustworthy establishment. Also, Billy and Braden were scheduled to travel to Minneapolis this week (in the Altima) - and I was so glad that it was Billy and I who had the unexpected breakdown and not Billy and Braden. Whew! As we drove closer to downtown, the sky got darker and darker and darker. Then it began to POUR.
We kept heading to Wrigley, and called my dad (again - we had called to let them know about our car trouble and get advice), and Dad said that on TV the commentator had said that they were planning an hour and a half rain delay as it appeared to be a fast moving rain storm. So - on the bright side - we weren't going to miss the beginning of the game! We parked, but were still reluctant to go into the stadium because we had purchased ticket insurance and could get a refund if we didn't use the tickets/the game ended up getting canceled. It was still raining very steadily, and didn't appear to be moving out very quickly. Since we hadn't had lunch, we decided to head into a restaurant and wait till the rain passed. Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea, and all the restaurants were packed. So we found some cheapo rain ponchos and just walked around Wrigleyville for a while . . .
Eventually we did find a restaurant with seating, and enjoyed super yummy quesadillas and a dry place to hang out for a while. The rain appeared to let up, and the sky was turning blue, so we headed out to check about the game. At that point they were shooting for a 4:00 start time. The temp had really dropped when the storm went through, so we did a little shopping and I got a sweatshirt (I had originally been worried about being too hot at the game and had packed no long sleeved clothing). By then it was evident that the rain was over and the sun came back out, so we headed into the stadium. Wrigley is such a cool place! We found our "cheap seats" in the bleachers, which really ended up being a great place to sit. It remained sort of overcast and cool, and was very comfortable.
Love the rooftop seating . . .
. . . and several homes near Wrigley had this sign in the window :)
Fortunately, we were able to see the whole game, and it was even a fun one to watch - 3 home runs! The Cubs won, and I was so excited to be there to hear the Go Cubs Go song! (I made Billy stay for the whole thing!)
Unfortunately, we got a call from the mechanic during the game. They needed a part to fix the car, and wouldn't be able to fix it till Monday. And it was not going to be a minor/inexpensive part . . . ugh. After calling to consult our parents again, we decided not to have the car repaired, and instead would have our dads come pick us up and tow the car home. So our trip was not going as planned, and was going to end up costing a LOT more that we had planned too. We debated about going home Saturday or Sunday, and eventually decided to give up our "tourist" day on Saturday and to go home early and have our dads meet us at Sears on Saturday. That meant we lost a night that we had already paid for at our hotel, but on the bright side Billy had gotten us such a good deal on Expedia that we weren't out that much. And when we finally made it to the hotel after the game, we were pleasantly surprised that our room was actually more of a suite and was very nice. So - while our evening was dampened, we did get to enjoy a nice late dinner and a relaxing night in a great hotel. We also got to sleep in (yeah!), and on the bright side, still got to go to IKEA on Saturday morning before meeting up with our dads.
Our fun little zippy rental car in front and hooking up the Altima to the trailer in back . . .
Upon our return to Sears, we learned that they figured out the reason for the failure of the part on the car: the hose that allows the A/C to drain had gotten clogged, so the water from the A/C dripped onto a computer part and fried it (which meant that the fuel line somehow wasn't working correctly) - and explained the wet floor. Bummer. On the bright side, they assured us that there was really nothing that we did/didn't do that could have prevented it - just one of those things.
Thankfully, our trip home was uneventful - it worked really well to tow the car and we had no problems - whew! The car is now waiting to get repaired here in Kalona.
On Sunday Billy and Braden took off for their trip to MN in our other car - so Miss E and I are hanging out at home (literally - at home - since we have no vehicle!). On the bright side, if we do need to go somewhere, our families are close by to give us a lift. I figure we can walk to the pool if the rain goes away. :)
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