...A new year, a new problem, a new reason to be in love.

On December 28th our family of six loaded up our 2001 Honda Odyssey and hit the road. We were on our way down to Phoenix for a little fun in the sun with Brandon and Joan (Bro and Sis in-law). Life was good, we had an amazing Christmas and a beautiful year as a whole and now we were all excited to see our little nephews/cousins and play around with Brandon and Joan. We really like road trips. For the boys it is the only time that mom will let them play nearly unlimited video games. For the girls, it is exciting to see new places and they find all kinds of stuff to play with and read along the way. For Kimberlee it is a great time to catch up on sleep. For me, it is time away from the 396 things on my to do list and if it is a Sunday drive it is time to listen to football on the radio. I don't know why, but I love listening to football on the radio, almost as much as I love watching it in hi-def.

So there we were driving south and in great spirits. Day one was marvelously uneventful. No bad weather, no bad traffic and we made good time. We stopped for the night in Page, AZ. On the morning of the 29th we decided to stop at Horseshoe Bend. What a beautiful and scary site. For those of you who have been there, you understand the beauty. The scary comes when the five people you love most are standing on the edge of a shear cliff and looking over. AHHHH. Thankfully, no casualties.

After Horseshoe we hit the road again and that is when IT happened. As I tried to pass a slower moving vehicle, the van's transmission wouldn't up shift, well it did, but not until it sounded like the engine was going to blow. From then on, it just got worse as we lurched and revved our way up the mountain road into Flagstaff. Funny how hind site is so incredibly clear. It was only 2-3 months ago that we had decided it was time to get rid of the van. We even went and found the van we wanted to replace it with. But, for a variety of reasons, it just didn't happen. So there we were in Flagstaff, AZ with apparent transmission problems. We pulled in to a auto repair shop that was in need of repairs itself. The guy in the parking lot is named Ernie. He asked what the problem was. I told him and he said I need to go next door to see a guy named Manny. So, I went next door and Manny is nowhere to be found. SO I talked to a guy with two teeth named, well, Guy. He looks at the van and said that we have a few codes coming up on the computer. "It looks like transmission trouble" he says. Geez, really? Thanks for the insight. So he sent us to Nationwide Transmissions down the street. I felt as I walked in the door of this place that it was as much of a scam shop as it was a transmission shop. The guy here is named Adam and we ended up with him, only because the guy that Guy referred us too, Al, wasn't in. So Adam tells us that he will need half an hour to look at it.

We leave our van filled with almost everything we own that is portable with Adam and walk down Route 66 to Miz Zips for some food. First good news we had in Flagstaff? Miz Zips actually serves tasty food. Quick Quiz: What is traditionally on a French Dip sandwich? Kimberlee and I are at odds on this one. Please post your French dip comments on my blog. Just tell me what is supposed to be on a French Dip Sandwich please.

Ok, so on with our drama. We get done at Miz Zips and get a call from Adam at Nationwide Scam-missions. He says he has bad news for me. Our transmission is shot. He is surprised we made it here. Good news is that he can have it replaced with a rebuilt unit by Friday. It is Monday! Oh and more good news, it will only cost $4000. So after Adam, we decided to run to Big-O get the transmission system flushed to see if that would help. So after 4 hours in Flagstaff we ended up back on the road taking it easy, but not in the sense that the Eagles sang it. More like, "hey lets take it really easy and try not to have our tranny fall out on the freeway." Well, we are genius', the van was running like a champ and we were on our way until about 30 miles out of Flagstaff it all started again, only way worse than before. So I shifted it out of overdrive to see if that would work. Yep, worked great for about 10 more miles. So I shifted into 2nd and slowed way down, flashers on and we drove at 40-50mph the rest of the way. And to the credit of our Honda van, we made it. To the discredit of our Honda van, apparently our tranny is shot and it only has 126,000 miles on it.

So I started this whole story with the title "a new year, a new problem, a new reason to be in love."

You know it's a new year and that I have an obvious problem, being stuck in Phoenix without a working vehicle. But, why a new reason to be in love? Because, through it all, I have realized that my wife and I have have one more thing in common: we don't stress out about stuff like this. On the way down from Flagstaff we were talking and laughing, and you know what, its just one of those things. Sure we are a little perplexed about what to do, and how the heck to afford it. But all in all, we are still having a really nice trip to Phoenix and having a lot of fun with our family.
Oh and by the way...

Phoenix is great in December.