Labor Day Holiday

Labor Day Weekend. The holiday here in the States where you are supposed to get a day off of work to relax because you work so hard the rest of the year. And the beginning of September is a wonderful time for it as it is still quite warm out but most of the high temperatures are fading to fall.

I only wish my Labor Day was so relaxing. My parents bought a small cabin at Table Rock lake in Missouri which is about 5.5 hours from where we live. They decided they wanted the entire family to travel there for the long weekend and having no other plans, my husband and I agreed. My parents and one of my sisters left early Friday afternoon. My other sister and her family were on the road by about 5:30. Since I did not get off work until 5 and still had to pack, my husband and I were not on the road until about 6:45. This put us arriving at the cabin just about 11pm. But this story starts before we even arrive.

The last good sized town on the trip was called Aurora and we went through it about an hour before reaching our destination. After going through that town all the roads got narrower, hillier and a lot more curvy. The car started to feel a bit wonky at this point but it wasn't anything I could really put my finger on. Then we passed through the tiny town of Cape Fair and turned down the most twisty, turny road I have every been on. This road doesn't have an inch of straight along the entire way. And this is where I really started to notice something was wrong with the car. I was having to turn the wheel much to far in order to make it turn. To go just around a slight curve I was turning the wheel almost all the way around.

Trust me, nothing is scarier than being on an unknown, twisty road, in the dark, driving a car that is suddenly having issues turning.

We knew right away what the issue was. The rack and pinon was broken. Again. It was a part we had just replaced 2 years ago after it broke. This part is what allows the steering wheel to turn the wheels. So with out it, no turning.

We made it safely to the cabin around 11pm but we knew the car would never make it back home through all those curves. Even a normal corner would be near impossible. And it was Friday night on a holiday weekend. The chance of getting it fixed the next day was slim to none.

First thing Saturday morning my husband starts making phone calls to our insurance, repair shops and road side assistance. He managed to find a repair shop open that day, but they were an hour away and only open until 2pm. We scheduled to have a tow truck pick up the car and take it to the shop. They were supposed to be there by 10:30 and we hoped that meant the car would be to the shop early enough for them to have it fixed before they closed.

The tow truck didn't show up until almost noon. We were not happy. Our car did not reach the shop until 1pm so by that time all they could do was confirm what the problem and tell us how much it would be to fix. They would not be open again until Tuesday because of the holiday on Monday.

We made the best of the next few days. Swimming in the lake, boat rides, roasting hot dogs and marsh mellows over an open fire, all the normal camping type stuff.

Everyone was supposed to head home on Monday morning. My sister and her family did go home that day. All her kids had school the next day. My parents and my other sister all stayed an extra day as the hope was that our car would be repaired early on Tuesday. It was not and they couldn't stay another day as they all had to get back for work and left that morning. So we spent most of Tuesday hanging out in an empty cabin with nothing to do. A storm moved in early in the afternoon so even just sitting outside was a no go.

Have you ever spent the night in a strange place all by yourself? It can be pretty creepy. While watching a movie we heard a noise like someone in an apartment above you dropping a large object. Only there was no upstairs for there to be anyone dropping anything. We went outside to see if we could figure out the noise and came to the conclusion that a tree branch had fallen on the roof. But even so, we went back inside, locked all the doors, checked all the windows and huddled in for the night.

Thankfully our car was finished first thing the next morning. The really great bit is that they drove an hour out to our cabin to pick us up as we had no other way to get to them. They picked us up at 11am, we got to their place to pay at noon and were back at the cabin by 1pm. We had most of our stuff together ready to go, but it still took us a bit to load up. Even then we were on the road by about 1:30 and home by 7pm.

Over all it was completely exhausting. We did have some fun spending time with the family of course, but it would have been so much better if we hadn't been having to worry about the car.