Writer's Block

No I am not referring to a Peter, Bjorn and John album but to my frustrations as a blogger. How do people have things to write all the time. I guess I need to have a theme or a child. That seems to be effective in ensuring that people have continual subject matter to write about. I am afraid my masters studies are just not enough a theme to hold my attention let alone anyone else's.
Argh! Well hopefully subsequent entries will be less angst ridden and vindictive against successful bloggers:)

Who knew cars needed oil?

I am going to relate the events that have been a popular topic of conversation lately as I have returned to school and everyone asks how my break went. I rode home with Maggie, my roommate, so she could pick up her new car.

Michigan to Utah Dec 18-20:

The trip went relatively smoothly in reference to the car at least until about 50 miles outside Rock Springs. Maggie was driving and I was half asleep. Suddenly there was a clanking noise and the oil light went on. Maggie immediately pulled over. We got out to investigate and that's when Maggie remembered that her car had an issue with oil. Unfortunately we had not been checking it on our way.

This really nice man, Bill, stopped and helped us. When he first stopped I was a little concerned but by the time he left I know he was God-sent.

We put in a quart of oil but it didn’t make a dent. Bill checked his car and didn’t have any oil but offered to take us back to Wamsutter to get some. At that point I was praying that he really was a nice man just helping us. I didn’t get any bottomless pit feeling so I we went along with him and got some more oil. Once we got back and put in more oil in the car we tried it to see if the engine had been lubricated enough to stop the clanking. Unfortunately the problem was not just lubrication. So we sat in the man’s car while Maggie called her parents. They had AAA so we got towed to Rock Springs. We spent the night there in a lovely Econo Lodge. The next day Maggie’s mom came and picked us up and left the car in Rock springs. It has since been towed to Utah to get a new engine.

Utah to Michigan Jan 1-2:

After ringing in the New Year at a great party given by my other roommate Stephanie, I went back to Maggie’s to stay the night. We left early the next morning around 7:30. That is when it was apparent that we might have some troubles on our journey. Maggie’s new car would not heat up. We had to get going 80 mph before we felt any real heat. We drove through Wyoming and just outside of Cheyenne the check engine light came on. We pulled over and got some information from Beth Cook that Auto Zone would be open and they could read the engine’s computer. So we went to Auto Zone, they read the computer but the reading seemed odd. They decided that it was the spark plugs and we would be fine getting to Ann Arbor without changing them. We continued on our way and made it to Council Bluffs, were we stayed with night.

The next day we started on our trek and immediately started having problems. The temperature gauge was getting up to high and shortly thereafter the people we stayed with called and told us they found liquid on the drive way. After making a million calls to people, we called Ace and he called a man in his ward who owns a car dealership. We found out the problem was antifreeze so we went to the nearest gas station and bought some and then started back to Council Bluffs. At the dealership they found the radiator had a hole in it. It was amazing that in a matter of just a few hours they had it all fixed for a very low price and we were on our way.

We were very fortunate in terms of weather until we got to Michigan where we ran into some lake effect snow. It was almost white-out conditions. That lasted for about 45 minutes and then we were fine again. We got home about eleven just in time for me to get to back and make it to me field placement orientation.

I have had enough adventures to last me the year.