On Monday, we packed the car, bid farewell to Alex’s family and drove away. We were bound for Lauren & Bo’s place in West Virginia. About an hour later, in rural Illinois, the car alerts started going off, the car started to behave strangely, and by the time we pulled of the interstate, the car sounded and smelled like something was seriously wrong.

It was early, so it took awhile for repair shops to open so we could have the car towed to someone who could tell us what was going on. We ended up in Highland, Illinois. Coincidentally, the town has a strong Swiss heritage, so we learned a bit about that at the local diner where we had breakfast and came to grips with a definite delay in our plans for the day.

We spent the day in the waiting room at the repair shop and it felt a lot like sitting at the hospital waiting for word from the doctor. They were finally able to give it a good look (even though by then there were symptoms and clues pointing in a definite direction).

Nathan had taken the car into a place in St. Louis for some regular, preventative maintenance on the front differential. The shop either put in the wrong fluid or put the wrong amount in AND it was the wrong fluid. Long story short, it got too hot and destroyed itself. So, of course, Nathan called the shop that did the shoddy work and their insurance company was immediately involved. We went back and forth about what to do next all day Monday. The most reasonable thing to do seemed to be to rent a car in Illinois, go back to Alex’s house, and wait for some sort of next steps from the insurance company.

Well, given the chance, people will drag their feet and/or give you the wrong information. We were under the impression that we needed to wait for someone to be sent by the insurance company to inspect the car to determine the liability BEFORE repairs could commence. That was WRONG! So we waited for days with no progress on the car and no end in sight. We returned the rental car and Alex was so gracious in allowing us to borrow his car to retrieve the rest of our belongings from the Subaru at the repair shop.

We were watching the days slip away. The rest of the road trip, our time with Lauren’s family, our plans for the car, and our impending departure for Germany were all thrown into question. Nathan worked through so many scenarios and solutions. After mulling everything over, we decided to…

…rent another car in St. Louis…

…drive to Lauren’s house…

…rearrange plans and accommodations…

…arrange to return the rental to the airport in Columbus when we fly to Berlin…

…have Alex pick up the car in Illinois when it is repaired and use it for the next year while we are gone.

So now we are on the road toward Parkersburg, West Virginia and looking forward to two weeks with Lauren’s family. We decided to cancel a planned roadtrip to Lake Michigan and Detroit to maximize the grandkid time in the two weeks we have left before we leave.

We feel blessed that we could at least spend our week of limbo with family instead of in a hotel somewhere and we are so grateful for Alex and Hanna’s hospitality. It was an emotional rollercoaster of a week and we are glad that we are able to have a plan and direction again. We are hoping and praying that the insurance mess is all worked out without it turning into a major saga.