Word from son Andy is that they are "stuck in Hungary". Yesterday they drove from Budapest to the resort area by Lake Belaton. After finally finding a campground, they (I hope Kai car was driving and not Andy) backed over a stump and tore the fuel line. It is May day tomorrow (Tuesday) and mechanics are on a four day weekend. They will hopefully get it repaired on Wednesday. That gives them plenty of time to enjoy the beauty of the resort area. Downside is it is off-season and not much is going on. The are near the town of Siofok, Hungary.
Link: http://www.siofok.com/uj/index-en.php
His story of car trouble on vacation brings back memories of throwing a rod and having to replace an engine on a trip to Michigan. We were stranded on the freeway in the lower peninsula of Michigan. The tow truck took us to the nearest town which happened to be Gaylord, Michigan. Jon sat in the cab of the tow truck with the driver and Andy, myself and 24 yr. old son Dave sat in the truck on top of the tow truck. It was sort of a Beverly Hillbillies scene.
If you are going to be stuck, Gaylord was a good place. We checked into a motel. In the morning we moved to the Holiday Inn which has a Holidome with pool, hot tub and other amusements. This helped our eleven yr. old son cope. The manager let us use the hotel's station wagon.
We were driving a Ford Explorer with 37,000 miles on the odometer. The warranty on the engine was good for 36,000 miles. The damage report was $2800 to replace the engine--not on warranty. Repairs would take two weeks because they could not find a replacement engine in Michigan. I was puzzled. This is Michigan. They build Fords here. No engine? It got worse. Hertz did not have a rental vehicle available. We went to bed again for the night. Son Dave went out for a few, probably wondering what on earth he was thinking about vacationing with his parents.
We went to bed, but I could not sleep. I was two weeks post-op from a spinal decompression and had bronchitis. When the coughing spasms would start, I had to quickly brace myself against a wall to support my spine. Jon was snoring heavily. Dave was puking from the happy hour libations. Son Andy wrote a story about this for school in the fall. I still have the little book which his teacher had bound. Great memories of a stressful time.
I took a chair into the bathroom and read my Bible and prayed most of the night. By morning I had a peaceful heart and told my husband not to worry. Everything would be okay.
In the morning, Hertz had someone return a car which we rented. When we spoke to the dealer about blowing an engine on a low mileage expensive vehicle so close to the warranty, he talked to the District Manager. Ford agreed to install a rebuilt engine. No charge. None. We got in the rental and continued on the vacation. We lost two days but I gained a wonderful testimony to the God's provision.
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After seeing that Andy was "stuck" in this town for a week I thought I'd take a look at what it was like. I followed the link in this post. Take a look at the right side. See what's there? A broken down car? Hmmm... maybe it's a tactic to keep the tourists in town. ;)
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