Departures : Tales from the South

Yes, the title is Departures. Plural, as in, more than one.

Because I make the trip to Florida each year by car, and because I travel with two children (Husband stays home ) my truck gets a tune up.

This year it was all good. I had told my mechanic, who also happens to be a long time family friend, that the truck had a 'hiccup' when it was at about 50 mph. (good thing he's a long time pal, i think he's the only one who would know how to translate MY noises and ills of the truck) He said it could be the fuel pump, we arranged a day for him to check it out.

After this tune up, the truck was behaving. no more hiccups either. Husband said it was probably the oil, which was changed, with the tune up. So we somewhat disregarded the return trip to the mechanic pal.

I woke the children at around 4 am, stuffed some food in them, made SURE they both used the bathroom, said bye to Dad, and off we went.
When I got onto the interstate, getting up to speed, the truck hiccupped.
not just once. several times.

I stopped at the next exit and called husband, who told me if i wasn't comfortable to come back.
I go back out to the interstate, hoping its just some muck geting pushed around and a one- time thing following a good tune up.

Not so lucky. It contiued its horrible hiccups, and again, I exited at the next ramp. I had gone maybe 3 miles on the interstate, and hadn't even left my towns exits.

We return home, and along the way I have to explain to my excited ,tired, children that we aren't leaving yet. Daughter gets it. we'll get the truck fixed, and maybe have to leave tomorrow, but we ARE going .
Son, in his early morning tired, but thrilled about being on the road to the place he raves about all year, freaks out. " we're NEVER going to go!! Mom, we were GOOD! you SAID we'd GO! now we're never going to go, and i'm very mad."
well said son, BUT we ARE going to go, you Are being good, but the truck is wrong, and it needs to be fixed. do you want us to get stuck again? (we'd had a trip with a dead transmission , and another with a flat tire.this trip was due to be uneventful)

At home, Husband calls mechanic pal, takes the truck.
It turned out to be electrical, and was fixed by dinnertime. We would leave in the morning... again.

The second departure was MUCH smoother,no hiccups, no hitches, nice and smooth. My non-car-sleeper- childern actually went back to sleep for about an hour ( we HAD left an hour earlier than the previous day)

we also ,surprisingly, had great weather. I always get hit with big ugly storms that are downright scary. i've watched more than one cloud start rotations from the winshield of my truck, and have had to pull over due to hail or very strong downpours. A few scattered drops here and there was all we saw.

Traffic was amazingly moving too. A few slow - downs for minor construction, but no deadlocks.

the kids were behaved, no bickering or whining. they amused themselves and each other, and we played some silly word games.

almost too smooth.

made me wonder what the trip home would have for me.