Most of our vacations start as vacations, but usually end up being a road trip. Always memorable. This story is about the road trip we took just this July. Our goal was to make it to Northern California for a wedding. We did accomplish our goal. However, we had to overcome some obstacles.
We start the trip by packing up our dodge caravan, full for a long road trip with 2 kids. We head out going west on I70 after I get home from work – trying to make the most of our time. We decide against going up north to I80 as that just takes us too far north and decide to take the I70 to
Highway 50.
Highway 50 is said to be the loneliest highway in America. We have found thatHighway 50 is a beautiful route with lots of
interesting diversions. Highway 50. We had turned onto Highway 50 from I70 in Utah. Six miles from a little town of
Scipio (and I mean little – there isn’t even a stop light), we hit a deer. Now, it is about 3:30 in the morning and we are stuck on the side of the road. The deer and van hit just right and totally took of the top of the radiator. We weren’t going anywhere. A couple of cars pass us standing on the side of the road. I can’t blame anyone for stopping – here it is at 3:30 in the morning. Then a truck driver stops. He can’t even call for help as his cell phone has no service. He went ahead and left us there, but did call for help once he was in town. In no time, the sheriff and wrecker showed up. We were at the one hotel in town by 4:30am. Not bad. We even got the last room for the night, or morning anyway. We get a few zz’s in and then we try to decide what to do. We don’t have a vehicle. We could turn around and go home OR try to finish what we started. What were we thinking?!!!?
We try calling one of the larger, more populated towns – Provo, to get a ride into town. We call around for a rent a car – but can’t get around to pick up the rent a car. The very nice people at Super 8 in Scipio came to our rescue. It seems that about once a month, someone is getting stranded in Scipio and they had a number to a taxi/limo service that would come down there. Sure enough - $300+ later, we were in Orem, Utah to pick up our rent a car. A piece of shit Ford Taurus. Nothing like taking a 16-18 hour road trip in a Ford Taurus. Now, when we left the van, we weren’t sure if we would ever see it again – yea, lots of damage. So we took everything we could, the stereo, tow rope, hitch, map books, everything. However, we are on vacation, so we do have all that extra gear that comes along with it – luggage, cameras, snacks, kids. It was quite a sight see us all pile into that little sedan with ALL of this extra stuff, really, who wants to take a tow hitch on vacation. Now we are in
Orem – we can turn around and come home or we can continue. We decide to push forward as we are almost at the half way mark. If we would have come home, the highlight of the trip would have been hitting the deer. The good news, we did make it to our destination, enjoyed a beautiful wedding and lots of family and my kids got the once in a lifetime opportunity to play in a pond. As LG says, ‘Just like in the movies!’
Now to the part that keeps on giving. In Scipio, they have the wrecker. He is part of the Scipio Fuel & Food – Grocery & Gas. So, the insurance company sends down their wrecker and takes the van on a scenic tour of Utah up to a suburb of Salt Lake –
Sandy, Utah to a firm called
ABRA Auto Body. Okay, doesn’t sound bad, we have a couple of those out here in Denver too. A month later, my husband gets the call to pick up the van. Now this entails another trip out to Salt Lake and back again. He does this by himself as we did just get back from vacation a month ago. By the time he gets back, he is just infuriated. I mean there was fire and brimstone shooting out of his eyes. This is way beyond steamed. He just drove 7 hours or so and is still this pissed. Oh boy. Well, I get out to look at the van and the “repair job” that the slobs (yes slobs) in Sandy did. There is still a large ding in the driver door – the hood doesn’t even align correctly and some slob or slobs ate their lunch and saved the trash in the drawer under the passenger seat. I have never seen a detail job that actually left more garbage in the vehicle then before the job started.
Now, we take it to a shop here in Denver. An ABRA as we were told this work had a lifetime warranty. These men could not believe that they let the van leave the shop looking the way it did. They said that they would fix it right for us. A month later, they are still waiting for Sandy Utah to quit denying the piss poor workmanship and to get on to authorizing the ‘warranty’ work.
Word finally came through on this side. Regional Manager Eric Christopherson cannot believe that ABRA Sandy is dragging their feet and has authorized the go ahead – with OEM (hehe) and that he will deal with the politics after the customer (us) have been satisfied. I say GO ERIC. Of course, I don’t think that ABRA Sandy should be let off so lightly. So far, my complaint letter is 2 pages long – in small font addressing 22 different issues. The scary part – this isn’t even a complete listing.
Of course, we still don’t have the van. Had it for about 4 days around August 14 when it was picked up. It has been sitting in front of the shop here, waiting. What a crock of shit.
