Driving Out West (Part 2)

Beware this will be a long post for my journaling purposes...

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had an interesting time driving to Utah. While I was driving through the middle of nowhere Kansas, my check engine light came on. It made me nervous but my car seemed to be driving okay so I felt okay about continuing to drive.

 

I made it to the next town and got the light checked out at an auto parts store. They told me it was the knock sensor. I don't remember exactly what the knock sensor does but I told them where I was driving to and they said that I should be okay driving to Utah even with the check engine light on.

So I kept on driving and eventually the check engine light went off again and stayed off for the rest of the day. I was still a little nervous about it even though the light went off. Since my car seemed to be driving okay, I kept on driving and made it to the place I wanted to stay for the night. 

The next morning I drove through Denver and the mountain pass after Denver. That was a super stressful drive for me. I was trying hard not to have a panic attack as I was driving up the mountain pass.

 

The check engine light had stayed off until I got to the summit of the mountain pass and then it came back on again. I stopped at the next town and at this point I was bawling my eyes out. Since the drive had been so stressful that day and then my check engine light came on again, I called my parents and sister and cried. 

 

I eventually calmed down and went to another auto parts store where they told me the same thing the other store in Kansas had told me and that I should be fine. So I continued on my drive. The drive down the mountain pass was much more pleasant to me. I had calmed down and my car seemed to be doing better going down the mountain. 

I stopped in Grand Junction, Colorado to fill up on gas, go to the bathroom etc thinking it would be my last stop before my parent's house. I got off at a Grand Junction exit. I stopped at the end of the exit before turning right and when I pressed on the gas to move forward, my car wouldn't accelerate. It moved forward very slowly but was not accelerating like it should have been when pressing on the gas.

I immediately turned on my hazards and pulled into the first place I could turn into and parked my car. I called my parents and my sister and talked about what I should do. As I was talking to my parents I soon realized that I had turned into an auto repair shop parking lot but it was closed because it was Sunday.

As I looked around the area I was in I saw that there were multiple hotels within walking distance. So I left my car in the auto repair shop parking lot and walked to one of the hotels and got a room for the night. My sister, H, who lives in Utah (about 4 hours away) drove up that night for moral support. I'm glad she did. 

I went to the auto repair shop as soon as it opened the next morning and told them my situation. They told me that they couldn't fit me in until Friday that week (it was Monday morning). So I asked for phone numbers for other auto repair shops to see if they had any availability that day. I called three of them and all of them said that they couldn't fit me in until the end of the week also. So I called H (who was still at the hotel) and she said I could just leave my car there and she would drive me to Utah that day and then back the next weekend to pick up my car. 

I went back in to tell the people that I would just leave it there (instead of having it towed somewhere else). It happened to be a different person at the desk this time and I told him my situation and he said that that was totally fine if I left my car there the whole week. 

Since H had arrived at the hotel so late the night before, she needed to take a nap before we drove to Utah. I'm glad that she needed that nap. While she was sleeping, the auto repair shop called and said that they had looked at my car. They figured out what was wrong with it and said that they could get it fixed that day. Yay!!! It was my spark plugs. I was so happy that they ended up getting to it that day and that we hadn't left the area yet, because we would have if H hadn't needed a nap.

 H and I had to check out of the hotel and my car was not done yet so we went on a drive. 

We drove the scenic road of Colorado National Monument. The entrance to the road was not far from Grand Junction. They had scenic lookouts all along the drive and we stopped at a few. Here are some pictures from our drive!

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really pretty drive! 

I got the call from the auto repair shop almost as soon as we were done with the drive saying that my car was finished. Yay! 

H and I found a place a really yummy place to eat for lunch (that I can't remember the name of) and then went to pick up my car. I was so happy that they were able to get to my car that day. I'm thankful that I happened to pull into an auto repair shop parking lot. I'm thankful that there were hotels within walking distance of the shop. I'm thankful my sister drove to meet me. I'm thankful the shop got to my car that day. 

Apparently I have bad luck when driving my own car across country. Because when I moved out to Virginia from out west, my car (a different car than my current one) broke down outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. That time the problem was the oxygen sensor but it also caused my car to stop accelerating. My brother, M, was driving with me that time.