The Best Made Plans....

For months now, we've been planning a trip to SC for my Granny's birthday weekend. I've had it in my head since this summer that I wanted to surprise my Granny for her birthday. Nick penciled it in on his calendar a couple months back and we even had the bonus that my Aunt Lisa would be in town at the same time. We haven't seen her since the family cruise a couple years ago and she's never met Rachel in person. In my mind I could see a wonderful weekend with family that we don't see nearly often enough. Granny caught wind of the surprise, and highchairs and toys were borrowed, and floors were scrubbed (not that they needed it, one could eat off Granny's floor without a 5 second rule). We loaded our car, made our hotel reservations, and despite it being a short trip, we were all looking forward to our visit. We started our morning out in the rain and all seemed to be going well until we hit Atlanta. Just north of Atlanta, admist busy traffic on I-75, in the middle lane, my alternator went out. No real warning... Nick noticed the wipers running slow (because of course it would be raining) and had just long enough to think that was odd before all the power cut out. By the grace of God, he was able to cross two lanes of traffic to get us over to the shoulder of the road before the car died. Go BIG or go home, right? We called AAA and we were moved to the top of their priority list and they promised someone was on their way for a tow. This began the first installment of waiting for the day. Rachel waited patiently in her seat for about 45 minutes before she started to complain. I can't say I blame her, she needed new pants and was feeling a little confined by her seat. A police officer came to check on us and was nice enough to stay for awhile, alleviating the worry that we might get rear-ended. Rachel wasn't going to wait anymore in wet and dirty pants, so Nick had the pleasure of changing her in the front seat of the car. (We are debating how long this can be used as a free pass on changing of dirty pants...)

The tow truck finally arrived (about 1.5 hours after we made the original call to AAA). Rachel thought this was a super fun adventure because she got to ride up front of the tow truck and there was no room for her car seat. She thought this was a great way to spend an afternoon! We were towed to a auto repair place not far off the interstate. They had a pet bulldog named Haylee in the back room which made this an ok place to hang out, in Rachel's opinion. After a half hour or so they came out to tell us that it was the alternator and went to get the part. About an hour later, they came to say that they had installed the new alternator, and while it was working, the battery light was still on and they thought perhaps a faulty alternator was to blame. A call to the parts store discovered that they didn't have another alternator in stock and a trip to the local Ford dealer was necessary. We saw the mechanic come back with the alternator (by this time it was about 4pm and we'd been there about 2 hours and 45 minutes). I was still hopeful that the alternator would be installed, the car would be running, and we'd be on our way for the last 3 hours of our trip where Granny, Grandpa, and Lisa were waiting. Visions of Rachel playing "one for the money" with Great-Grandpa helped me stay patient. Time ticked by and we neared ever closer to closing time of the auto repair place. The light on the dash continued to stay on. They test drove the car, and yes it was running, but it was unknown as to why the light stayed on. It should go off and led them to believe there may be an electrical issue within the dash. The computer scans didn't show anything. By now, we've been there for four hours, Nick and I were worn to a frazzle. Rachel, however, was her usual pleasant self watching the coming and goings of people, mechanics, and cars. I can't even begin to describe how good she was through all this. Despite her meltdown in the car waiting on the tow, she was happy, pleasant and patient the rest of the day. The news wasn't good. The mechanic did not recommend driving the rest of our trip in the dark and rain with the light on. There was a chance that something electrical could go wrong and we'd lost power to important things like lights, wipers, etc. Grandpa had offered to come get us (as had my Uncle Jay), but at this point, all hopes and visions of our visit at Granny's were dashed and I just felt defeated. Jay called in some of his hotel points at the local Marriott Courtyard and we drove the short distance to what would be "home" for the evening. To say I was disappointed is a gross understatement. Visions of Granny working to clean the house and Grandpa picking up the highchair brought on the waterworks of tears...as did seeing the cute leopard print jammies Aunt Lisa purchased for Rachel that I had packed on purpose so Lisa could see just how cute Rachel looked in animal prints.
While this trip has not gone as planned, all is not lost. As I type, Granny, Grandpa, and Lisa are on their way to Atlanta so we can at least enjoy a birthday lunch together. It certainly wasn't the vision I had for the weekend, but this is just another lesson that while you can plan every detail down to pajamas, things may not go as planned and when that happens, you have to adjust the expectations and make happy memories with the moments you are given.
Granny, I know you'll be reading this.... Happy Birthday. We love you and are so glad that we got to share in a small peice of your weekend....even if it wasn't the picture perfect day I had conjured up in my head.