A very pretty EPIC FAIL....

Let me start this story with a little background... We have an old vehicle... We had a mini-van while in Tennessee that was less then reliable and were in the market for a new and/or newer car when one was given to us. (Actually two were given to us... but that is a story for a different day.) At the time I was really hoping for a new or close to new car and had a hard time being grateful for this gift, but if we had a car payment debt there would have been no way Paul could have quit his job. Meaning there would have been no way we could have moved here to take care of my parents... I have come to see this a blessing and most of the time I don't even miss the new vehicle that almost was... That being said, we still have an old vehicle... Meaning we are limited in the distance we can travel. (And apparently where we can travel but I am getting ahead of myself...)

Here in Maine nearly every naturally pretty spot has been made a National or State park... Which means that even though our tax dollars support it, we still have to pay to visit it. Last year we paid the $35 for the season pass and used it twice. It only costs $2-$5 per person to get into most of the parks and the ones we were going to cost $3 meaning this pass was a loss of $11 for us. Needless to say we opted not to buy one this year. So being the obvious cheapskates that we are when we heard all the State Parks were free to residents on Father's Day we planned an outing.

To here...

This is right up the road.... Just a few mile from us, but it makes for a nice day trip... Why'd we choose this park when there are 33 others to choose from and this one is only like 5 miles down the road? Because it has a mountain in it... It is right by the ocean, with a mountain that has a car road to the top. Can anyone say "scenic picnic spot?"... Sparky hadn't been up Mt. Battie since she was six and since Cate was working that afternoon it seemed like a good spot to spend an hour or so eating some sandwiches and taking the obligatory photos...

and it would have been...

See how pretty...

There is a cute little stone tower to climb...

and just around the bend you can pay .25 to use one of these things...

I don't know why we ALWAYS do, but they just seem like such retro fun...

and heck... What else does a quarter buy these days...

Unfortunately our older vehicle did not enjoy the drive up the mountain as much as we did...

That may have been the understatement of the year... It overheated on the way up... Paul wasn't worried as we were planning to have lunch up there... Plenty of time for it to cool down, right? That would be wrong... It did cool, a lot, but after an hour and half up there (just about the maximum time looking at the views is fun)  it wouldn't start. We waited about 45 minutes more (wishing we had any reading material at all) and tried again... Nope, nothing. Paul called a friend to come help, (thankfully it was "free" day.) and he came right away (if an hour is right away)... In his (seats two) pick-up... And took Paul with him to get the hose/gasket/engine/muffler/thing-a-ma-jig he needed... (I have no idea what he needed...) Unfortunately it is now after 4 PM, in Maine, on a Sunday... A holiday Sunday... If this part needed is not available at the itty-bitty Walmart we have around here we are pretty much done for...

 We were done for...

But we did not know this before Sparky and I waited up there another long hour... Thankfully my parents bought us AAA for Christmas, because we were going to need a tow truck... Paul and our friend thoughtfully drove all the way back up the mountain to inform us of this need and to get me to call... (Really... You couldn't have handled this Paul... Do you have any idea how long it is going to take to get a tow truck, on a Sunday, a holiday Sunday, in Maine to drive to the top of a mountain???) I now do... Yeppers... About an hour shorter then it takes the second tow truck to get there when the first tow truck on breaks down half way up the mountain... (By the way, the mountain road is now closed... because it is after dark... The park rangers who cannot go home to their families yet until we leave the pitch dark, unlighted mountain road are loving us...) The second tow truck did the trick... And Sparky and I were rescued, saved, freed, liberated from our mountain incarceration driven home at long last just minutes before 9 PM... I don't know what lesson is to be learned by this... (Other then always have reading material/snacks/water bottles in the car.)... I don't think this is a "moral of the story" kinda event... Just an EPIC FAIL!

PS. The part we needed cost $12 and after Paul got it, it took him 20 minutes to fix our car...

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Thanks for listening,