Worst Trip Ever

Poor Brandon! His trip was miserable!

He left here at 4:30am which was his normal wake up time for work so he wasn't feeling too tired or anything. He should have been able to make really good time and get to Fresno within 4 to 5 hours and it took him six. He had to stop 6 times to try and figure out what was wrong with the car. He finally got to fresno and went to Auto Zone to buy a code reader. There were no mechanic shops open because it was sunday so he had limited choices. He found out what code the car was throwing and then called me to do some research. The answers I got did not leave us very hopeful and we were really worried that the transmission in the car would need to be replaced. There was one ray of hope when one person said to fix it try flushing the transmission first and adding new fluids to the car and see if that takes care of the problem, but to make sure to look for metal flakes flushing out the lines because that will indicate that you need a new transmission.

The only place in town that was open was a Jiffy Lube so Brandon took the car over and they confirmed that they could flush the transmission and said that they worked on a car that had the same problem last week and that they were able to fix it. So we were just keeping our fingers crossed that there were not metal flakes in the drip pan! Brandon called me two hours later and he was on the road again! They were able to fix it and the car ran great the rest of the trip! Thank goodness!

Brandon then remembered that he had to switch his phone over to our verizon account (it was previously paid by his employer) and he realized this because he lost all his contacts! He didn't want to get stuck out in the middle of no where with no cell phone so he had to find a verizon store and get the account switched over which took him more time in Fresno.

He is set back about 5 hours by now. He has 17 hours to go and he has been on the road dealing with problems most of the day. He decides to just drive as far as he can and not stop so that he can get to his parents house as soon as possible.

He did stop one time to get out and stretch and eat and relax for a minute and he said he pulled off and saw a pretty shade tree to go sit under and he said that he got the impression that it was a safe place to be. As he sat down and relaxed he looked behind the tree and there was an LDS Church building! No wonder he felt safe!

So he drives most of the night and then decides to pull over at a rest stop and sleep for a few hours to be safe. He wakes up and gets on the road again really early in the morning and as he just gets into Washington the speed changes from 65 to 55 and BAM - there is  cop there and he pulls Brandon over and gives him a ticket! BUMMER!!

Brandon FINALLY made it to his parents house at about 6:30 in the morning having been on the road for more than 24 hours! Poor Guy!! He slept for a couple hours, had some lunch, and then went to work!