Once again, I woke up bright and early and gave my husband a call. I had woke up a little after 6 am and just laid in bed knowing there wouldn't be anything else to do. I waited til about 7:30 am and gave my husband a call. He was up and around. I still laid there after we hung up, turned on the weather channel, which I hoped would lull me back to sleep. Finally, I turned off the TV and slept for about 10 minutes, til my phone started ringing. I rolled over and grabbed it.
It was my brother-in-law, Roland. For some reason, I thought he would have already been at work, my brain wasn't fully functioning, guess I had went straight into a deep sleep. He told me a line in my van had rusted through, that he needed a tow truck and that he was in Ellicottville. This is a good half hour from his work, and I knew that he would never make it time now. I woke up my parents and called AAA. Thank goodness for AAA and their towing program, it is well worth the money! Dad and I jumped in his car and raced, as fast as you can when you don't know that one of the roads was under construction and there is a flag guy, to Ellicottville.
On the way to Ellicottville, I called Roland back to hear the details again because in my half-awake state I didn't comprehend everything. That is when I heard the whole story. He pulled the van into a KwikFill Gas Station. It was smoking like nobody's business. The clerk called the fire department immediately, as he had parked right over one of the gas caps where the truck puts the gasoline in. The clerk didn't want to take any chances that the van was on fire and would blow up the whole town. So, by the time he was on the phone with me, a police officer and a couple other emergency vehicles had shown up. He assured them that it was a coolant problem and it was only overheating. I think that helped put everyone at ease. He then went in and bought something to drink and eat, and told the clerk that he wouldn't park a burning vehicle at gas station. We all know what kinds of problems that would have caused!
By the time I got to Ellicottville, the van was on the flatbed, and getting tied down. I showed the man my AAA card and then headed back home. On the way home, Mom called and asked us to get the potatoes, and eggs from the store, and the boys from Susan's house. Dad dropped me off and went on his way to get these things. We had a delicious brunch, around 11:30 am, with the sausage from Wednesday, boiled, then fried potatoes, eggs and toast. It was well worth the wait!
I got another call from Roland, telling me that the line was only available through the dealer and wouldn't be in until Friday. We were given one more day with the family, as we were planning to leave Friday at 8 am to get home by Sunday afternoon. The bad part was knowing that there would be one more cost for the van. I am just thankful that it happened when Roland had it, rather than when I was headed back West and would know no one that could do the work, and have to pay for the extra hotel nights and food until it could be finished.
After brunch, we went blueberry picking again. This time Brenda came, and got a lot of pictures. We got two quarts of blueberries, knowing that Friday morning would be a blueberry pancake day. We had all been wanting some blueberry pancakes. Nothing like getting them fresh from the blueberry bush! It was a horribly, hot and humid day. We got 2 quarts of blueberries and called it good. We were sweating like crazy.
Upon our return home, it was time to start making cakes. We were celebrating Roland's birthday that evening. We made a white cake (which turned out to be coconut) with rainbow chip frosting and a lemon cake with chocolate frosting. We made some cookies, both sugar and walnut chocolate chip, they didn't last long enough for the party and got some ice cream. Between the making of cookies and the party, we hung out in the swings in Mom's backyard. They have the most beautiful flower gardens that we enjoy looking at while we swing.
Grandma's goulash (which is a recipe of my father's mother) was made for supper that night. We had several different kinds of sauce to choose from. Everyone enjoyed it, and we had a lot of macaroni noodles left over. When Roland got home around 8 pm, he had his supper, then we had the party. I ate a piece of lemon cake and a small piece of the white cake (which turned out to be coconut) and ice cream. My youngest only had ice cream, my two oldest each had a piece of cake with ice cream. My youngest helped to scoop ice cream for everyone, and did a great job. I was impressed. We had almost a whole cake left if we had combined them. I think we had all filled up on goulash!
My oldest son went over to his Aunt Susan's house for a sleepover with his cousin and my daughter went over to her Aunt Bre's house for a sleepover with her cousins after the party. I stayed up with my youngest for about another hour and watched some games on TV with my Mom and brothers, then called it a night.
I am glad that Roland was driving it too, because I know if I had been driving it would have overheated and the engine would have exploded or something. It also gave us that extra day and a half.
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