Return to the U.S.

Tuesday, September 6

I ran into David and Gretchen the next morning and they helped me laugh about my meltdown the previous night. I told them as Canadians to not take this personally, but I had never wanted to get back to the U.S. more than I did that day. I wanted my phone to work again. I wanted not to be charged a bank surcharge for every debit card purchase I made outside the U.S. And I wanted to pump (less expensive!) gas in gallons again, not liters.

We exchanged contact info, and I hope that David and Gretchen really will come visit me in DC some time. They were awesome folks!

Remembering my state of mind the previous night, I reluctantly climbed back in behind the wheel of the Champagne Chevy and started her up. But my incentive was that it was time to go home, so off we went!!!

It was gratefully an uneventful drive down to the U.S. border. We waited about 25 minutes in line for the border crossing into Washington State. The Customs guy kept asking me if it was just me and the dog in the van and if I really had done all that traveling by myself.

Yes, sir. Why does that seem so strange to you?

But there were no inspections for alcohol or fruit/veggies. It was a pretty painless crossing and then … we were home! I waited about 10 minutes into the drive in Washington State before I turned on my phone, but I was never so happy to have cell service back in my life. Let’s hear it for maps. Texting photos to friends. And the weather on my phone again. Waaaaaahoooooooo! 

(I never thought I’d see myself so excited about phone service. Am I losing it???)

I still had that annoying “Check Engine” light on in the van. Now that I had gotten myself back into the U.S., that was the next thing I wanted to get taken care of. I was going to see my college friend, Laura, in Seattle. Her parents live in Bellingham, Washington, just about 30 minutes south of the Canadian line. So I stopped and called her parents to see if they had a garage that they trusted that might be able to look at my Check Engine light.

They did, indeed, have a recommendation for me, so I drove to the Bellingham GMC dealer/ Dewey Griffin and found myself again in the waiting room of a car shop for a few hours.

[Note to self: you are getting very tired of this.]

The first diagnosis was a potential mass airflow sensor. I do not know cars. I had no idea what this was, so I googled it quickly. But that didn’t help me to answer the larger and more troubling question of whether the mass airflow sensor was going to finally stop this problem from happening.

So I texted and called two friends at home to ask them a million questions. (Scott and Kevin – thank you again!)

(Scott, this is yet another “Damsel in Distress” call – I owe you a full case of wine now when I get home!)

As I was on the phone with Scott, asking him his thoughts on the mass airflow sensor diagnosis and whether I was asking the right questions to see if there was anything else we should be checking, the service rep came out and said the tech had found the problem. And it wasn’t the mass airflow sensor.

Turns out the vacuum hose had been (improperly) laying on the exhaust manifold, which had burned a hole in the hose. Since the vacuum was thereby broken, it was letting air into the engine that shouldn’t have been there. All Dewey Griffin had to do was replace the hose and not the mass airflow sensor. It was a smaller repair, and I was out of there for about $100 (not the several hundreds we had been discussing – whew!!!). What a huge relief! 

I paid my bill and said thanks to the Dewey Griffin folks.

But at this point, if I don’t set foot in a mechanic’s garage again for the next 12 months, I’ll be more than OK with that. Enough already!!!!!

Laura’s parents, Chris and Tom, invited me to stay with them in Bellingham that night, which I did. It was nice to see them again and catch up on how they are doing. Was a nice time and a lovely location – I enjoyed the time with them very much.