I-10, 405, Detour, 605, 91 = Home

The day at Santa Monica Pier was AMAZING.  Even if all I got on was the ferris wheel but I did play a lot of carnival games which my niece proved to be the master of.  Rigged?  Maybe not.  Lunch was great, beach was sandy and waves constant. Even walking back to the car with damp clothes and feet trudging in the sand was great.  Plus, my legs were exfoliated and I got a great tan.  I love when the sun is out but it's not a reminder of the 9th circle of hell.

We pack up the car and head home.  We planned to leave the beach at 4:30 because my aunt was going to have dinner ready for us and with traffic it would take us an hour and a half to get back to the house.  An hour and a half car ride seems bad but it got worse...much worse.

As we are driving (more like crawling) along the freeway I see a plume of smoke come out from under the hood.  Great.  We pull over and my husband sees that we have a crack in the radiator about 4 inches long and there's coolant leaking everywhere.  My husband is a great mechanic.  Did I freak out?  Yes.  Luckily, my husband is the complete opposite and he hops on the smart phone and looks up an auto repair shop.  It wasn't far and after we park he lifts the hood.  I join him (as if I know what any of it is) and ask, is it an easy fix?  He says, "It's six bolts, yeah...as long as they have a radiator."  Luckily they had a radiator and my husband went to work.  It was not even a big deal for him.

He makes it look so easy.

Radiator fan, bolts being removed.

I had no idea that this was what a radiator looked like. Oh well, it's in some dumpster in California now.

The next thing we had to figure out was a fast way to get home.  I didn't have my cell phone because I forgot to charge it and my sister's phone was dead.  My husband's phone was fine but he didn't have my cousin's number.  My sister told me a number that sounded right so I tried it.  She's got a great memory, pretty eerie how good it is.  I got a hold of my cousin and there was no way around it, there is going to be traffic and it will suck.  It took us nearly two hours to get home.

During that time the story of how my husband  used his incredible automotive smarts had been spread to my aunt, uncle and cousins and he pretty much got a hero's welcome.  I thought it was fitting that he was wearing a Superman t-shirt because he really did save the day.