Was the Cross Really Necessary? (Part 1)

Between packing up our Pennsylvania house, moving across country, hitting the ground running at a new church, and moving into a new home, I haven't been around much. I think I'm back now. Anyway, this is my story, and I'm sticking to it.

We recently relocated from Western Pennsylvania to Aloha (pronounced uh - LOH - uh, or maybe it would be easier to just say, the h is silent), Oregon. I don't know why the h is silent; no one I've asked is able to tell me why it's silent; it just is... leave it at that.

Halfway across Missouri, my phone rang about the same time I noticed, in the rearview mirror, that my wife's P.T. Cruiser was on the shoulder behind me coasting to a stop. I tried to start her car, but no luck. We called GEICO and a tow truck arrived to take her car to the nearest Chrysler dealer. I was kind of thinking fuel pump (like I know anything about cars), but they quickly diagnosed that two of her computer sensors were dead. They had one in stock, got the other from a nearby dealer, and promised us we'd be back on the road before long, with about $400 less in our travel budget.

Wrong. Once they got the sensors replaced, the car was still dead. A drooping cable, rubbing on the drive shaft, was apparently shorting out everything else. But they could fix that.

Wrong. Once that was fixed, the car was still dead. This time they acknowledged that we'd have to spend the night in a nearby hotel, and give them a running start in the morning, but they were confident we'd be on our way midmorning... with $500 less in our travel budget (still $400 for the repair, and $100 for the extra night in a hotel).

Wrong. The next morning they alerted me that they had found the problem... something about gel packs in the starboard necell shorting out the warp drive. By this time I was really not listening any more, and getting a cramp from spending so much time in the fetal position. There was a new one (whatever it was) at a St. Louis dealership and they were going to barter for it. If they could procure it, they'd have it within two hours and we'd be back on the road by midafternoon... with only $1,100 less in our travel budget.

In the meantime, I was walking around the hotel parking lot praying: God, you've taken such good care of us this summer; please take care of us now. Amen.

Before long my cell rang. It was the dealership asking if I had considered trading the P.T. Cruiser for something new. The $1,000 was going to get us back on the road, but there were other issues with the car, and no guarantee how far it would carry us. I quickly answered, Oh no, there's no way I could do that, and hung up. Then I got to thinking, You just prayed for God's care. Could that phone call have been God's answer? So, after talking with Janelle, we decided to see what we could work out. I think the paperwork took longer than fixing the car, but by day's end (they were literally shutting down the shop as we were driving away) we had a new car, and we were finally back on the road heading to see Janelle's family in Kansas City.

By this time, even after driving 550 miles the first day, we had lost two of our ten days allotted for driving cross country. That meant we had a day less to spend with Janelle's family, and had to make up another day somewhere else. Janelle was mourning her P.T. (maybe just a little bit), and the adventure was just beginning.

Next time, I'll finish the story, and explain the title. Y'all come back now, ya hear?