Our first Sunday in Rhode Island my sister Crystal invited us over for dinner. She lives in the Boston area, which is only 1 hour away. We drove over to her house and had delicious guacamole burgers. As a child I really disliked avocados, but thankfully my taste buds grew up because avocados are amazing!
When we left Crystal's it was dark, which made us a little nervous because the streets out here are windy, confusing, and a lot of times not labeled! It makes it a little hard for foreigners like us to find our way around. Luckily we made it to the highway, next all we had to do was get on I-95. No sweat right because there's big signs for major interstates. Another side note about roads here. The highways & interstates are not lit- at all!
So we saw the sign for I-95 North and then as we passed it saw the sign for I-95 South. John tried to slow down and still make the exit, but there was no way without some serious off-roading. I thought, "No big deal we'll just turn around at the next exit." All of a sudden the highway ended. It was like we were driving on a small one way road and the only way to go the opposite direction was again off-roading. So we had no idea how to get back to I-95 and then ding-ding! The dreaded check engine light!
We turned onto a little side street and it seriously felt like we were in the boondocks. Massachusetts does not believe in street lamps! This little street was super creepy. The only light was on someone's porch. It felt like we were in someone's driveway and I was waiting for someone to pop out of the trees with an ax or something. Finally after another turn down a creepy street we found our way back to the interstate!
The next day John started trying to fix the truck. The spark plugs needed to be replaced so he spent hours on Monday fixing it. He's so great! I joke that we're like the white trash of our apartment complex. The parking lot is full of luxury cars. We often park next to a Porsche or a BMW. And our luxury car is a '97 Ford Ranger with paint peeling on the top. Classy! And to top it off the maintenance guys got after John because apparently in our contract we're not supposed to do any car maintenance at our complex. Lucky for us he didn't report us to management or anything.
Fast forward to Saturday night. My birthday weekend. Crystal scored us cheap Boston Pops tickets! Boston Pops is an orchestra and they were performing Fantasia! We got dressed up and headed out. We're on the freeway about 4 miles away from our house. CLUNK! SPUTTER, Sputter, sputter, dead.
One of the spark plugs popped off. Luckily it was still intact it just needed to be put back on. Unfortunately we did not have any tools with us. Not really knowing what to do next John said, "Ya know as we left the thought 'bring the tools' popped into my head. I really wish I had done that." Life's about learning right?
We were able to call the Elders Quorum President who lives in our complex, but he couldn't help us because an Elders Quorum activity had just started at the church. But he hooked us up with a guy who had moved into the ward that day and lived nearby. He also told us to pray and said that they would pray for us at the activity. I felt so silly, but as I talked to him I started tearing up because I was so grateful that the church is all over the world because we automatically had a network of friends and people we could call. I felt so loved and blessed! Our now friend, Dave, brought us tools and we made it home safe 1 1/2 hours later. We didn't make it to the concert, but it was a good night.
Our actual New England Adventure #2 will hopefully be coming soon once the truck is a little more reliable!
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