April 18 Our MISadventure on the way to Jacksonville

Sunday evening:  We pulled out of David's place at about 4:40 PM and figured (hoped) we would arrive in Jacksonville by about 8:00 or so--maybe in time to take a nice long walk on the beach! You see, David looked up a bunch of Florida lighthouses and found a few interesting ones on this side of the state for us to explore. 

We ran into a lot of heavy traffic, but I've forgotten just where that was! It slowed us down quite a bit and by the time we got through it, we figured it could be much later than 8pm by the time we would arrive at our hotel. It turned out much differently than our Plan A. Thankfully, we are very flexible folk!

Since I don't know the map of Florida very well, I'm really not certain where the mishap occurred, except that we were across the state but quite a bit south of Jacksonville. We had been driving in the rain (!!) for quite some time and it was presently pouring a very loud rain when I thought I heard David say: "Oh no, trouble ..." and then he was trying to pull over. Thankfully, he was able to get the car OFF to the shoulder (just barely!) before the car died entirely and would not move ahead another inch.

We were using Carol's car instead of David's truck. They had noticed a cooling issue (i.e. the air conditioning) with the car the prior week and intended to get that checked out in the near future. We didn't feel that an excellent running air conditioner was essential for this trip, so we took the car for the better gas mileage and comfort. 

Since I also know LESS THAN ZERO about cars, all I can tell you is that the car overheated and then quit running. To complicate matters, the hood on Carol's car would not open--but David already knew about that problem and came prepared with tools (good thing!) that he has successfully used to get the hood open before. BUT ... here we were ... essentially in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain on the side of a highway with trucks zooming past at 70 mph and it was pitch black dark. David called Carol for prayer support -- and we both prayed for wisdom. David made a call to a friend who lived about an hour away, but there was no answer. Thankfully, David not only had tools, but he also had radiator fluid with us. He decided to give the car a little time to cool down before he ventured outside into the deluge and danger to try to pour some fluid in the car. It was super humid too. I have to admit that it was a little bit scary being on the side of the road like that. I could feel the car shake when a truck would fly by. And I knew that David first had to monkey with the hood, in order to get it to open, before he could put any fluid into the engine--and who knew if that would actually work?

I am glad to report that God did hear and answer our prayers. David was not killed on the side of the road, nor did he lose any limbs while out there in the elements doing his mechanical work. Also, we talked it over and decided to cancel going up to Jacksonville and, if the car started again, just drive the ten or fifteen minutes to St. Augustine and get a hotel there. We were going to visit St. Augustine anyway during our lighthouse exploration, so this was a good alternate plan. The hotel up in Jacksonville was really kind about cancelling the reservation and allowing us no $$ penalty!

As soon as the car was running again, we got off on the nearest exit so that David could do a more thorough job with the fluid, etc. and we stopped at a place called BUC-EES, which was a shopping experience to be sure. I was looking for some rain ponchos (no luck), and we were getting hungry enough to eat dinner (and there was plenty of food there), but we decided to go to Culver's instead (good choice). David did pick up a vest that he could use in case we broke down again, and then we were on our way.

We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express in St. Augustine and started the day exploring the lighthouse there ...