September 23, 2001
"Going Home to Mary"
| The next morning, we were ready to go home. We pulled out of the campground around 8:00 a.m. and began the long drive back to Phoenix. For the most part, the ride was uneventful. We only made two stops along the way: one at a rest area in Flagstaff, so that we could stretch our legs, and one at a Burger King in Camp Verde for lunch. Other than that, our trip home was quite boring. Bill and Erika dropped us off at home around 1:00 p.m., and the first thing that we noticed was that our Jeep was parked in our driveway. At first, we were relieved that Janice and Danny had not taken it to Prescott, but now we were curious to know what had happened. Upon entering our house, we found a note from Janice, stating that the Jeep wouldn't start - "AAA thinks it's the alternator", and that she had my house keys…"Long story." We couldn't wait to hear this! The first thing we did was to check the Jeep to see what was wrong with it. As we expected, it did not start, so John used my car to give it a jumpstart. We then borrowed the battery charger from Bill so that we could use it on the Jeep overnight, if we needed to. While we were waiting for Mary to come home, John and I did a few odd jobs around the house while we waited for the Jeep battery to charge. Once it was charged enough, we tested the alternator, to see if it was indeed bad. To do so, I sat in the Jeep and gunned the engine, while John disconnected one of the battery cables. If it died, the alternator was bad. If not, it was the battery. When the battery cable came off, the Jeep did not die. It was the battery. We managed to get the Jeep running again, so we took it to the grocery store to take our film in to be developed. Upon arriving at home, though, the Jeep died again, leaving us to wonder why the battery had gone bad so quickly! "I'll worry about it tomorrow," John said as he hooked up the battery charger. He would leave it to charge overnight and check it again in the morning. Janice and Danny dropped off Mary at 4:00 p.m. We greeted them in the driveway, and as soon as Mary saw us, she started flailing, trying to get away from Janice so that she could go to Mommy. She was so excited to see us that she was laughing and smiling, which left Janice and Danny to ask, "Who is this child?" While she was with them, she had been a monster, who cried and fussed the entire time that she was with them. ("Welcome to separation anxiety," we told them. Basically, it was Mary's way of saying to Janice, "You're not my Mommy!") After the reunion, it was time to hear the "long story": On Wednesday afternoon, around 2:30 p.m., Janice arrived at our house to pick up the Jeep and to check on the cats. Now, before we had left, we asked Janice, "Are you sure you have the key to our house? We changed the locks about six months ago, when the front doorknob broke." She replied that she did, so we left it at that. It turns out that she did not have the key after all - we had never given her one, and she had not made sure of it before we left. ("Janice, I told you to check!" John exclaimed.) Now what could she do? She had to pick Mary up from day care at 5:30, and she had no car seat for her. She looked all over the place to see if we had hidden a house key outside for her, to no avail. She then drove over to her parents' house to see if they had a key, but they did not (their copy of house key was on Bill's key ring). Finally, she decided to call a locksmith to get into hour house. That cost her $49, leaving her with only $11 left for Mary! Upon entering the house, she got the keys to the Jeep and borrowed my house keys as well, so that she could get back into the house again. Then, she picked Mary up from day care. On Saturday, she and Danny took the children to Wal-Mart on Tatum and Bell, so that she could get their pictures taken. They left their unsuccessful, because Mary just would not smile - she had been completely miserable, and no matter what they did, they could not get her to stop being cranky. "I thought she was supposed to be a camera ham," Janice said, to which I replied, "She is…when Mommy is there! Next time, you should plan on doing that while I'm there - it will go much smoother." When they left Wal-Mart and got back into the Jeep, it would not start. They had to call AAA to give them a jumpstart - that was when the AAA guy said that it was the alternator - and he followed them back to our house, where the Jeep immediately died again. Instead of dealing with it, they just left it for us and took their car back. There were other parts to the story, too, but those were the major events. Having told us the long story, Janice and Danny and Joshua left us to go to church, and John and I then spent the rest of the evening playing with our little girl. She was as happy as could be to be home - a far cry from the "holy terror" that she had been while staying with the Guckenburgs - and we were glad to have her with us again. The next day was Monday. Since John and I had taken the day as a vacation day, we decided to use it, rather than go back to work. However, we still took Mary to day care for a half-day, so that she could play with her friends and we could have the morning to ourselves. The first thing John did was to work on the Jeep. The battery had charged overnight, but it still wasn’t holding a charge, and he just couldn't figure out why…until he discovered that the dome light was on! Janice had used the dome light, but when she tried to turn it back off again, she did so incorrectly. D'oh! John took the battery to Auto Zone to have it tested, and he was told that it was fine. They charged it for him, and since then, the Jeep has been running fine. Later that morning, John and I went shopping at Paradise Valley Mall. While we were there, we purchased an "apology" present for Mary - an activity table, with many great features. She loved it! When I finally returned to work, I showed the pictures of Paria Canyon to my co-workers. One of them - the one who had done the trip in the past - asked me, "So, where do you go from there, now that you've done this?" That's a good question. I guess we'll just have to see. Return to Paria Canyon. | |
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