If you know us even the littlest bit… you know we love our old station wagon, Blue. Grandma Blue is her full name. It’s delightful, even our friends and family call her Blue. The guys at the shop call her Blue. She’s a bit of an internet darling and we love this old car. She’s 18 years old. Just about to turn over 200,000 miles… another 1,000 or so. We’ve had her for now about 7 years? She’s actually Jessy’s car, but since Jessy is really not interested in driving, she has become our family car.
That being said, we do our best to keep old Blue running. This old gal really has never left us stranded. Only once… Miss Julia had to come get us… and only because it was just tooooo cold to try and change a tire. We got it changed the next morning and all was right with her. But nothing major, no real big problems with her. The guys at the shop we work with, they are awesome at helping us to keep her running good. Her engine is sharp and strong and they think she’s got at least a few more good years in her.
That being said, we about died last week when she went down hard. Overheated for some reason and we weren’t sure why. Found out the thermostat failed… in the closed position and she overheated. I knew immediately to stop her and a kind fellow helped us to get her going again on the side of the road and home, a few miles away. The next day we limped her over to the shop…
We thought it was just the thermostat and it was replaced… but then, she started spraying water and not keeping her fluids in. It was like she was throwing up coolant! It was dreadful to watch. Everyone was not happy… it was looking bad. She had a head leak, the compression in the system was drawing in exhaust from the engine and forcing it in through the coolant system! She was basically gurgling up internal fluids in some dreadful end of life struggle!!! I could hardly watch and the solemn sounds of everyone were pointing to either ending her road life or an expensive head gasket repair which is basically an engine rebuild.
I sure hope that God did not mind all my prayers that afternoon for a car. Because he heard a lot of them.
Sure, she’s a car. She’s just a big hunk of metal and all. But to us, she’s very important. We just don’t have it in our budget right now to replace her. It would be very hard. She hauls feed for the farm, she gets us around, she’s our big blue baby. And I’m sure God understands… because He sure helped us with a miracle that afternoon!
One of the mechanics said, let’s try a head gasket sealer. Another said, can’t hurt… we’ll just be out $50 if it doesn’t make it. So they got the magic goo and poured it in. Waited a bit, then ran her, let the stuff circulate good. Everyone was holding their breath. Watching. Waiting. I just love these guys at Jerrys… car angels! They knew it was important and everyone was quiet and hoping… and I’ll be danged… it WORKED!!! No more spewing…. took her a few minutes to work the air bubbles out of her system… but she held and ran like a champ. No more leaks. It worked!!!!
Well, they sent us home with instructions to stay around town for a day or two, drive her, but really watch the temperature and to listen for that gurgling and such. Didn’t want her to fail too far away and need to be towed! I took her to Fayette and to Montpelier… just around the place a few miles and she did fantastically! Brought her back a few days later and the guys agreed…. she dodged a MAJOR bullet! We will have to keep a close watch on her… any signs of overheating or distress, might need another dose or eventually a head gasket, but I am praying this will hold good and true. I honestly had tears in my eyes when they said she was good to go!
And yes! I got her washed!!! This darn winter has been so hard, she was so filthy from the salt and spray of the wet nasty roads of late… As soon as the weather is a bit nicer, Maggie said she’s going to give her a good makeover detail! Maggie has been learning all the secrets of the pros at her job over there at the shop and I think she’ll make old Blue shine! Thank you to everyone that helped to get her up and over this big obstacle!!! Everyone!!!
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