My beautiful baby, my pride and joy, my white angel, my minivan - has once again entered "money pit" territory.
Let us backstart.
My friends, Monika, Meghan and Samantha decided we needed a girls weekend away. This weekend was precipitated by the promise of a purchase of a much needed snowblower in the closest major city (9 hours from here) called Rouyn. Why not make a girls getaway weekend out of it, I thought. We had a holiday Monday up north so it only made sense to book some hotel rooms and take the town by storm, Wemindji style! So we eagerly packed our bags, imagined all the fun places we'd eat at, all the nails we'd get painted, all the stores we'd empty. Rouyn had a CLAIRE'S ACCESSORIES for crying out loud! Needless to say we were pumped. 3:40pm rolled around on Friday afternoon and we peaced out of town like bats out of hell. Oh were we in for a surprise. A surprise of the worst kind.
It was around 11pm and we had almost hit the end of the James Bay Highway. An unforgiving stretch for us of over 500km of no cell service, icy roads and snowy terrain. We had our 90's/00's playlist blasting for hours and were cracking jokes and telling stories like we had not a care in the world. At km60 I saw the car ahead of me swerve to avoid hitting what looked like a large chunk of ice or snow. He did not move in time and ran it over. With little time to react I swerved as well and managed to avoid running over the object with my tires but did pass over it. I felt a minor bump, heard a noise and looked in my rear view and saw sparks flying off the object. Awesome. The vehicle ahead of me immediately pulled over and thinking they may need help, I pulled over too. I joined a group of 3 other cars in total on the side of the road, 2 ahead of me had run over what turned out to be part of a large truck brake system (about 1x1 foot piece of curved steel) in quick succession. Both had completely blown their tires. I couldn't see any damage to my car but a fellow driver bent down and reached under my car and brought her hand back out covered with oil - my precious car had been PIERCED. I realized then I had bit the big one. Earlier, hoping to be prepared, I had loaded a full-sized spare tire on a rim in my trunk the night before. Given my history with flats I felt I was prepared for the typical. But nothing could have readied me for this crap.
My car was dripping oil at a fast rate and rendered undriveable immediately. The girls were shocked and worried. I was BUMMED. Images of money burning in flames, tears rolling down our faces as Dollarama signs faded out of sight danced in my head as I tried to figure out what to do. Having no cell service meant I would have to use my handy SPOT (satellite gps emergency beacon) to call for a tow. However, a fantastic Cree gentleman from Eastmain and his wife had also pulled over to help out us drivers. He offered to take us to Matagami (luckily where we were staying that night anyways) and call for a tow from there. Harvey Whiskeychan then changed the tire of one car, gave his spare to the other and loaded us up into his vehicle and we were off!! He joked with us about our desire to hit up the Dollarama and kept things light while we were all trying to keep our mindsets positive.
We got to Matagami where I promptly called my roadside assistance through Dodge. I'm going to let you know now that they were totally useless in a time of great need. Sue me, Dodge. CAA came through as usual which was very lucky and we had a tow from the friendly (totally francophone) tow driver in town. He took Monika and I in the dead of night back to my van, loaded it up on the same flatbed used to tow my van the LAST TIME the JBH destroyed my ride, and took us and it back to the garage in town. It was there that we learned through some very broken frenglish that the garage was closed until LUNDI. LUNDI=MONDAY.
So we went back to the hotel and tried to figure out a plan of action. If we stayed in Matagami until Monday; a) it would be so boring and b) there would be no guarantee the mechanic could fix my van. We talked to the concierge and he advised us to call another mechanic who was off this weekend but perhaps would open up his shop to take a look at it. So at this point it was about 3am and we were deliriously tired and very worried. We decided to take a chance and call the mechanic in the morning at 7:30. I woke up on the dot after what I would call a sketchy 2 hour cat nap, made the call and had no luck. Then I called CAA and had them arrange for a tow from Matagami to the nearest Dodge dealership in Amos. Suddenly this was all looking too familiar. The same tow driver showed up to take us just as I was sobbing on the phone to my mother which was awesome. I hadn't brushed my teeth, showered, eaten or changed clothes and I felt like death! Even though the mechanic at the dealership was closed as it was now Saturday, I had to take a chance in hopes that they could help me out on Monday morning. The only problem was getting everyone to Amos with me. Now, I encouraged the girls to find alternative transportation from Matagami to Wemindji and scrap the girl's weekend. But loyal and optimistic as they were, they refused to abandon me!! I have the best friends. Since the tow could only fit two extra passengers, Monika and Samantha would have to hitch hike their way to Amos, about 180km from Matagami. So Meghan and I hopped in the truck not knowing if we'd ever see Sam and Monika again. Oh and at this point our bags were still in my van on the back of the flatbed tow, so none of us looked very hot. Meghan and I didn't have time for breakfast so we each ate a piece of gum and spent the next 2 hours discussing what our last meals would be if we were on death row. Starvation of both food and sleep will make you consider weird things.
Turns out, lots of people were willing and able to take the remainder of our party to Amos which was so kind and Monika and Sam met us at the dealership not minutes after we arrived ourselves. Lucky for me, the head mechanic Tommy was in the dealership at the time and heard my pleas for help!! He said he would have a look at it on Monday and let me know what he could do. Tommy, my new angel at Dodge, called all around town to find me a rental for the weekend but was unsuccessful. When all else failed he simply offered me a dealership car and we were off!! That was as good as it was going to get so we canceled our hotel rooms in Rouyn and decided to make the best of it in Amos. They had a Mike's and a Dollarama and that's all we needed to have a good time! Luckily the Amosophere had room for us and we quickly got some food in our bellies and unpacked. At this point it was about 1 when we checked in. We were severely sleep deprived, delirious, hilarious and running on pure adrenaline. We looked around town for any place that would do nails (none) and so bought nail polish and the necessary tools to do our own nails in the hotel instead. Living in the north makes you very resourceful. That night we went to Mike's and enjoyed a delicious and well-deserved meal, hit up the pool hall next door, shot some pool and then went home to bed because we were EXHAUSTED.
The next day we shopped and ate and imagined we would be having a late night Monday as my car would be fixed and we'd be off. Monday morning rolled around and we called the dealership to see what was what. Tommy was going to look at my van and call me back. So we waited in Tim Hortons and as the hours ticked by, we began to realize that we might not make it home on time for school on Tuesday. Trying to keep things light we sang adlibbed songs about our misadventure and ate donuts to calm our nervous bellies. At around 10 we went back to the dealership and asked for an update. Tommy, with a large smile on his face informed me that he had bad news! Hooray?? The bad news was that the damage done to my car was worse than expected and the part needed (oil pan cover) wouldn't be in until Wednesday. I was DOOMED. I explained that I needed the car fixed ASAP and also needed to get back to Wemindji for the next day. He said he would order the part and let me keep the rental until I could return to pick up my van at the end of the week. So we quickly loaded all of our loot from the rental into the back of my van and took off for Wemindji in the early afternoon on Monday.
The drive home was not terribly fun. The darkness set upon us around 5pm and with that came snow squalls and driving in total darkness. We saw strange animals and felt as though we were driving through space at warp speed at times!! I was very lucky to have company keep me awake and we made it home at around 11pm.
The next day we worked and crashed. I got an update from Tommy on Thursday confirming my car would be fixed and ready for Friday morning. So, I had to take a day off work and drive to Matagami Thursday after school, stay in Matagami overnight, drive to Amos Friday morning and arrive for 8am and pick up my van. Then turn around and drive 9 hours straight back to Wemindji and hope that I don't have to spend too much of the drive in the dark. In total I drove about 18 hours out of 24 and I was exhausted. Luck was on my side this trip and I managed to keep all 4 wheels on the road and not run over anything damaging. I got home Friday night at 6pm after driving through the worst squalls I have ever been but on some of the best winter roads, pros and cons you could say. I was so happy to be home I could have kissed the ground!! I spent all day yesterday (Saturday) sleeping and cleaning as my house had been severely neglected these past few weeks and I needed to catch up on my sleep.
Anyways insurance covered nothing and I'm out over $1300 for my little jaunt and needless to say I am never leaving my house again and people are getting hugs for Christmas.
Love Aidan.
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