Before we had our first child, we drove a $500 Mercury Mountaineer, an inherited 2004 Pontiac Vibe, and a 1993 F-150. They did the job just fine, and we were content without payments. Yes, they all needed work on a regular basis but what rig doesn’t. When Primrose was a baby, we drove 100 miles to Cooper Landing for a three night vacation and we became quite nervous out on the icy roads with a baby in the car.

After a lot of discussion, we traded in the Mountaineer for $500 down on a brand new Toyota 4Runner. We LOVED that car! For 4 years we drove that car in any weather without once getting stuck or stranded. And when. The twins were born and we were faced with the reality of getting a car with more seats, we were sad to see our 4Runner go. We traded it in after 54,000 miles without a single issue, getting back only a few thousand less than what we paid for it.

Since Savanna is from Kansas City and her sister works on the Ford factory line with her boyfriend and another sister’s ex, we decided to buy an American made rig using a family discount. We paid close to 43k for a brand new 2025 Ford Explorer that we have been having electronic issues with ever since.

A glitch kept happening in the screen that would turn the screen off and on without notice. It wouldn’t be such a big deal, however the screen controls the heat and we need heat in the winter. When I tried to make an appointment with Kendall Ford in Soldotna, they had a three month wait. Until I called back pissed off a few days later and they transferred me to a supervisor who had me drive the 70 miles to drop the car off the next day. The car stayed there for 4 days, and when they finally told me to come and pick it up nobody could tell me what they did to fix the issue.

When we left Alaska on September 20 for our road trip to Missouri, the glitch was always on the back of the mind but happily we did not have a single issue. She drove well the entire 4,500 miles to Kansas City and for the 1,000 miles we put on her in Missouri, but the day we loaded up in the car to start our drive out west, the engine light came on and she wouldn’t engage in first gear. I shut her off, waited a few minutes and when she came back on she worked just fine.

Until Wyoming…. When the check engine light came on again and the car wouldn’t go into first gear. In Elko, Nevada, on the day before Thanksgiving, we brought her into a Ford dealership to see if they could diagnose and fix the problem and after spending all day in a parking lot across the street waiting for the car to be fixed so we could continue our drive to my aunt’s house in Lodi for Thanksgiving, they said they issue was a faulty transmission sensor and they couldn’t get the part until Tuesday. (It was Wednesday)

We decided to drive it, and by the time it was dark we had reached Reno, Nevada where we hunkered down in a hotel for the night. On Thanksgiving morning, the car wouldn’t go into first gear. At 5,000 RPMs it finally went into second gear, and we barely made it to a McDonald’s for a Thanksgiving feast. A homeless man covered in blankets was outside of the restaurant snuggled up with his dog, he shivered alone in the cold frosty morning. Seeing him made me remember how this seemingly BIG car issue wasn’t really that big at all compared to what some folks are struggling with. I gave him my coffee and sandwich, explained homelessness to the kids, and the older girls insisted on giving him their sandwich as well.

We left McDonald’s and prayed that we would make it the 2+ hours to Lodi to spend Thanksgiving with family, and we did. We coasted past Truckee and Tahoe turnoffs and down the long descents through Sacramento and into Lodi. Where my aunt lives with two adopted disabled people who she tends to and loves like her own children.

One of them has Rhett’s, which has crippled her nerves and muscles so badly all she can do is lie in the back bedroom staring at the ceiling. My aunt has cared for her for over 40 years, and only once has the girl said anything. She grunts, screams, and laughs from the back bedroom… that is her life. She must be fed, bathed, and cared for completely without being able to ask or thank. The other person my aunt cares for is a 20 year old man with the mind of a 5 year old child. His mother beat him so badly when he was only 6 months old that half of his brain is black and dead, half of his body is paralyzed, and he has a stint in his brain.

And to add to the stress and sadness, my cousin, my aunt’s daughter, is fighting stage 4 cancer. She juggles chemo and radiation pills with Oxys and anti-nausea medicine while taking care if her 7 year old son, 16 year old daughter, 20 year old son, and new grand baby. She has a type of cancer that is incurable.. How long will she live? What will her quality of life be like? Nobody knows….

And here I am worried about car problems!

We brought our car to Big Valley Ford in Stockton where they were unable to diagnose the issue after a full day on Friday and asked us to bring it back on Tuesday. (Yesterday) They called yesterday and said they found a wiring harness under the transmission pan that was supposed to be covered and tucked away out in the open and basically ruined due to exposure. They ordered a new wiring harness and will install it this morning before testing everything to see if they also have to replace the driveline sensors. We should get the car back today to continue our journey to the coast before catching the ferry back home to Alaska on the 12th. It has been a great lesson in patience, acceptance, and perspective. It is so easy to get worked up about things when they’re not going like we want, especially when we’re feeling trapped. But god dang it, look around and we will see people facing much larger issues.

Thankfully, we have a dear friend back home in Alaska who asked us if we are taking advantage of all of the good food in California and we didn’t say yes. We asked her what we should try and she recommended carne asada fries, something we had never heard of. We ordered a plate of them and indulged.

What’s the lesson in all of this? Take a look around, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and be grateful for the things that really matter. Health, family, friends, and food.