Well, we are supposed to still be on the road driving towards Kansas. However, we are stuck in a hotel in Alburquerque, New Mexico (the sun setting over Alburquerque right now, pictured to the left). This morning, we left our hotel in Gallup, NM and started our 9.5hr drive to Kansas. (The day before, we had driven over a big dip in the road on the highway, but never heard the car scrapping, but we believe this is when the problem might have started. We had also driven for 4 more hours after this). We started to hear a rattling sound from beneath the car while driving, and when we stopped to fill up on gas, we decided to take a look under the car. We saw a large piece of metal hanging loose from below the car, and although it wasn't dragging on the ground, we decided to stop at the closest Ford dealership and have it looked at. Thankfully, we were only about 15mins away from Alburquerque and were able to find a garage pretty easily. In hindsight, we are very glad we decided to stop and have it looked at, as opposed to having kept on driving and dealing with it once we got to our destination.
The garage was able to get us in right away, and immediately, the mechanic told us there was a problem. He showed us under the car where the heat shielding had ripped apart, and even though it was only one piece that was hanging down beneath the car, the entire heat shielding was loose. The head mechanic was shocked and said the car could have exploded, due to excess heat to the undercarriage and the gas tank. He said at the least the car should have been on fire because the cardboard shielding above the pipes, closer to the engine, was in contact with the exhaust and it should hae set alight. Our hearts skipped a beat at hearing this. He then went on to tell us that if we did scrape the bottom of the car driving through the dip, we were lucky it didn't rip apart the brakeline and gas pipe. We would have been driving without brakes, and leaking gas at 75mph (the speed limit was 75 :-) Needless to say, we are feeling very blessed right now. The situation was so bad that the mechanic offered to drive us to a hotel until our car was ready, because he said it could be fatal to keep driving, even for a short distance.
Unfortunately, the car parts needed to be ordered from Denver, but thankfully, because it was early in the day, they will arrive tomorrow morning. Therefore, we probably won't get on the road again until about noon. We will still have 12.5hrs of driving left after that. We are not looking forward to the long drive and then immediately going into the Missions Convention (ICOM) exhausted. However, as I've already said, eveything aside, we are feeling blessed that we are safe. It's unfortunate that the work will put us back several hundreds of dollars and a whole day of driving (not to mention, the hotel we would have stayed at tonight will not reimburse us our money).
We pray every day for traveling mercies and we know others pray for our safety, and so we feel grateful and appreciative to God's protecting hand, His answer to prayers, and His favor on our lives.
As we sit here in the hotel, it has allowed us to work on some things, get some much needed rest, and spend some time pondering the frailty of life and the blessing it is to be alive!
The garage was able to get us in right away, and immediately, the mechanic told us there was a problem. He showed us under the car where the heat shielding had ripped apart, and even though it was only one piece that was hanging down beneath the car, the entire heat shielding was loose. The head mechanic was shocked and said the car could have exploded, due to excess heat to the undercarriage and the gas tank. He said at the least the car should have been on fire because the cardboard shielding above the pipes, closer to the engine, was in contact with the exhaust and it should hae set alight. Our hearts skipped a beat at hearing this. He then went on to tell us that if we did scrape the bottom of the car driving through the dip, we were lucky it didn't rip apart the brakeline and gas pipe. We would have been driving without brakes, and leaking gas at 75mph (the speed limit was 75 :-) Needless to say, we are feeling very blessed right now. The situation was so bad that the mechanic offered to drive us to a hotel until our car was ready, because he said it could be fatal to keep driving, even for a short distance.
Unfortunately, the car parts needed to be ordered from Denver, but thankfully, because it was early in the day, they will arrive tomorrow morning. Therefore, we probably won't get on the road again until about noon. We will still have 12.5hrs of driving left after that. We are not looking forward to the long drive and then immediately going into the Missions Convention (ICOM) exhausted. However, as I've already said, eveything aside, we are feeling blessed that we are safe. It's unfortunate that the work will put us back several hundreds of dollars and a whole day of driving (not to mention, the hotel we would have stayed at tonight will not reimburse us our money).
We pray every day for traveling mercies and we know others pray for our safety, and so we feel grateful and appreciative to God's protecting hand, His answer to prayers, and His favor on our lives.
As we sit here in the hotel, it has allowed us to work on some things, get some much needed rest, and spend some time pondering the frailty of life and the blessing it is to be alive!
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