Our Vain Van

We took a trip to Phoenix Easter week-end to see Claire's eye doctor again.  She has Exotropia, which means that her eyes turn outwards.  She is having trouble with depth perception and biocularity (which means eyes seeing together). This may be a reason for her difficulty at school.  Claire can read very well and is so much fun, but she often has difficulty focusing and carrying out instructions.  Most people with this condition need corrective surgery.  Claire will most likely too.  But right now, we patch the better eye, to try and strengthen the eye that turns out the most, for a couple hours a day. We'll go back in three months.

Our trip was a little adventure.  Our van decided that it didn't like it's water pump anymore and that it wanted a brand new one.  Oh the vanity.  It decided this 10 miles north of Fountain Hills on the Beeline highway (in the desert). It almost overheated and we lost a lot of fluid when we opened up the radiator.  After a prayer and adding what seemed like a ton of water, we decided to risk driving the 10 miles to civilization. We made it to a Jiffy Lube (not exactly a mechanic) but they were able to give us a temporary fix and Claire, Alex and I took a taxi to the doctor's appointment.

We were able to get the car towed to a mechanic, find a rental car and a hotel for good prices thanks to AAA and Aaron's smart phone.  After all was said and done, a trip that was supposed to cost a tank of gas, a dinner, and a copay turned into $1000.  Thank goodness for tax refunds.

But the hotel was a nice end to a stressful day.  We found a 3 1/2 star hotel on hotwire for $66 for the night.  So after taxes we paid about $80.  It was lovely and comfortable even though we all had to sleep in the clothes we'd been in all day.  I highly recommend the Orange Tree Golf Resort (even for non golfers).  The concierge was so helpful and their were robes in the room to lounge in.

The next day we went to the train park and played games at Peter Piper Pizza until the van was fixed.  Thank goodness it was fixed and it is doing fine.  I guess a guy came in right after Aaron and had overheated his car with the same problem - needed a new head gasket.  We feel very lucky and blessed.  What was a very stressful experience turned into a kind of fun week-end.