Taking the Scenic Route

I was in a hurry to get the ultrasound pictures up, so I only posted briefly about the car breakdown.  I want to go back and talk a bit about the day from Zane’s perspective.

For Zane, it was still a pretty great day.  When the car was in the cornfield and Zach was changing the tire, I took Zane for a walk around the field.  They had recently harvested, so there were discarded corn cobs, husks, and stalks all over the place.  We talked about corn, I showed him that the corn came off the cob and explained how corn grew in the husks on the stalks.  He went around putting corn cobs in the husks and trying to get them to hang on the stalks again.  So cute!  We also found some purple “flowers” (my dad would call them weeds) and other neat things along the way. 

Once the spare was on the car, we got back in and got on the road.  We only made it half a mile at the most, but it allowed us to pull over on a gravel road, just off the blacktop, where we weren’t so hidden.  We needed to be visible for anybody to realize we were there and we weren’t just farmers checking out our field.  After a good long time with the hood up, somebody finally stopped and asked if we could use either help or a phone.  We thanked them profusely and called my parents to tell them where we were.  They were just about to go out looking for us, but would have been bringing the trailer in the assumption that it was the serpentine belt that went out.  That would have used a lot more gas and taken longer, so it was good that we were able to call them. 

When we knew help was on the way, but it would take a bit of time, we decided to go on a walk down the gravel road to the bridge and tree about a half mile up the road.  It was flat and open, so we could see the car, and my folks would be able to see us if they made it before we made it back.  (which did happen…the walk took considerably longer than planned).  Zane loved the walk.  He picked up clods of dirt and particular rocks and threw them to see them scatter.  He walked along the little ridges made in the wake of a grader.  He wandered a bit into the weeds at the edge of the road.  When we got to the tree he gleefully picked up leaves.  I commented that there were a lot of leaves from the tree.  He confirmed, saying “the leaves all fall down”.  We counted the 3 reflectors on the post of the bridge, then turned around to go back to the car.  The car sure looked a lot farther away from the tree than the tree did from the car. lol.  We wandered back in much the same manner.  We weren’t quite half of the way back when we saw the truck driving up.  Zach sped up, but I kept with Zane.  When Zane realized it was Grandpa and Grandma he sped up quite a bit. 

Dad & Zach messed with the car, and Mom met us part of the way back.  I went back to the pick up to sit down and get some water and Mom took Zane on a walk through the ditch, then the wheat field next to the road.  It had tiny shoots of wheat just peeking out of the ground.  Mom told me later that she showed him the wheat and he tried some, saying “yummy”, then gagging slightly.  Sort of a mixed review.  (the gagging probably had more to do with the texture…wheat has just a bit of a rough texture, sort of like a cat tongue, so it can get caught in your throat a bit if you don’t chew really well).  They made up a song and ran around in circles through the field.  I had the unique experience of hearing Dad and Zach as they unhappily dealt with the tire and the difficulty of dealing with the soft ground, while watching pure joy out in the distance with my Mom and Son.  It was sort of odd.

The drive back to the farm was very slow.  They moved the flatish donut spare to the back and one of the back tires to the front since it was a front wheel drive.  Dad rode with Zach and I went with Mom in the pick-up truck following them.  If they went between 0-12 mph, the wheel sort of wobbled on the rim, but when they went 20-25mph, it smoothed out.  Anything over 25mph and it started bouncing.  So, 20mph it was.  We got to the farm just as it was getting dark.  If I would have had a camera in the truck I would have taken a picture of the tracks they left as they were getting up to 20mph….curvy and wobbly.  Suprisingly, the tire wasn’t even all that hot when we got home, which means they actually were hitting rubber most of the way and not rim.  That is good, but it really didn’t matter a lot.  The valve stem was broken on the tire, so it is a goner anyway.  If we would have destroyed the rims on that tire, it really wouldn’t matter much.

Again, Zach & Dad worked on the car.  Zach came in to eat for a bit, then went back out to Dad.  After eating, Zane and Grandma played ‘golf’ (hitting the golf balls around randomly with the little toy golf set she has for him), then playing in the sandbox for a bit, then a walk in the night air.  When it got too cold, they came back inside.  Zane nibbled a bit more, played with a kaleidoscope mom got him (singing “twinkle twinkle little star while seeing the shapes change), played with Shelby (black lab), played with the touch lamp, and had fun with the flashlights for a while. 

Later, Grandpa showed Zane how to work the ice and water dispenser in the fridge.  Zane then spent a good while carrying water from the fridge to the sink.  lol.  He ended up wet (surprise, surprise) and we had to put his shirt in the dryer before we went home.  As we were gathering everything to leave, Zane got to the water again, making himself wet once again.  We ended up putting Zane in one of Steve’s old t-shirts that was laying around so he had something dry to go home in. 

Zane barely made it to the blacktop before falling asleep.  He was singing “Are you sleeping”  (in French) and mid-sentence, he was out.  He picked the song back up just after we turned off the highway and were a few blocks from home.  Short trip for him.