Epic Road Trip Part 1: Vermont Part 1!

July 10th, 2016

Ben and I drove from Syracuse, New York to Montpelier, Vermont, where my brother Paul, and sister-in-law, Sarah live. We got there around 4:30pm, and Paul took us on a walk around their property. Sarah made us a delicious dinner, and we played two games of Settlers. Ben's friend Leigh came over from somewhere not far away and joined us for dinner.

July 11th,  2016

Sarah, me and Paul! Sarah is about 8 2/3 months pregnant here!

Paul and Sarah had to work today (suckers!), so Ben and I explored on our own. We took an interesting tour of the state house (Vermont State Capitol), and went to Paul's work to hang out for a little while, and have lunch with him.

Vermont State House

We then drove on to Quebec city. As we rounded the corner of the street our air bnb was on, the car started shaking and the check engine light came on. Ben pulled up to our air bnb, and I was filled with dread, remembering the oil incident that was now a week and 1,500 miles behind me.

I opened the hood, and checked the oil, and discovered the worst - it was completely empty. No oil! And, my oil pressure light had never come on! I still had the extra quart Scott had given me in the car, so I put that in, and after we had unloaded, we went out to get more oil.

At the first gas station, I asked the attendant, "do you speak English?" and he said, "a little." So I said, "Do you have motor oil?" and I got a blank stare. I looked around, but couldn't see it anywhere. So Ben and I went to the next gas station. I asked the attendant, "do you speak English?" and she said, "a little." So I said, "do you have motor oil?" and she said, "yes, of course, it's right there." Yay! I bought the oil and asked her if they did service there and she no, but found me a place nearby where she takes her own car (Monsieur Muffler!) and got me the address and phone number. We bought extra oil, too, just in case.

It was too late at night to take it to Mssr. Muffler, and anyway, we had to go to the Quebec airport soon to pick up Ben's sister, Lindsay, and their mom, Ginny. We decided to fill it up with oil and see how it did on the airport run and decide what to do in the morning. We headed back to our apartment.

Through a combination of flight delays and our inability to correctly read a flight schedule, we thought we had to pick them up at 7:30pm but it ended up being 1am before they got in! We drove out to the airport, picked them up, and got back to the apartment with no car troubles. We were all quite tired and fell right to sleep.

The gorgeous living room of our Quebec City apartment