Saturday, October 17, 2009

Day 39: Brenda's Photo Challenge--Highways and Byways

Hello all!  This will be a bit of a photo essay.  The stars were aligned to make a crazy Brenda's Challenge today.

The theme was "Highways and Byways," so I popped the kids in the van this morning to bring them to the place where I had planned to take the picture.  So here we go!


In the van on the way to Somerset. Lovely weather, which was why I had neglected to go out sooner.  By the time today rolled around, I realized it wasn't going to get any nicer, so decided just to go and enjoy the rain!


All to take a picture of this sign, which I think is hysterical.  As if people weren't confused enough when getting off the tollway!  DD and DS were to both be in the snapshot (that's what I'll call it!), but DS fell asleep in the van, and I wasn't about to wake him!  So DD did the honors.





The rain looked really cool! (photos of the day)



Enjoying a McD Pumpkin pie on the ride home.

And then the fun began.  At the bottom of the exit about 20 minutes from home, I put on the gas to pull forward to the accompaniment of whitish/gray smoke, a horrible oil burn smell, and no forward motion.  Which led to:







And when I got out of the car, camera in hand, the lens cap fell out of my pocket and rolled in slow motion, it seemed, right into...


Just great.

After the car completely lost any self respect it may have had,



The kids got a ride in the tow truck!



The blessings?  There were many.  The van didn't break down in Somerset.  It broke down near a Denny's, where I could go and use the phone (mine was being charged at home, since there's something wrong with the car charger do-hickey).  When we got to Denny's, a friend of mine was working there, at a shift that she usually NEVER works, so she gave me her cell phone to use, which enabled me to keep in touch with hubby while we arranged for tow truck and a ride.  It wasn't snowing.  And the tow truck didn't take the 45 minutes that they said they would take, showing up in about 15 minutes.  It could have been much, much worse.

And thus ends my first Brenda Photo Challenge.  I'm kind of nervous about what's going to happen NEXT week--hopefully this isn't a portent of challenges to come!

9 comments:

Donna said...

HAHahahaaa...!!!! OMG!! Wonderful photos! And you Made it! Well Done!
And you POOR thing! What a DAY You had getting these!!!
Please! I hope you play along with us all the time Girl!! I'll also remind everyone to come back to see the late comers!!hughugs

Donna said...

Gracious, what an adventure! I think you get the gold medal for a story to go with the pictures, LOL! Really, you DON'T have to go thru this much trouble to participate, LOL! Thank goodness you are all OK and there is a happy ending. Love the pictures and the great story!

Pat said...

You know - CHALLENGE wasn't meant to be taken LITERALLY! LOL! Boy what a day you had! At least you are alright. I enjoyed the photos - got a kick out of the one with all the route signs on it! And your daughter holding the "Are we there yet? sign was adorable. I just took a photo of the rain going up my side window the other day - how funny is that? Too bad about your lens cap. Just doesn't seem to be your day. I did get a chuckle out of your bad luck though. Is that wrong? Smile.

Lynn said...

Donna: What? What? Is that you LAUGHING at me???? Harumph. ;o) It was a fun challenge. Uh...topic, I mean. I'm fully intending to keep playing. I hope next week isn't quite as eventful, though.

Donna: HA! Yes, I will try really hard not to go through quite as much next week.

Pat: Really? I guess I'm a literal person. Sigh. I'll try to be a bit more reasonable about it next time. Yeah--the lens cap thing kinda stunk. Teach me to get a retainer strap thingy. I had been holding off on it--but I've learned my lesson.

I'm hurt and saddened that you would laugh at a person's pain. *tsk tsk*. LOL Actually, it was such a comedy of errors that I had a little headshake and (small) chuckle as well. :o)

Thanks you three for taking the time to come to my little place. I appreciate it!

SquirrelQueen said...

Oh my, you had quite a day. I agree with Pat, the word Challenge should not be taken literally!

I love the route signs, what a great photo that made. And the photo of the tow chain, I would never have thought of that. This was a great post, thanks for taking part in the challenge. Hopefully the next one will go smoother for you.

Judy

Splendid Little Stars said...

LOL!
love the are-we-there-yet snapshot!
That was quite an adventure, but everyone is still intact (and hopefully the car as well).

wenn said...

quite an experience..hv a nice weekend..

Lynn said...

Squirrelqueen: The sign is pretty funny. How can north be in two different directions? LOL

SplendidLittleStars: Not sure about the van being intact--think it's a transmission thing, but we won't know until Monday.

Wenn: Thanks for stopping by! I'm planning on a nice weekend. It's pretty safe to say that we'll be spending it at home, though. ;o) Have a good weekend, yourself!

Jan said...

You did a great job on this challenge. Thank you for your comment on my photo blog.