Travis fixed the car!!

tools of the trade...
(Travis with Elise enjoying lime popsicles)

Anyone who spends time with me, or talks to me for any length of time, or has gone somewhere with me probably has at least a smidgen of an idea that I really, really detest my car.

I detest that I need it for my lifestyle (meaning: work. okay, I pretty much only need it for work.)

I detest that me and Kevin bought it in the first place. I was still bitter over not getting to keep the Jetta when we got it. And, I never wanted a PT Cruiser. Lorna and I were eyeing a Vibe for me.

I detest that I got stuck with it in the divorce because I needed a car that would fit the kids...and, because the loan is in my sister's name. So, I need to make sure the payments are kept up. Arggh.

I detest that it came with an after-market supercharger added to it. I REALLY HATED THAT!

(But, that was the key part of it's appeal for Kevin)

I detested when the transmission went out two weeks after it was purchased and cost $1900 to repair.

I detested when some other part went out a year later; thus causing the car to have to sit for a year at my parent's house...while I made payments on it.

Then, I detested when I had to pay $1300 to fix whatever rod it was that had rendered the car useless.

I detested having to put in premium gas b/c of the supercharger.

I detested that NOBODY knew what to do with the supercharger. It voided the warranty. Nobody could work on it. Everybody wanted to see it (by everybody, I primarily mean male, car/mechanically interested everybodies), but nobody knew what to DO with it.

And, I detested that after the transmission was replaced (four years ago), that supercharger never worked again. So, instead of giving more power (I have this mental image of that part in Aladdin where Robin Williams as the Genie says "PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!!! Itty-bitty living space! Hee-hee :)!), it actually dragged on the engine and caused it to get horrid gas mileage (sometimes as low as 16 mpg) and to be really embarrassing on hills.

So, now that I have given all my gripes over the past 4 1/2 years about this damn car, let me say that our friend Travis is AMAZING!!!!!

He came to stay a night to go to a doctor appointment up at the University of Utah hospital...and came back a couple of days later and fixed the car!

Travis (it turns out) is a trained mechanic who is definitely very naturally drawn to these things. He did outstanding!

He literally worked on the car for 4 1/2 days. He had to take it apart. Not kidding. And, he kept finding more problems. And (drumroll, please!!!) HE FIXED THEM!!! Sooooo exciting!

He took the supercharger off and put the car back to factory build! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

Soooo relieved! Sooooo happy! Thank you, Travis!

(And, as AmyLou and Amy would tell you: good thing he came. I was ready to start taking the car apart myself. No joke. I was going to go to Google and You Tube to figure it out. Glad Travis saved the day!)