The Drennen Family: On it's last leg...

We have a '00 Nissan Xterra that we purchased brand new in November of 1999. We have taken this SUV to Clovis, NM numerous times, commuted daily from Thornton to Downtown Denver for several years, then commuted from Broomfield to Longmont for a few years and finally it is losing it's faithful title of being reliable. Mind you, this is 175K later!

My kids and I were invited to lunch with my ex-boss, Jenn, from Home Depot. She lives in Berthoud and is currently attending school at Front Range in Longmont where she is hoping to be EMT certified through their program. So, we decide to meet at TGIF's in Longmont after her class. We have a great lunch, great conversation and lots of laughs.

I decide while I'm up here why not make a pit stop at my best friend Jolene's house for a quick surprise visit? But to my surprise she is not home (which is unlike her) and when I leave, my car starts to run HOT!!! I open all the windows and blast the heater hoping that will help and pull into a nearby King Soopers. I pop the hood and immediately there is smoke. I immediatly check my coolant which is close to being empty. I round up the kids and call Lee to explain my delemna all while I'm circling the aisles desperately searching for coolant. As I'm pouring coolant in, with a Red Robin kid's cup, several people stop to ask if I need any help (I'm shocked that people still do that!). I look like a wreck! My face feels like it's melting off of me, I'm wearing a BLACK tiny tee shirt that I swear is absorbing 100 degree heat, my hair is a mangled mess from flicking it out of my way while I struggle with the coolant and from the wind flopping it around like a wind sock due to ALL the windows being down. BUT my eyelashes are still in tact so being the mascara b@t#h that I am, my spirits are still slightly up (Remember, my heater is still full blast on this beautiful 75 degree day!)

Lee convinces me I'll be fine if I take it slow and keep the heater running. So, I gather everyone back into the car and cautiously drive down 17th to County Rd 1 taking the back roads home because I-25 is undergoing construction, again, from Firestone to the end of Frederick and the shoulders are closed. About a mile and a half south of Hwy 119, my car starts clicking and sputtering like I'm running out of gas. I FREAK out and immediatly pull over. Luckily, about a block up (in the middle of farms and open nothingness), is a State Trooper that has someone pulled over. I get out of my car and walk towards him for help. He doesn't offer me much but directs me to a fire station which I passed about 5 minutes down the road. I get back into my car, flip a U-turn and pull into the fire station. I am immediatly greeted by 5 of the nicest men you will ever meet. They offer the kids soda, show them the fire truck and let them sit in it with a fire coat and hat on. Meanwhile, I am frantically calling roadside assistance and my friend Shannon, whom I am FOREVER indebted to, to make arrangements to have the car towed and for her to come pick me, my two kids, and my neice up from the station. I'm sitting there forcing a smile for the kids so they don't worry. The fire fighters are all outside looking under the hood. I see them come in and out with water and tools. Not even 15 minutes later, they come in and inform me I had a loose clamp and it was causing the coolant to leak and my radiator to overheat. They fix the clamp, flush my radiator, added more coolant and let it run for a few minutes. They call me out and showed me what was wrong, how they fixed it. The clicking stopped, the needle was in the middle instead of at H and I was in tears. I stood there in shock, with no words, only tears. I was so thankful for what they had done.

As I'm gathering my stuff and pulling my neice away from their fridge, the alarm rings and they leave in a hurry. I couldn't even properly thank them! I know this has been a very LONG blog, but I coulnd't go without letting my friends and family know how thankful I am for their kindness and generousity. I wanted to do a little something for their generousity so I called my general manger at Red Robin to see if he would agree to match my money for a gift certificate to send to them. What better way to say thank you then filling their bellies with bottomless steak fries and great burgers?! They wouldn't just match my money, they are footing the entire bill!