Now, the bad:
1. Taylor missed his train from Fairfax to Charlottesville because the Amtrak guy left him waiting for an answer to a question and in the meantime, he missed his train.
2. The train Taylor got on was supposed to arrive in Charlottesville at 8:47 p.m., I was to pick him up and continue on to Snowshoe. (I was going up separately with Hays, his friend Trey and Taylor; Steve and Calhoun and were to come up after Calhoun's track meet.) The freight train before Taylor's train hit a person right in front of the Amtrak station. 4 1/2 hours later, Taylor finally got off the train. I was not about to continue on to Charlottesville at 1:30 in the morning in the snow, so we got a hotel. So, Friday night, I paid for lodging in two different cities. (Oh, and if you're thinking "well your day has not been worse than the guy who got hit by the train," stop right there. It was a suicide. The guy laid in front of the track.)
3. Made it to Snowshoe at 9 a.m. Saturday. Got the boys off skiing. At about 2 p.m., I was finally ready to get out skiing myself. Drove over to the little ski area where they have night skiing and got the truck stuck in the snow. Our huge F-350 Super Duty, 4x4 off road truck got stuck in the snow. WTH? Another F-350 pulled me out. Finally got to ski at about 3 p.m.
4. Steve went down Sunday morning to get the truck warmed up. It wouldn't start. The truck is only 2 1/2 years old and even though it is a diesel, it has special capabilities that are supposed to allow it to start in sub-zero temperatures. These engine coil glow plugs (or whatever) failed. I called Ford roadside service and they couldn't get a tow truck until Monday.
5. Luckily, the Ford started on Monday. It was a bit warmer, so it started, but still had a warning light of reduced engine power. We decided to chance driving it rather than towing it.
6. Truck and Subaru driving home Monday night. Subaru gets a flat tire. (brand new car, not even 3000 miles yet). Luckily, there was a Walmart fairly close that could fix the tire since the spare was the wrong size for the all-wheel drive car. Tire needed to be replaced.
7. Taylor drove the Subaru with a new tire back to Fairfax (we planned on switching cars this week). On the way back, he called and said the back passenger tire was now loosing air. He texted this morning and said tire is now flat. I must have hit something in the road that caused both tires on the passenger side to go flat, though I don't recall hitting anything. Steve will have to buy another tire when he goes up to Fairfax to visit his mother who broke her wrist this weekend and pick up the Subaru.
Here are the happy photos:
