A Long Goodbye

We spent two weeks visiting family and friends in New York. It was amazing and we totally needed this! Shuky had winter break and I got a substitute, and away we drove!
We really enjoyed seeing everyone and Benny had soooo much fun with his Bobbe and Aunty Rochel (which he now says so nicely!). Every morning, Bobbe came to get Benny for breakfast and if she didn't come on time he would be waiting at the door, calling her!
He really loved hanging out in Rochel's room, getting into everything he shouldn't!
We got to do a lot with the Laines...that was really an amazing deal. Just really added a lot to our trip!
Anyway, Sunday morning (a week ago, yesterday) we loaded up the car, said our goodbyes, and were on our way! Or so we thought.
An hour and a half into our drive, on the 280W, near Orange, NJ, we were headed up the hill and all of a sudden I felt the car kick out...the cruise control flopped down to about 40 (from 60 at least) and of course we were in the fast lane on the left. I put on my hazhards and slowly made my way to the shoulder of the highway. Mile marker 91. Exit 8A and 8B.
AAA 'put a rush' on our service order because it was about ten degrees and we had Benny! This was all about 1:30 pm-ish. I want to say we had no visitor until about 3 or so. Glad they rushed that one, would hate to see how long it would take for a regular order! Oh, and they informed me that the truck could only take two of us so we would need to arrange a cab for the last passenger. They gave me four numbers (over two phone calls). First one yelled at Shuky for daring to ask how much it might cost. Second was only for airports. Third and fourth were not willing to come to the side of the highway! Goody!
Our knight in a towtruck showed up and was beyond p-o'd that AAA hadn't sent a second car with him to help with the extra passenger...he told us to smush in and he'd take us all!
Before I continue, for anyone not aware, Benny's extreme obsession happens to be the towtruck, or towtrut as he calls it. Not sure why, or where it came from, but every car and truck is hailed as the almighty towtrut!
When he saw the truck pull up in front of us, I thought his eyes would pop out of his head! When Shuky took him in his car seat and strapped him in to the towtruck, he looked at me and said, "Mommy, TOWTRUT!!!!!!!!!!" And then began clapping and shouting "yay!" And continuing with his chorus of towtrut and button loving. The awe he had for the driver, it was adorable. Just kept looking up at him and pointing and turning to us - "towtrut!"
If the trip hadn't been his best yet, it was now!
We were towed about 4 miles away to a Firestone that happened to be open because of a sale...but by the time we got there, it was an hour until closing. They looked at the car to make their game plan but could not get parts until the morning. We cabbed it (a whole nother story...took an hour for the cabbie to get to us) to a nearby hotel and waited for the call in the morning. Which never really came. I was calling every half hour, being told 'fourty more minutes!' and lo and behold, an hour later they said the same thing! The hotel staff were super nice and when they heard our situation, they extended check-out until three.
Being Chabadniks, we decided to check out who might be nearby. Turned out Mendy Kasowitz was one of the shluchim in the area! He told us to look out our hotel window, the Shoprite we saw had an entire kosher section, deli, sushi, dairy...everything we could need, just a parking lot away!
When we were finally ready to head to the Firestone, (3 came around much faster than we'd hoped) Mendy came by to take us. The car was '45 minutes' away from being done. We finally left the shop at about 5:30.
Got back onto that same troublesome hill. And turned right back around to our good friends at Firestone! The car had the exact same reaction! When we got back to them, we realized that there had been some sort of 'miscommunication' and only one of the problems had been dealt with!!!
They put us up at the hotel for the second night and 'would have rented a car too if anything was still open'!
To make a long story short-ish, 2 days and 2 grand later, we were out by around noon on Tuesday.
We drove a while, made it to Chicago around 2 in the morning, where we collapsed at my aunt's house for some much needed sleep! We took our time getting home the next day, stopping at the outlets to walk around...
Thank god, we got home safe and sound. And I as of now, there will be no more road trips in our near future!

Oh, and needless to say, Shuky has had to reschedule his wisdoms being removed.