Car-tastrophe

Today is the day we drove into the mountains. Max’s first view of the mountains was on the drive from Edmonton up though Jasper National Park. We were blown away at how beautiful they are, and how every second it seemed like there was another breathtaking view.  Max said “well, I have actually been drawing them wrong all this time, they don’t actually have one peak at the top.”  Our favourites were the ones with snow on the top. We saw Mount Robson (tallest mountain in the Rockies) and stopped at a hot spring – another first for Max.  When we parked at the hot springs we started a round of accusing each other of having smelly feet and sat in the car smelling our shoes and issuing denials, when Chris noticed our rental car had smoke pouring out of the hood.  Our rental car was a brand-new Jeep Renegade, with 4000 km on it when we picked it up.  There should be NO SMOKE! The heat thermometer in the car was not showing it was overheated but when we lifted the hood there was a lot of heat and a lot of smoke. There was also a lot of fluid running down the front of the car and leaving grease marks on the car and pavement.

 

We decided to leave it to cool down while we tried to relax in a hot spring. Max enjoyed the pools, but was pretty mind blown by the hot water bubbling out of the ground.  We were less mind blown and more stressed.  After our dip in the pools (about an hour) we inspected the car and it was still just as hot as when we left it.  Feeling the tension, Max was trying to be helpful by emptying out the car of the debris and garbage from our morning drive, and he dumped a Tim Hortons’s large coffee that Chris never got around to drinking all over the driver’s seat.  He yelled for help and we ran over. Chris just looked at it and walked away- I think he was actually unable to process another problem.  Seeing a full cup of coffee on a seat was actually a pretty funny sight.  And frankly- coffee stains were the least of our problem.

Max dropped the the camera in the hot spring and then had to rescue it from the bottom. It was recording…

http://www.mogblog.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/P1013661.avi

We were about an hour past the sign that said “Welcome to the backcountry” which means about an hour without cell service. It was a three-hour drive back to an actual town or about an hour ahead to the town of Jasper. We decided to forge ahead, but were without cell service the whole time and the car was smelly and smoking the whole drive.  We did arrive safely in Jasper, and Chris parked illegally on the side of the busy touristy road and put on his hazards. He immediately said- “Max, get out of the car and go stand by that store, I’m worried the car is going to blow-up.”  (Ummm-what? Car’s blow-up????).

 

Now- for the good news. Thanks to our guardian angels there was a Budget car rental in Jasper. Chris and Max supervised the car while I went to talk with them. The woman was awesome! She said “no problem, I will give you a new car.”  WHAT??? It was really that easy. She told me to park the car legally somewhere and bring her the rental agreement and mileage. When we returned to the store she was telling the people in front of us that she is out of cars and can’t rent one to them today. We waited for them to leave the store and in a panic I asked “but you have one for us right?” and she said “yes, you came in first so I saved one for you.”  Oh the relief!!! She gave us a Tuscan- which is bigger then the Renegade. We don’t have to stash stuff in the wheel well anymore- our knees aren’t hitting the dash board, and it doesn’t smoke!!! All good things. 😊

 

We stayed in Jasper for a quite late lunch and a bit of shopping. As we were leaving town Max pointed out the grease stain the Renegade left in our illegal parking spot and Chris commented that we definitely left our mark in Jasper.  We also laughed about the fact we can say “well, we stopped by Jasper and picked up a new car today.”

In hindsight- we would like to apologize to the city of Edmonton. We accused it of being smelly, when really it was our car.

Highlights of the Day

Free admission to Jasper National Park- thanks Justin!

We saw a Golden Eagle. It flew right over our car and I opened the sun roof and saw it overhead. It was awesome and a first for all of us.

We also saw an Elk (holy smokes- they have massive antlers) on the side of the road.

A new province- hello British Columbia, and a new time zone.

Interesting Facts

We have stayed in 6 hotels so far and have ALWAYS been on the second floor. Even in Wawa. (We say- "even in Wawa" a lot).

Every morning Max gets in the car with a BIG goofy smile and proudly pulls unopened soaps, shampoo's and shower caps out of his pocket.  The only exception was Wawa- the soap was in a dispenser attached to the wall.