The Petkau Family: March 2008

Well what can I say, but our march trip to Disney in Florida was Awesome, I really cant say enough as to how wonderful it was. The Disney resort was great, the Disney transportation to the resorts and the parks, Customer service was amazing and of course the parks, rides and attractions were out of this world.

Some of our family experiences were

the magic kingdom
animal kingdom
Hollywood studios
downtown Disney
Epcot center
Disney meal plan (incredible!)

But getting down to Florida wasn't without it's adventures too. Our original plan was to leave about 1pm on Friday after the kids had a half day of school and I was at the office for the morning. however, we got up we heard about the storm of the century coming our way, so we threw everything into the van and we were on the road by 9am. We were feeling pretty good about the head start and it was much needed. By the time we hit buffalo and were on our way down through Pennsylvania we were in the middle of an all out assault from mother nature, often driving 30 kph and passing many more single car accidents than we could count.

By 1130 pm we were in the mountains of Virginia with an empty tank of gas, so we pulled of at a random exit and pulled up to a "bp" gas station, filled up, everyone went potty grabbed some snacks and piled back in the van...... turning the key I quickly found out she just wasn't going to start, what to do next? After informing the young gentleman that was manning the station, he wisely advised in a thick Virginian drawl, " I dun know what youz folks gunna do, ya kant get a mechanic this time o night". My mind instantly pondered all the nightmarish outcomes that were before us, stuck in the middle of nowhere, not knowing what to do. But.... before I could finish my thoughts the young attendant continued on, "..... Oh look here cumz a mechanic now". As a large 1986, white, Buick road master pulled up beside the station. and In comes Danny, who was instantly informed by the attendant of the "trouble", " These here folks" were having with their van. In an even thicker drawl Danny offered his help. Now Danny was no ordinary savior mechanic showing up in the middle of the night, and average sized gentlemen, no front teeth, dressed in clothing that would indicated that he just crawled out from under the hood of antique tractor.

Danny instantly went out to the van and ask me to try and start it, somehow, no actually it wasn't just luck, I think it was divine inspiration, Danny says, I don't hear your fuel pump kicking in, I think it's dead. Great, what do we do now? Well, all the answers were there waiting for us to discover them. After Danny gave the fuel tank and pump a good couple ow wacks with a hammer from his trunk to get it to work a few more times, Danny fixed us up with a nice hotel room at the country view motel in Fancy Gap Virginia. In his opinion the days inn up the hill was outrageously expensive at "80 dallers". so we settled in for the night not really knowing what tomorrow would bring, but we had little choice as to accept the challenge or not.

8 am the phone in our room rings, not the funky electronic ring we have become accustomed to, but the old fashion ring of a bell, it startled us all but, thankfully it was Danny. He had found us a fuel pump in a town just over the boarder in south Carolina and about 15 miles down the mountain, he'd be right up to "git" me. Sure enough from his home that was within view of the motel on a hill came roaring and squealing the road master. I promptly hopped in and off we went to Mt. Airy South Carolina. The car was, well for lack of a better term filthy inside and Danny's driving reminded me of my high school days, when spinning tires and the smell of burnt rubber were a daily occurrence. On the way Danny introduced me more to himself and the county side we had landed in. Arriving in Mt, Airy we discovered the dealership that said they had the fuel pump had a error in the system and one was not be be found, but again God provided, another parts supplier in the area had one and it was delivered. Soon we were squealing our way back up the mountain to Fancy Gap.

On the way we passed a sign for a local scenic route, I believe it was called the "blue ridge parkway". Danny proceeded to let me know that "that there roadway is be-utifull" and that we should take it some time. But he had a word of advise for me, "if youz got any knives or fire arms, don't go up there, cuz the pole-ice are purtty strickt bout that". I thought that was an interesting additional piece of information, but not nearly as interesting as the next thing to come from his lips, "I can't go up thare". Curious, I asked why? At which point, Danny, leaned forward reaching under his seat pulled out a black piece of metal that I quickly recognized as some kind of gun. Danny went on to explain it was a 9mm, semi-automatic, I can't imagine what the look on my face must of said, but the words that came out were, "Danny, I'm Canadian, we don't have those kind of things under the seats of our cars, I would have been just fine for this trip if you would have never shown me that thing". He politely explained that all was well, he was a member of the local rescue squad, but when I asked about registering hand guns in his state, I didn't really get any information that I could call an answer. He did tell of how the gun had saved his life when some "Mexicans" didn't want to pay him and pulled a knife on him. He ending that story by saying "I still got that there knife at home", .

we made it back to the motel, where the van started one more time and I followed Danny for about 5 miles to the shop he has use of. A large two bay shop on the side of a county hi-way, large enough for working on transport truckers, and surrounded by a broken down bronco, lots of old car parts and piles of used tires. From here, we got the van jacked up, dropped the fuel tank out of it (with it's full load of 70 liters of gas) replaced the fuel pump and got it back in, all within about 1.5 hours and without spilling more than a couple of cups of gas. by the time we were done I don't think you tell Danny and I apart by looks or by smell. we both were dirt and grease from head to toe and smelled of fuel. If we were to have taken a picture I would have been the one with the front teeth.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, the proprietors were kind enough to let Sandi and the kids stay as long as needed, since they knew the troubles we were trying to solve. However, with no way of communicating with me, Sandi was at a loss to know what was going on or the progress that was taking place, nor did she know I was traveling with an armed stranger. In her mind came all the B rated movies that she had ever seen about someone innocently stopping at a road side truck stop leaving their traveling partner for a moment to tend to a phone call or go the the bathroom and never come back, so she was very relieved when I arrived with a repaired van. In her excitement she didn't miss the fact that I stunk and needed to change and have a shower before getting into a van with them for the remainder of our trip, I complied. By 1pm we were back on the road again, very thankful for the Angels that God had sent to us to meet our needs in times of trouble. I continually reminded Danny of the blessing he was and that I did not believe for one moment that it was luck that brought him to us at 1130 the night before. I also reminded him of the incredible talents that God had given him (diagnosing our trouble in a heartbeat for example), So Danny, if you are reading this, Thank-you, your gun totting lifestyle is certain different than ours, as is your accent, but please know how much you are appreciated.!

After that it was smooth sailing. because of our original plans we only had to forfeit some planned time at the beach, which was OK due to the poor weather and by Sunday we were checking into our Disney resort just as planned.

While in our hotel room we learned a valuable lesson about spending a night with our kids in a hotel. in the wee hours of the morning, approximately 2 am, I was awoken with a start by Sandi yelling, "stop her, She's trying to get out". It took me a second to get my bearings, realize it wasn't a dream and to follow Sandi's stare at the front door of our room where Jessica was methodically working away at getting the door unlocked and opened. All while in a deep sleep. when asked about the incident in the morning all she could say was "I couldn't help myself" (I can certainly understand and sympathize with her as doing strange things in your sleep is a trait she definitely gets from me). It goes without saying that Sandi slept much lighter from that moment on and we had any and every obstacle placed in front of the door (chairs, coolers etc...) should she try that again.

On the way back home we had the chance to visit Daytona beach, where, even in the rain Sandi couldn't resist the call of the ocean for a dip. She and the girls jumped in and frolicked for some time. it's a great reminder of the trip to still see the Daytona beach sand mixed with the snow and slush on the floor mats of the van.

Enjoy the pictures.