Highway Robbery

Our parents promised to call Monday afternoon so we could update one another on our status. Apart from our first bus being half an hour late my brother and I had not had any serious problems coming home. Oh wait, our bus did start smoking when we first started the journey. Big surprise, it was again on the Coquihalla (I think they should seriously grade down that road. I don't care how expensive it is, the toll should be going to making that road more survivable for the average vehicle.). The full bus that led the way had also started smoking before us. The drivers just changed the fan belts and apparently all was good.

Our family ended up at a hotel charging them 86 dollars a night. 86 dollars for accommodations in a dinky little town! A hotel in downtown Seattle cost us 69 dollars a night! Mind you it was US dollars in Seattle, but I'm just saying the comparison of what you pay and what you get is nuts.

Alright, let's try and wrap this up and explain why we were all fearing we were about to be scammed. Over the next couple of days and phone calls reporting home this is what I know:

After my brother and I had left they handed over the keys to the van as well as a thousand dollars up front. Now, I'm not that learned in auto mechanic dealings and relations but I've never heard of dropping that kind of money for any service prior to seeing any results. 500 dollars I could maybe understand, but no, my parents had to hand over a grand to Brad's Auto Shop. Keep in mind that it was really nerve-wracking having to hand over your only set of keys. Everything we had bought on our trip, not to mention another 8 dozen Krispy Kremes, and even a CD deck Spydermonkey's cousins handed down to us for our van...all of these were now easily accessible by Brad the Mechanic. Not only that, but after that first night when my family unloaded their luggage and some food that would otherwise spoil to take back to their hotel they did not have any way of getting into the van again to get other foods that may go bad (after Vancouver our van looked like it had been converted into a marketplace complete with king crabs and lots of fresh fruit) or any gear they may have neglected.

Seeing as the hotel room was facing our van in the shop parking lot across the street, it was obvious that no work had been started. Brad had promised he would start work on our van right away Monday morning. Monday came and went, Tuesday came and our van was still in the front lot sitting idle. Even better, the shop did not even seem to open on Tuesday! Frantic visions of this guy running with our money and being stranded in Hope indefinitely my parents started calling around exploring their options. They called the next closest town, Chilliwack, and asked around about the auto shops there. During all those calls my dad came across one particular shop that knew Brad. Apparently, Brad usually calls them up with orders for parts and as of yet they had not received any calls from him with regards to our van. Out of sheer kindness they offered to take our van and tow it to their shop for free and start working on it immediately. But how to get the van back when Brad has the key and our money?!

They then, out of a lack of knowing what else to do, called the local Chamber of Commerce to inquire about Brad's business. They called the auto shop on my parents behalf, and the s.o.b. was lucky he had finally opened his shop for the day. Who opens their shop at 1 in the afternoon when all this work is piling up? (Note: During my parents' wanderings about this little town, they came across several "customers" waiting to be serviced at this shop. One was an elderly man from Alaska who had been towed to the shop earlier that morning at 3:30am. No doubt he was stressed too having to wait till the afternoon to even discuss what had to be done to his Jeep. Another was a young man from Kamloops who had found himself in the exact situation our family and van were experiencing. Out of frustration he just went home to Kamloops and comes back to check on his car every couple of days. So far it had been a week and no work had been done to his car. Yeah, that did lots to ease my parents' worries!) If he couldn't manage the workload he should have been honest and tell people how long it would take and such. Unfortunately for him, my dad simply does not have a week to loll about a tiny town when he was supposed to be back at work already. My dad told him about the offer that was made to him by the shop in Chilliwack, and I guess out of fear of losing some business the next thing my parents knew Brad had taken our van into the shop where they really couldn't get to it and where he supposedly was now starting to work on it.

All of Wednesday I did not hear from my mom, but apparently when my dad stopped by that morning to check on the progress Brad told him it would be done by 1. Understandably anxious to get back on the road to avoid missing another day of work he came back at 1:15 to pick up the van. Brad said another half an hour to an hour. My dad stuck around the shop after that. I suppose to put a little bit of pressure to get it done soon, or even just pressure to keep working on it rather than slacking about. In hindsight, if Brad were truly an evil man he could've jacked our van in all sorts of ways, but thankfully he didn't. Finally at 4pm local time they were back on the way home. Here at home, I was hoping that no call meant that they were on the way back...but I shrugged it off as wishful thinking so I wouldn't disappoint myself. Little did I know!

Back here at home my brother had a Krispy Kreme party to distribute the 5 dozen we still had left here (I had handed a dozen to Daisy since that was what I had promised to bring back for her, another dozen to Posie and Lana, and me and my brother managed to eat a dozen together). None of them seemed to care that the doughnuts were now 4 days old. They eagerly picked out their favorites and ate a few while they were at our house, then they took home the rest. Thank goodness, really. I know Krispy Kremes are fantastic, but if I never see another Krispy Kreme for two months it would be just fine with me. And as a comparison, for those who have yet to experience a Krispy Kreme, they really are on a level of their own way above Tim Horton's. A few who read this may have thought 4 day old doughnuts would be disgusting, seeing as Tim Horton's are rock hard and stale by day 2, but these....these are little clouds from heaven. Day 4 and just now were they resembling Tim Horton's consistency of day 1 doughnuts.

The last of my brother's friends rolled out of here around 1:30 in the morning, and we quickly cleaned up around the house and went to sleep. I thought I was dreaming when an hour later there was some rustling at the door and through the sleepy haze I saw my mom come in (Yeah, I would not be very good if an intruder came into the home.) It didn't really register until she yelled out "we're hoooome!" and I saw my brother come out and give her a hug. Unfortunately, my poor dad still had to go to work at 8 so he went straight to bed, happy to be home. But us kids and our mom, holy, we stayed up until 4:30 catching up and just revelling in being together once again.

I am so sooooo glad they're home.

P.S. As for the whole highway robbery thing, turns out that the price my parents eventually paid in total for the repairs are comparable to everywhere else, but it sure felt dubious at the time. But our towing bill, yeah, I'm practically certain that was a ripoff. And the hotel, too. I swear that whole town is in cahoots to keep stranded out-of-towners there for as long as possible to see how much money they can suck out of you. As my family was driving home they saw one of our tow truck drivers helping out at a car accident on the highway and when he saw us driving off he smiled. Mom said his "devilish smile" gave her the creeps. Ironic that they would call that town Hope, huh?