Today we headed south to Albany where our friend Michael would pick us up from the train station. The train ride was totally uneventful and really pleasant except for one pretty unacceptable issue. Seems Amtrak no longer has any sort of feminine products on their trains even for purchase. Granted I should have been better prepared but I wasn’t and we were at least 6 hours from our destination. By sheer luck the cafe car attendant was a woman and she happened to have something. I gave her $5 and thanked her SO much. Amtrak you have to do better than that!

Anyway, that aside we made it to Albany with not any other trouble. We even brought our own food this time so lunch was really good. I made smoked tofu, sprout and tomato sandwiches with this yummy tarragon mustard I found. The scenery was beautiful.

We arrived on time and were happy to see Michael and Felix waiting for us! We loaded up our stuff and got on our way but before we made it very far we got in an accident! The other car took off so that was extra fun. The car was a bit banged up and had a flat front tire but it looked like that was the only issue. Andrew and Michael put on the spare tire and we limped our way to the closest place to get a new tire which was unfortunately Wal-mart. They put on two new tires in the front and we wandered around the store while we waited. I do not miss shopping in that place.

Once the car was ready we attempted to hit the road again but something was definitely not right with the car so we pulled into the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express and I called AAA. I am so thankful I have their service! Things took a while but a tow truck finally showed up and got it loaded to tow all the way back to Springfield where they bought it. We, on the other hand were stuck. We couldn’t get a rental car that late so we grabbed some dinner at a sports bar that was in the same parking lot and then went to the hotel for a room. They were sold out! The front desk person was great though and called us a cab who then took us to a Comfort Inn. We got a room and went straight to bed. Felix who is three was just amazing through all of this mess. Josh would come and get us in the morning.

Today I learned that a bent tie rod is bad.