What a long strange trip it's been

So on the morning after Christmas we woke up in Ashland to gusty winds up to 35 miles an hour. Nothing too bad, except the roof on the building across from us looked like it was going to blow off.
I set off to the Oregon Welcome Center to get some info on Snow, chains road closures, etc. Two very nice women helped me out and we set off to Les Schwab to buy the chains that can be returned if unopened.
We set off through the Siskiyou Pass and hit some snow, nothing too scary. Then we started climbing Mt. Shasta. More snow. Once again nothing too scary, until David announces that the car has died. Going up the mountain, in the left lane, in a snowstorm. We make it to the side and try to start the car. No luck. We try a few more times. N o luck. David turns around and announces, "we are goijng tos ay a prayer and get this car started." Lo and behold, it worked! David commented that it was such a good learning experience for Henry to see that prayer works. I thought it was a better learning experience for me, a woman of little faith.
We carefully make it another 100 miles to Redding. Luckily, we made it through the chain-up site. They were still letting cars go through, though later we heard that shortly after we passed they were stopping everyone. Which was good for DL since he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
After driving around Redding for 45 minutes, we track down a Mitsubushi Dealership. They take 2 hours to do a computer reading on our car and tell us they can't get the part for 2-3 days. We decide to risk it and head for Danville anyway. The mechanic agreed that we should make it just fine and confirmed that the Concord Dealership had 4 parts in stock and a 7 a.m. appt ofr us the next morning.
We finally head out of Redding and find the In-n-out. It was 3 p.m. and our children had not eaten. It was manna from heaven. Henry actually ate his whole hamburger and Calvin ate a cheeseburger with EVERYTHING on it! So great.
We finally make it to Danville at 7 p.m. David commented that from the moment we left our house until we arrived at his sister's it had been raining, snowing, sleeting or slushing. However, a great time was had by all once we got there. Henry never has enough cousin time and the blue skies were glorious. It was fun visiting with DL's sisters and having a break from the car.
Our car got fixed and they gave it a once over The mechanic commented that there was something going on with the brakes, but it was no big deal, we would make it to LA and back and we should take it back to the brake shop that put them on when we got home. So we left confidently.
I should have known what would happen when I told my dad what the dealership had said. His comment, "Can I quote you on that?"