Sad news: my car broke down.
A gift car
This is my beloved car, a minivan made in 2002. I don’t have the money to buy a car, so how did I get one? A friend of the son of our landowner works with cars. He heard that I do chicken rescue and run my own farm, and that I’d come this far on my own. “Wow!” he said, and wondered if there was something he could do. He fixed up a very old car as nicely as he could and offered it to me for free. One day, out of the blue, he got in touch: “Do you want that car?” And that’s how it became mine. (The video includes a clip from when I was still practicing with a learner’s permit.)
When I got it, it had about 140,000 kilometers on it, and while I drove it, it passed 160,000. It broke down and got fixed a few times along the way, but this time a fairly major part has failed.
Stopped in a tunnel
The car had been running fine right up until it stopped, so I didn’t notice anything. I loaded up Pen-chan and other things, plus a kitten in my backpack, and off we went. On an uphill stretch I thought, “Uh-oh, it isn’t climbing.” We kept crawling along very slowly, until it finally stopped in a tunnel. I pulled over to the side shouting “It’s stopping!”, turned on the hazard lights and switched off the engine.
Now what? I called someone I know and searched online. I thought it might be overheating, so I opened the hood, then got back in and just sat there, stunned, for about 30 minutes. We’d stopped on a highway, with everyone racing past, which was really scary. Is it even safe to wait here? I fretted the whole time. Once it had cooled down enough, I closed the hood and tried driving again, and it got us as far as a safe parking lot.
Now the car won’t go anymore. Luckily the engine still starts, but it can’t be driven. For now I’m getting by with other cars and help from people I know, while I figure out what to do next. I’m in a bit of a fix.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii. See you in the next episode.