Michelle and I left as soon as I got home on Friday for our Labor Day camping trip. We were heading up I-75 towards our destination when I look in the driver’s side mirror and notice steam coming from the engine. We were going too fast for me to notice it coming from under the hood. That’s when I looked at the thermostat and saw that the engine was overheating. We pulled off onto the shoulder and inspected the problem. I noticed a hose coming out of the radiator had popped off, and that the coolant reservoir was empty. I put the hose back on and refilled the coolant. We sat there a little while so the engine could cool off, but as soon as we started driving again the thermostat shot back up. We pulled off at the next exit and checked the engine again. The coolant reservoir had emptied, so we waited for the engine to cool enough to take the radiator cap off. After filling it up with more coolant we headed back up the interstate. That’s when it happened again. We pulled off at an exit and parked in a motel parking lot. We decided to look under the hood one more time to figure out what was going on. We found a four inch crack in the top of the radiator.

At this point we were half way to our destination.We didn’t know what to do. Should we try to go back, call for a ride, or continue on? We decided to try to turn back. I asked the guy in the motel office if he had any duct tape to put over the crack… anything to try to get home. He didn’t have anything, and there was nothing but the motel in site. We added more coolant and headed back south towards the last exit where there was a Food Lion. As we exited the interstate we noticed a sign saying there was a KOA just a mile down the road. We stopped at the Food Lion in hopes of finding some duct tape; they had none. Since it was already dark, we gave up and went to the KOA. We paid for two nights in the tent area and set up our campsite.

As we were getting ready for bed a truck pulled into the site next to us and a young couple with a two-year-old daughter set up their site. The little girl cried for part of the night, but I slept well regardless. We woke to the sound of the mother in the site next to us saying, “Oh no! Oh no!” When I opened my eyes I realized why. There were ants all over everything. They were in our tent, on our blankets, and all over the campsite. Apparently the entire campground was built on top of a giant anthill. Our neighbors had driven into town and bought some ant spray and offered it to us as well. (I think it was a peace offering for their daughter crying the night before.)

Luckily we had brought our bicycles with us. We rode them into town after breakfast to buy anything we could think of to try to seal the crack in the radiator. We ended up getting some duct tape, super glue, and rubber cement. I applied a generous helping of all three, and left them to sit overnight to cure. To pass the time we swam in the pool, played in the game room, and lounged around. After dinner we went to an ice cream social at the campground office. We actually ended up enjoying our day, even after it started so terribly.

Sunday morning we took down our site and loaded Michelle’s car. We said a quick prayer and headed off. We only got about half a mile before the engine over heated again. I turned to Michelle and said, “It probably just needs more coolant.” I was just trying to be optimistic, but I really didn’t think we would make it home. When I checked the coolant level I found that it really did need some. We got back on the road and drove as fast as we could. I figured at least that way we’d get closer to home before we broke down again. After about ten miles the engine temperature started rising. We pulled off at the next exit to inspect our duct tape job.

We removed the duct tape and added more coolant. We only had 20 more miles to go, so we reapplied super glue and duct tape. After another ten miles the same thing happened. Again we added coolant and reapplied the super glue and duct tape. We actually made it back to our apartment with the car still in one piece. It probably would have cost more to replace the radiator than the car was worth, so we decided to buy some J. B. Weld and muffler tape to make a more permanent fix. The car runs great now, and we saved a lot of money.

Week 16 consisted of Survival Spanish.

Week 17
Monday was supposed to be a defensive tactics review day. I wasn’t looking forward to it and was relieved to find out we were doing the Precision Immobilization Tecnique (PIT) maneuver instead. After a classroom instruction block including some videos, we took the EVOC cars over to the track. Sgt. Parrott demonstrated the maneuver a couple of times for us, and then it was our turn.
We each PITed at least once from each side before lunch. After lunch we did the same except on a curve. Afterwards we learned how to box in a car in order to stop it.Tuesday was supposed to be Hazardous Materials, but instead we had a class on how to use our protective masks. We learned some things about the masks, and then tested them for a good fit. This all took a couple of hours. The rest of the day we did nothing. Well, we studied our radio signals and codes, but had nothing else to do, due to a lack of instructors.Wednesday was Bombs and Explosives as well as WMDs. It sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun, but actually was pretty dry. We learned how to respond to such events, but not how to make them. I guess I could always Google it if I really wanted to know.Thursday and Friday was the first half of our RADAR certification. We need 16 more hours of practicing with the RADAR in the field before we are certified to use it for traffic stops. Part of the training requires you to be able to estimate a car’s speed within five miles per hour. It sounds a lot harder than it is.