since 06': The Worst Trip Ever

I am preparing for our 5th cross country trip in two years. When it dawned on me, I haven't posted trip number 4. And then it dawned on me again, I haven't even posted trip number 3, aka the Worst Trip Ever. So here it is. It was late in the summer of 2012. We were headed back again to CVille. We packed up all our junk and hit the road. Char was older this time, now almost 6 months, so things were looking good. We left from Salt Lake with our Ford Explorer pulling our trailer. We made the first days drive and spent the night. The next day we left early that morning and were making good time. We were just outside of Laramie WY when we heard the noise. It sounded bad right away. We pulled over, Logan popped the hood and smoke poured out. We waited and waited and finally called a tow truck. Jack was thrilled to have a real tow truck tow us away. I died a little as we unsafely installed our car seats in the back seat of the tow truck. Luckily it was a short drive to the shop. This is where the waiting begun. In the whole mess, we were blessed time and time again. The tow truck guy was super helpful and cut us a deal. He found a good shop for us and there was even a park right next to it with a train station which entertained Jack for hours. We did everything we could think of while we waited that day: went for walks, played in the park, read books, watched movies, took naps and browsed through local shops. That afternoon our mechanic told us that our engine was gone. We went through every scenario possible on what to do. Logan had to be to CVille in three days for job interviews and we were stuck in Laramie. We couldn't buy just any vehicle because we had to pull our trailer. Do we try to go back to Utah? Do we fly out? Should Logan go to Virginia and the kids and I go back to Utah? Should we replace the engine or buy a car? Where in the world are we getting the money for all this? Again, I tell you we were blessed. My dad was with us on the phone the whole time helping us out and my Uncle Hal even offered money. We got a hotel and early the next morning Logan went car shopping (on foot of course). Our choices were slim. We ended up with a 2005 Chevy Tahoe. It was an older car but still nice to us, leather seats, DVD player, etc. We started our trip again. The day went great. The next day the problems started again. The Tahoe check light would go on and the car's computer would override and we couldn't drive more than 30 mph until we pulled off, turned the car off for a minute, and then we could go again. It happened a few times and we decided to stop at the next town and take it to a mechanic. Again we played at a park and waited. They said the throttle body was the problem and replaced it. We hit the road again. The next couple of days blur together, but the same problem happened over and over. I remember being literally about an hour outside of Charlottesville and the Tahoe did this about 10 times with in the hour. We were stuck. So close, yet so far. Our kids were such troopers but the trip had worn on us all and we were tired. I cried for the first time on our trip and we pulled over in a parking lot. Trying to decide what to do since it was getting late and the fear of being stuck on the road overnight with our kids was upon us, we said another very sincere prayer. We tried again and we made it the whole way without a problem! Like I said, a terrible trip and yet we were so blessed throughout it. We had the car looked at again and it treated us well for a year, until..... to be continued.