Country Road Trip

Friday, Pam and I planned a short getaway in the country. The goal was lunch in Oregon, Illinois, on the Rock River and a beautiful town. We left around 11:30 am and leisurely headed west. We entered Sycamore, another beautiful and familiar town, and the red light came on the dashboard. A huge red triangle with an exclamation mark in it. I had seen it before in July just as the car died on the way home from church. That incident required a tow and hefty repair bill.

I immediately turned off the road into the parking lot of a familiar restaurant, the Park Way. Being lunch time, we gave the car a chance to settle, went in for lunch, and considered our options. Rather than chancing the car starting and dying on us again, this time on a country road alone, we called my dealer, and he recommended being towed to Dekalb’s Toyota dealer. We did. The service was quick and soon the car was being diagnosed.

This was the second time this issue has caused a roadside problem, so I no longer had confidence in the reliability of the car. I asked the Dekalb dealer for used car purchase options; there were very few and too pricey. But then the repair manager found us and reported the car was fine and being road tested. The cost of the service was the $100 diagnostic fee and that was that.

We drove homeward. Alas, the car died with the same symptom on Route 64 near Virgil, Illinois. We called my St. Charles Toyota dealer for a tow and repair. My son-in-law Dan came and drove Pam home while the tow truck took the car and I to the dealer. I investigated replacing the car with another used one and found no immediate substitute affordable.

Pam rescued me at the dealer and drove me home. Saturday, Pam and I planned to return to the dealer and seek a replacement or decide on repairing the old car. I do not know what the decision will be at this point because finances are very limited. One option is a newer car (2012 Prius with 140,000 miles on it) to replace my 2008 Prius with 104,000 miles. Pam thinks this unwise. I agree, although I am not afraid of high mileage cars. All I need is transportation to doctors, pharmacy, church and grocery stores. Local driving also means safe and quick help if the car breaks down. Of course, country drives will be eliminated.

So, here I am facing another big decision at age 82. I admit, these decisions never get easier.

Before we could leave Saturday morning, we were notified that the building’s elevator was not working. That caboshed our morning visit to the dealer, giving me more time to ponder my options. I’ll keep you posted on what happened afterwards.

October 6, 2025

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