Miami roll call…who’s going to be there?

[BillsPride12]

53 minutes ago, FLbills said:

Not so much the game, but the lead up to it was pretty wild. It was kinda like the cute little Dolphin spirits were hellbent on not allowing the Mrs. and I to make it there.

 

It started off game day morning. We live about 3½ hours north of Miami in a small town. No city water, no city septic. Wake up early to load the car and get everything ready. Walk outside to the car and hear my well pump cycling on and off about every 3 seconds. Great, no time to really mess with it but got a few minutes. I immediately go and check the pressure tank and there's water coming out of the valve. I already know what I need to do to fix it, but it's gotta wait till Friday afternoon. 

 

We get on the road and all is good, traffic flowing and we're both getting super excited. We're on I-95 doing about 70 in pretty thick traffic near Boca Raton,  when the message "low braking power. Stop in a safe place. See owner's manual", uhhh okaaayyy... until I tried to tap the brakes to slow down...ohhh sh******. Let's just say that there was definitely some luck involved in getting across 3 lanes of traffic unscathed. Get out and pop the hood, nothing seems out of the ordinary.  I was able to get to the source pretty quick, bad vacuum pump. I thought sweet, plenty of room to work and easy fix. 

 

Screw it, car stays, more important things to attend to. I had to call my ex-wife (who ended up being sick as a dog) and her boyfriend to pick us up. I knew prior to us leaving that they were also going. We were all planning to meet up in Miami anyways. After 40 minutes on the side of 95, they arrive, and off we go to get dropped off at our hotel by the stadium, (thank goodness because we were now without transportation). Get checked in and it's smooth sailing from there, all the way through the beat down, which was an awesome, 1st game ever experience for us. 

 

Fast forward to the next morning and I'm up and calling auto parts stores and dealers to no avail. Really glad for that because it was like a $600 part, special order, seriously, for a vacuum pump? Anyways, so roadside repair is out of the question and plan B is a uhaul and tow dolly. No, I don't have triple A and we were like 200 miles from home. Ex-s bf drops us off an proceeds back to our car while we square up with the rental. He arrives at the car, and 5 minutes later, the tow truck pulls up to haul it off. He was able to shoo him away and we pulled up about 20 min.  afterwards. $700 and 6 hours later we finally pulled into the driveway. 

 

While on the way home, the wife, was able to find info regarding a vacuum pump failure and our car was one of 275k vehicles affected for a 2 yr span. Immediately I call the dealer and they tell if I can get there by 6 then bring it up. Left the house at 430 and made it to the dealer at 515. 

 

Wake up Saturday morning with a full schedule of pop Warner football at a field an hour away. Son is more important than running water any way, right?! Sons team wins 39-0 and finishes literally 30 seconds before the field was cleared due to lightning. Stopped at home depot on the way home from the game and picked up a new pressure tank. Of course the storm that chased us off the field followed us home and unleashed flooding rain all through the evening until about 1030-11pm. I was finally able to get the tank replaced today and got the uhaul dropped off. It ended up being a 48hr rental. I don't know if I got fleeced into 48 hrs or what, by that point everything was so "what the hell just happened" I just kinda didn't care at that point. So now I sit and wait to hear from the dealer about the car, with a full disclosure of course "if the diagnosis isn't the recall part, then I have to pay the $180 diagnostic charges". At the end of the day, the wife and I both agree that we wouldn't change it for the world and it made the experience that much more memorable. But the most important thing in this whole ordeal, is that our boys are 2-0 and gaining confidence. GO BILLS!!!

Wow that's crazy dude!  So sorry you had to go through all that...but it sounds like the Bills and then your son's pop warner team made it all worthwhile in the end☺️

Definitely a fantastic game to be at in Miami! 

[Neo]

56 minutes ago, FLbills said:

Not so much the game, but the lead up to it was pretty wild. It was kinda like the cute little Dolphin spirits were hellbent on not allowing the Mrs. and I to make it there.

 

It started off game day morning. We live about 3½ hours north of Miami in a small town. No city water, no city septic. Wake up early to load the car and get everything ready. Walk outside to the car and hear my well pump cycling on and off about every 3 seconds. Great, no time to really mess with it but got a few minutes. I immediately go and check the pressure tank and there's water coming out of the valve. I already know what I need to do to fix it, but it's gotta wait till Friday afternoon. 

 

We get on the road and all is good, traffic flowing and we're both getting super excited. We're on I-95 doing about 70 in pretty thick traffic near Boca Raton,  when the message "low braking power. Stop in a safe place. See owner's manual", uhhh okaaayyy... until I tried to tap the brakes to slow down...ohhh sh******. Let's just say that there was definitely some luck involved in getting across 3 lanes of traffic unscathed. Get out and pop the hood, nothing seems out of the ordinary.  I was able to get to the source pretty quick, bad vacuum pump. I thought sweet, plenty of room to work and easy fix. 

 

Screw it, car stays, more important things to attend to. I had to call my ex-wife (who ended up being sick as a dog) and her boyfriend to pick us up. I knew prior to us leaving that they were also going. We were all planning to meet up in Miami anyways. After 40 minutes on the side of 95, they arrive, and off we go to get dropped off at our hotel by the stadium, (thank goodness because we were now without transportation). Get checked in and it's smooth sailing from there, all the way through the beat down, which was an awesome, 1st game ever experience for us. 

 

Fast forward to the next morning and I'm up and calling auto parts stores and dealers to no avail. Really glad for that because it was like a $600 part, special order, seriously, for a vacuum pump? Anyways, so roadside repair is out of the question and plan B is a uhaul and tow dolly. No, I don't have triple A and we were like 200 miles from home. Ex-s bf drops us off an proceeds back to our car while we square up with the rental. He arrives at the car, and 5 minutes later, the tow truck pulls up to haul it off. He was able to shoo him away and we pulled up about 20 min.  afterwards. $700 and 6 hours later we finally pulled into the driveway. 

 

While on the way home, the wife, was able to find info regarding a vacuum pump failure and our car was one of 275k vehicles affected for a 2 yr span. Immediately I call the dealer and they tell if I can get there by 6 then bring it up. Left the house at 430 and made it to the dealer at 515. 

 

Wake up Saturday morning with a full schedule of pop Warner football at a field an hour away. Son is more important than running water any way, right?! Sons team wins 39-0 and finishes literally 30 seconds before the field was cleared due to lightning. Stopped at home depot on the way home from the game and picked up a new pressure tank. Of course the storm that chased us off the field followed us home and unleashed flooding rain all through the evening until about 1030-11pm. I was finally able to get the tank replaced today and got the uhaul dropped off. It ended up being a 48hr rental. I don't know if I got fleeced into 48 hrs or what, by that point everything was so "what the hell just happened" I just kinda didn't care at that point. So now I sit and wait to hear from the dealer about the car, with a full disclosure of course "if the diagnosis isn't the recall part, then I have to pay the $180 diagnostic charges". At the end of the day, the wife and I both agree that we wouldn't change it for the world and it made the experience that much more memorable. But the most important thing in this whole ordeal, is that our boys are 2-0 and gaining confidence. GO BILLS!!!

I was going to tell my story about pools, piña coladas and air conditioned club seats, but decided not to!

 

You, sir, are unstoppable.  Cheers!

[FLbills]

7 hours ago, BillsPride12 said:

Wow that's crazy dude!  So sorry you had to go through all that...but it sounds like the Bills and then your son's pop warner team made it all worthwhile in the end☺️

Definitely a fantastic game to be at in Miami! 

Thanks and no worries. It was definitely worth it. Was our 1st game and nothing was going to stand in our way...lol.

[FLbills]

7 hours ago, Neo said:

I was going to tell my story about pools, piña coladas and air conditioned club seats, but decided not to!

 

You, sir, are unstoppable.  Cheers!

Do share... good, bad, or indifferent, everyone's personal experiences are part of what makes TBD so awesome. Hopefully I'll be able to take my son to his 1st NFL game this season, also while hoping it's not quite as eventful...lol.