Setting the scene: I’d been driving for three days straight. Drive. Sleep. Drive. Sleep. Drive. All day. My car had been performing admirably. I had been a little nervous about how this 12 year old automobile with 160,000 miles on it would handle the grind of a cross country journey. There would be ups and downs. First, in the Appalachians, and then, the Rockies. There would be extreme temperatures. It was 110 degrees in southern California and Arizona. That’s hot. But that’s a story for another time. And through all this, with only a couple of small overheating hiccups, the car was doing great.

This brings us to a beautiful Saturday afternoon in central Tennessee. I was cruising along at the posted legal limit of automobile traveling speed when I started to hear a few pops. Surely that wasn’t my sweet, sweet 2002 Honda Civic making these offensive noises. But after a few more moments of ear straining, the check engine light went on. ¡Aye de mi! We stopped in the next town and had the code read. It said some mumbo jumbo that neither myself nor the guy reading it knew what it meant. So I asked the fellow if he could recommend a nearby shop that I could go to to have someone in the know to take a look. He looked at me like I was some kind of moron and informed me that it was Saturday and obviously there wouldn’t be anything open until Monday morning. Sweet.

After a few minutes of interneting, we learned that there were “Mobile Mechanics” in Nashville that were working that day. We gave one a ring and explained the problem to the guy on the other end. This guy was awesome. After listening to the problem he decided it could be one of two things. To narrow it down, he told me to check the oil. You know that stick that you pull out and look at and it tells you if you are low on oil? Well, that stick didn’t have ANY oil on it. None. Zippy. Zilch. And that, my friends, was the problem. He explained that cars need oil to work properly. Who knew? So I put a couple of quarts in and went on my way. The check engine light went off soon thereafter and the rest of trip went smoothly.

Lesson learned. Check the oil or pretty soon the ol’ Trek will be my only form of transportation again.

Side note: I just looked at the H&H website and learned that it has been EXACTLY one year since I last made a blog post. That’s stupid. I’ve done so much stuff in the first six months of this year. How have I not been compelled to share things with you. I’ll start catching up. Starting…. NOW.