Becky & Julie Visit!!!!

I'm just going to throw this into this blog post - A week before Becky and Julie arrived, I was driving home on a Friday night and I was stuck in traffic. As I was sitting there, I started to smell something...that smell that I remembered that fateful night in Wyoming. I instantly looked down and yep, the temperature gauge was all the way at the H. What the!?!?! So I pulled out of traffic and parked at Target. Anthony and Tuf came to my rescue and sure enough there was no coolant in the radiator. We had dinner and then filled Bumblebee up with new coolant. I don't normally drive on the weekends, so on Sunday I checked the coolant and it was still full. Yay! No problem. Ha! As I was driving to work on Monday I noticed that the temp gauge quickly climbed to almost the H. Okay, something is wrong. I called the Honda dealership and got an appointment for Tuesday morning. Am I seriously having car troubles, just 2 months out from getting a new engine? On Tuesday morning the service adviser called and said my three least favorite words - blown head gasket! What?!?!? How? I have practically a brand new everything. I explained to the Honda dealership in Alexandria all that had been done in Wyoming. The service adviser told me that when they installed the new radiator they didn't connect a hose correctly and it wiggled lose or it never was connected. So, for the last 2 months, including the drive from Denver to Alexandria, Bumblebee's new engine was never getting coolant and after awhile a head gasket blew. So, I did what I do in car situations and I called Casey and cried. He again calmed me down and helped me think through my option. It was decided that I needed to have the head gasket repaired. After talking with the Honda dealer in Virginia and asking them what would happen if this happened again - they told me that since they are a Honda certified dealership, the parts are guaranteed for 12 months or 12,000 miles and labor for 90 days. So, that got Casey thinking - the dealership in Wyoming is also a Honda certified dealership and should have the same guarantee. I called the Wyoming dealer and sure enough they do. So, a week later Bumblebee is fixed and I paid the $2k repair bill. I than emailed the Service Manager in Wyoming and explained the entire situation, asking them to pay the entire bill. Casey told me that at best they would maybe pay for half the bill. I was prepared to fight. I had a strategy. After about 2 hours of my email being sent, I received a call from the Service Manager and they were going to pay the entire bill. What? No fighting? Wow! Thank you! I was stunned and so grateful. I received a check a week later and a few days after that the Service Manager called to make sure I got it. Amazing customer service. While some may harp on going to dealerships because they are so expensive - in this case it saved my bum! I threw this into this blog because I received the amazing news that Wyoming was paying the bill when Becky and Julie were here. 

At the end of October we got our first visitors! Becky and Julie! Becky is the Volunteer Manager at MAF and Julie is a dear friend. They flew into Dulles on Thursday night and spent a long weekend here. 

On Friday morning, riding into DC we took this selfie on the metro. I worked for the first part of the day and then I had the afternoon off to spend with them!

The reason Becky and Julie were here, was so that Becky could run the Marine Corp Marathon on Sunday, October 26. I know what you are thinking - Mere has a friend that runs marathon's - I know right! But Bex is the best!

On Friday afternoon we had lunch in Chinatown and then walked to the Air and Space Smithsonian. Yeah, this is the only photo I took (Guess you will have to come visit to see more of it!).

Then we walked around the Capitol and the Capitol Reflecting Pond.

That evening we had dinner at Hard Rock and then walked to the White House and Washington Monument.

Julie took this for me - Bumblebee had a another milestone - though his odometer doesn't really mean anything anymore since he has a new engine.

On Saturday, Julie and I walked the mall - starting at the Navy Memorial, walking through the Sculpture Garden, to the Washington Monument and then the WWII Memorial, then around the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson Memorial.

Than the FDR Memorial.

Than to the MLK Memorial and next onto Lincoln Memorial.

Oh the Lincoln Memorial - so far away from any metro. So we start the trek back to Archives on the way stopping to get Becky a bagel (Becky eats a bagel before all her races). All in all we probably walked around 5ish miles - the National Mall is a lot bigger than it looks! As we were walking, we decided we might as well keep up with our adventure and go to Dulles to get Barb and Robyn rather than driving to Dulles. So, we get on the metro and rode to the end of the Silver Line - probably a 45 minute ride. Than we got an a shuttle bus that was another 30 minutes. But we made it to Dulles and we were going to hang out with Barb until Robyn arrived! So, when we get to Dulles, I text Barb and say, Where are you? We are at carousel 3. Barb says she is also at carousel 3...then she asks the oh so important question. What airport are you at? Dulles.You? Reagan. YOUR AT REAGAN! The airport that is super close to my house. After laughing we make the 1.5 hour trek back to Reagan - just in time for Robyn to arrive. I don't think I can ever look at the silver line again without my tailbone hurting. Good story though!