Balloons and silver linings

We had a lovely visit with our friends on Friday, then got up early to head to Indianapolis for the regional Bible quiz. This year there were teams from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin competing.

Before we got to our friends' house on Friday, the van coolant level had gotten low enough to trigger a warning message. Clarence filled up with gas and topped off the coolant.

The coolant level warning came on again Saturday morning, just outside of Indy. We pulled over and he poured in the rest of the jug of coolant. He thought we probably needed to change the water pump. On a Saturday. In an unfamiliar city. Far from home.

Just after that, Julianne noticed a bunch of hot air balloons in the sky. They were just specks but we continued to get closer to them as we drove to our destination.



This isn't even half of the balloons we could see. Allison counted at least 26.

Once safely at the church, Clarence found some of the locals and started asking about repair shops or parts stores. A couple of them made some calls and located a shop that could do the repair. Then one particular man gave us the directions and said he'd pick Clarence up so he wouldn't have to miss all the quizzes.

The van was fixed by mid-afternoon. The bill was more than I'd like (as always) but I am so thankful that things worked out so well. Although our day started out kind of cloudy, there were definite silver linings:

• We didn't get stranded on the side of the road
• We were able to make it to our destination, then to the repair shop, without running out of coolant and doing major damage to something else.
• The people from the area were more than helpful. The calls, the ride offers, the clear directions in an unfamiliar city were all a big help.
• The repair shop was open on Saturday, could fit us in, could get the necessary parts, and completed the work fairly quickly.
• We saw the biggest group of balloons I think I've ever seen at once.
• Our girls did well in their quizzes.
  

Neither of them made it to individual finals but they brought home a second place trophy as a team. They lost one quiz by one question and won the rest. They both quizzed out several times, too.

We aren't planning to attend Nationals this year so this was their final quiz. We're very proud of the year they've had quizzing on the book of Luke.