Car troubles (By Mindy)

We headed out around lunch to go downtown to get some last minute things for our trip around the northern tip of the island. Our car started making some strange noises and all kinds of lights started flashing on our way there, but we made it. We gathered the things we needed and a few we didn't and began, what should have been a 20-30 minute trip home. Our car showed that is was overheating every time we would start up a hill and we would have to pull over and let it cool off after reaching the top--and there are a lot of hills between here and downtown. About 2 1/2 hours later we finally made it almost all the way home and decided to push it up the last long, steep hill. Bad idea. The car died, but fortunately we able to coast into a nice wide driveway. We sat with the hood up, flashers on hoping it would start again after it cooled off. After about 10 minutes we see a car backing down the street toward us. We sat watching it and were discussing how nice it was for someone to come back to check on us, and how that probably wouldn't happen in the States. Brandon walks over to meet them and after a bit of discussion I followed to see what the verdict was. Well, they weren't backing up to check on us at all. They had run out of gas a little further up the hill and were COASTING back down to the bottom to the petrol station. The guy kept asking us if we were just out of petrol b/c we could just coast down with them. Finally convincing them that our was broken down and not just out of gas. They got really miffed that we wouldn't move our car out of the way (they were rolling down on the side of on-coming traffic and were trying to stay mostly on the sidewalk). We watched with utter amazement as the rolled around our car and then back onto the sidewalk giving US a look of disgust just before rolling around a corner! We are pretty sure the car is a goner, but it was almost worth it to experience the pissed-off-out-of-gas-couple coasting downhill past us. We walked down to the house to ask if we could roll our car on into their driveway, which was more like a long dirt road. The lady that answered told us it was not problem, and asked that we left it next to the coffee table somebody had sat out the night before. We walked the rest of the way home. Sadly, our other car has just been diagnosed with a bad transmission. Fortunately it is still under warranty and the dealer is going to take care of it. We are just not sure what to do about replacing the other one. Please send Brandon some encouraging words. He is so upset that one car needs a new transmission and the other died all in the same week!