crazy weekend This past weekend was quite the adventure... well, not the whole weekend, but Monday in particular. Well, okay, so the weekend was normal, the holiday was not. Saturday was Tony's and my run to the base and do all of our errands day. Tony got his stitches taken out (which took forever), and got his hair cut, while I shopped around at the NEX and waited for him to come get me... and waited and waited... Finally after about three+ hours of shopping I was going insane with boredom and thankfully I finally ran into him. "I've been looking for you for the past hour!" he said. lol... The store is so small I don't see how he could have missed me for a whole hour. Anyway, so we finished there, and went to do grocery shopping next door, and headed home. Sunday we spent lounging around the house... so the weekend was pretty normal.

We had originally planned on going to a town near Mt. Etna called Milo for a wine festival on Sunday afternoon into the night. Our friends we were going with decided it would be better to go on Monday. So, thus starts Monday's adventure. Four families were going. Four cars would be on the road. Any number freaks out there want to calculate the probability of something going wrong? Well, we didn't... We piled into the cars, and played follow the leader with the leader being the only family who knew where we were going... (is the probability number going higher yet?)

Driving here is crazy.... I've said that before. There are people who speed insanely down a curvy highway... and then there are people who have cars that don't go over 30 and still drive on the same highway. So, if none of us passed any cars, we would have taken hours to get to Milo. So, each of us had to wait until it was safe to pass cars, meaning Car#1 eventually got way ahead of everyone, especially Car#4. So, it was a race to catch up... Car#4 at one point ended up a couple of miles behind and took a wrong exit, but thankfully caught up.

Anyway, eventually we got through Catania, through the tolls, regrouped and headed up the mountain to Milo. We wound through narrow cobble looking streets, with people's front doors literally on the curb. Finally, we came to a parking lot of sorts, filled with vendor booths, with all kinds of signs about wine.... but there were no people. The place was dead. Turns out they decided to take the day off.... everyone. So... quick! change of plans! We decided to head up to Mt. Etna since it was so close.

So, we follow same Car#1, we wound up and around and up and around the mountain. It was beautiful. There were actually wild foresty type trees that weren't olive trees! It was breathtaking to see the coastline from that high up. And as I was looking around, suddenly I noticed something. A liquid was gushing out of the car in front of us (which was originally Car#4,) leaving a steady stream of whatever it was. I told Tony who said it was probably just the air condition. I told him I didn't think so, it was way too much fluid, and it was smoking.

We tried to call their cellphone, but there was no coverage. Tried to wave at them, tried to flash our brights at them... nothing. Finally, after about five or so minutes of failed attempts to get their attention, Tony pulled up beside them and I hurridly spelled out O.I.L. with some kind of makeshift sign language. They pulled over. Turns out it was transmission fluid, and all of it had gushed out. There was nothing left, and we were two miles from the top of Mt. Etna. We tried to decide what to do. They had company with them, so it was going to be a tight squeeze in the other 3 cars, especially considering there were 6 kids, 4 of which used carseats. But we didn't want to leave without letting their company at least see the volcano, plus even if they called a tow truck, it wouldn't get there for over an hour at least.

So we crammed into the three cars. We even had a guy in our trunk... .lol thank goodness we have an SUV. Since none of us were dressed for hiking up the volcano, that was out of the question. So, what was left for us to do? Eat at a restaruant located in the middle of tourist town, and visit the souvenier shops. We were going to ride up the lifts that take you up to the top, but the price was 25 Euro per person, so we said forget it. I did find a magnet for my collection though for only 3 Euro (the sell on base for 6+!!!) I was happy about that. After walking around a bit, and after family of Car#4 couldn't get ahold of the tow company, we decided to leave. He coasted the car down the entire mountain side. Brave... Parked it, and we all crammed back into the 3 cars. Poor guy rode in our trunk the entire way home (which took an hour extra since Car#1 lead us through narrow roads (at one point we had to pull the side mirrors in) and roads on the cliff side with parts of the road caved in. OMG!) So that was quite exciting and scary. But we finally made it home.

Tony and I want to go back to try to hike to the top. I also want to go hike on a small crater that's near all the businesses. Anyway, we all made it home safely, and while I feel horrible that our friends' car quit working, I'm so glad that it happened when all of us were there with them. And at least we could make the best out of it. Here are the very few pictures that we took... (ugh... I'll have to add pictures later, Bloggers being funny)  ¶ 2:35 PM