Adventures of Capt'n Safety: The Great College Caper

On Monday, January 6,  as the polar vortex was moving in, we sent our son back to Cedarville University in southwestern Ohio with our old Toyota Avalon. Two weeks prior, my husband, aka, Capt'n Safety had $1,000 worth of service done to it to ensure it would be safe to haul our precious cargo on the 450 mile one-way journey. The old car has always run like a charm. In fact, I had recently said to him that I’d rather drive it than any of our other cars … nice big, spacious, luxury car with leather interior, heated seats, and a V6 engine that could still hug the highway at 90 mph with ease. 

Our son left the house at 10:00 a.m., and picked up three other students,all strangers to him, along the way. When they passed through Somerset three hours later, it was brutally cold, the wind was whipping from the west, and the snow was falling. Somewhere between Somerset and Donegal on the PA Turnpike, the little red engine light came on. A short time later, the engine sputtered "papapapaput" sparked a small flame and the old car came to a complete stop. 

Following is an account of God's provision: 

• Had me purchase a AAA membership for our son for Christmas
• Had an older man, a complete stranger, stop and give them shelter in his car ‘til the turnpike authority came
• Had the turnpike authority protect them while waiting for the tow truck
• Gave them a ride in the tow truck to the garage (Wahoo! What an adventure!)
• Sent them to a decent garage where the staff gave them shelter until Capt'n arrived
• Gave our son incredible courage and confidence to calmly manage the crisis; keeping even his companions calm and conversational throughout the ordeal
• Had Capt'n drive our van and not the Saturn to work that morning; work is 5 minutes away from the turnpike; he was able to don his super hero cape and immediately fly into action to rescue them – still 2 ½ hours away
• Gave them safe travel mercies for the remaining 5 hours of the trip through wild westerly winds, and black icy roads leading into Cedarville University
• Provided a FREE hotel room for Capt'n with my credit card reward points (I know…bad money…but God used my evil for his good.)
• Caused extreme temperatures to delay school a day, giving the kids a chance to rest and process their adventure with the heroic Capt'n Safety

As if that weren’t enough, after dropping the kids off at around 9:00 p.m., My son called me. “Mom," He said, "I left Hemaglubbin (his blood red beta fish that goes glub glub glub) in Dad’s car. Tell him not to worry; to flush it.”

Meanwhile,I was waiting for Capt'n to call me. He didn’t call ... and didn't call ... and didn't call.

My son kept texting me, “Did you hear from Dad?” 

We were both getting concerned because driving conditions were nasty. Since he hadn’t planned or packed for the trip I thought he probably stopped at Target for aspirin for his headache, a hypo-allergenic pillow cover to protect him from the attack of the dreaded dust mites, and clean underwear.

Finally at 10:30 the boy called again. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing or crying, but he said, “Mom, I know where Dad is. He just drove all the way back here to drop off my fish!Gotta love that man! Dad is so compassionate. Thanks for all you did for me today. I love you. Good night.”

Yep! God used Capt'n Safety to rescue the kids and save the fish!