An almost jeopardised trip

Having spent more than 3 week in Vorarlberg Jakob and Kerstin were due to leave for Vienna again on Saturday afternoon. Knowing how hard it always is for the two to kiss and say goodbye to the family Markus was trying hard to prevent the trip back home by breaking down the car. He simply ignored the warning light of the fuel gauge, drove on the highway to Dornbirn and when he was just about to overtake another car it happened: Another warning light appeared and a warning sound indicated a problem with the exhaust system. The cars performance dropped significantly, it soon afterwards stopped completely and could not be restarted. As all that happened at exactly noon on Saturday when all garages were closed already so that there was no obvious way to get the car repaired again. Interestingly at that point everyone was more upset about the broken down car than the fact that we might have to stay longer in Vorarlberg and the search for alternative to get back home has been started.

Given no car hire companies were open at the time and as alternative only Heidi’s Opel Corsa would have been available (which would have made it difficult to even bring Jakob’s stuff at home leaving our gear in Vorarlberg) Markus called the OEAMTC, even though no member. Once can become a member at the instance and being part of the club one gets a Clubmobil, by coincidence a Peugeot 307SW – exactly as ours, to remain mobile in case they don’t get the car running immediately. Against all expectations the “angel in yellow” arrived 10 minutes after calling and diagnosed that there has to be air in the exhaust system (caused by the lack of fuel in the tank). Without laughing visibly about Markus humble mistake to drive the car literally empty the technician filled the tank and managed to get the engine started again, cleared all the electronic error reports and enabled us to drive home in our very own car.

"Even I know, that a car needs fuel in the tank! I better tell Dad."

The journey in the evening in a car that was yet again filled up to the roof went very smooth and we reached Vienna in less than 5 hours before midnight. Upon arrival in Vienna our son he demanded a tour through the flat as he quite obviously wanted to check if everything was in good order and nothing was missing. On Sunday we managed to settle again at home, did the laundry and spent a nice day together before Markus had to go back to work and leave Jakob and Kerstin on their own again.

Jakob, Kerstin and Markus