Our adventurous trip to Öland part 1

This year we decided to do something we've never done before. We packed our car and headed down to Öland for a week in a tent! What an adventure that turned out to be! To sum it up in a few words: car breakdown times two, seeing old friend, rain, rain, rain, sun, and lots of fun! So let me back it up for you. One sunny thursday morning, only about an hour and a half after the scheduled (or at least hoped for) departure time, we started what we thought was going to be a seven hour trip down to Kalmar, including potty and food breaks. I wish we had taken a picture of the car with all of our stuff crammed into it. We felt pretty good about ourselves as the car rolled down the hill...until it stopped after about five minutes and wouldn't start. We had to get Jens dad to tow us to the nearest garage to get it fixed. About an hour later the mechanic got it started again, without even knowing what he had done. We were happy to be on our way again and not having had to pay for the sort-of-car-repair. After that incident, the drive went smoothly. The kids were pretty happy and we didn't have to stop too many times. Then about twenty minutes from Kalmar the car broke down again and there was smoke coming out from underneath it. We were stranded at a bus stop and had to call my friend, Ragnar, who we were going to stay with for a couple of nights. Luckily, he had access to a minivan and was able to pick us up. After that he and Jens took the car to another garage. As it turns out, the car hadn't been fixed at all the first time, and I consider it a real blessing that it made it almost all the way to Kalmar! The kids were such good sports through the entire ordeal. The whole thing really seemed to be one big adventure to them. We got the car back friday afternoon, right before they closed and were able to drive it to the camping site on Öland the next day as planned...

In the meantime we spent the Friday enjoying beautiful weather in Kalmar in the company of our friend, Ragnar. We went to a playground/farm where the kids ran around for hours. Ragnar bought us all ice-cream! Thanks again for that!