Nov. 1st, a "tick" in the road home

I'll take you back to Hallowe'en night for the rest of the story.
We did check out the Cracker Barrel as a kind of reward for surviving a really difficult day.  (forgot to mention that the car repairs will hopefully be covered by the original car warranty.)
when we arrived back at the motel, i got karl to check a sore spot on my ear that just wouldn't settle down.  a really close look revealed a "bug" embedded in the top part of my ear!!! ugh, yuck!! don't know whether anyone recalls how i feel about bugs, but, i was not impressed!  karl, bless his heart, calmed me down and effectively removed the thing from my ear with a pin.  phew, but short lived, because we found another on the back of my neck.  this one could not be budged!  at this point, i started remembering the stories i'd heard about "ticks" picked up in the bush in the north east USA and why you "don't" want one of them to find you.....
So, after 11 p.m. after a long and challenging day, we discovered that the folks from our travel insurance (through OTIP) are wonderful too. they called the local hospital and arranged payment (we hope). all i needed to do was get there - only one cab company and one cab for 2 or 3 local towns, but it worked. everyone at the hospital was great, and 2 hours later, minus the second tick, prescription in hand, i arrived back at the motel, around 1 a.m.
then, just in case, i checked karl for the ticks as well, and guess what i found??  between one more trip to the ER and a taxi driver in high demand, poor karl arrived back about 5 a.m., tick free, but tired!  we did manage a few hours sleep.  several calls later, after setting up the rental car and a convincing but effective plea to be picked up, we were on the road again!
less than an hour on the road and we received a text from my cousin marcia telling us that she and aunt elaine, coincidentally driving for Roadtrek in the vicinity, had broken down not 10 min drive from where we were!  we came, but couldn't do much to help.  the van needed to be towed in for service, elaine was arranging that.  meanwhile, marcia had a plane to catch tomorrow morning in pittsburgh (on our way). so... marcia hitched a ride with us and we left poor elaine! we left pittsburgh around suppertime
the drama ended at 1:30 am when we arrived home.  lots of excitement this trip, phew! but, also lots of fun and new respect for CAA and OTIP!!
just a postscript!  while we were trying to come up with a plan, we knew that marcia and elaine would be driving right by where we were.  they were willing to take me home, bless their hearts!!  it didn't work out because max couldn't ride in the van and karl would then have been left imprisoned in a motel room in princeton for a week, but it was still nice to have an option, thanks guys!