My current crochet project. I am recreating the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine out of yarn and I’m loving it! Part of the reason I am so happy working on this is that it’s not for me. It’s for a mom and pop auto shop in Ashland, Virginia who I recently discovered is one of the most generous places that I have ever done business. For reference, this car place is four hours from where I live and as of a week ago, I didn’t know it existed. It was by the grace of God and a Google search that I found them.
Last Sunday I was driving home from Syracuse, New York where I had spent several days attending a summer “camp” for my yarn friends. We call it camp, but really, it’s just a bunch of ladies who picked a city, rented an Air BnB and sat around knitting and chatting for three days. I loved it and try to go every year! On the way home, when I got just south of Washington, D.C., my car engine completely failed. There’s a whole long story of the first time it happened and what I did and then what happened after driving for another hour after thinking everything was o.k. And there are also many other people who were extremely helpful during this ordeal…the state trooper and D.O.T. worker who pushed my car to the side of the road out of traffic, the tow truck driver who almost refused to leave me by myself at the car shop on a Sunday evening while I waited for my Uber driver to pick me up, the front desk staff at the hotel I stayed at who didn’t charge me a cancellation fee or late check-out fee on Monday when my husband picked me up and I didn’t need to stay an extra night after all. But it was this family-owned auto shop that really warmed my heart. It was a Monday morning and they were already slammed busy and yet they squeezed me in and looked at my car because I was a traveler and Connie at the front desk said they always do their best to get travelers back on the road. They are situated just off interstate 95 after all. Besides being just all smiles and completely friendly the whole time, they didn’t charge me the $162 diagnostic fee for looking over my car to figure out what the problem was. I did pay for a new starter, but that was no problem considering they couldn’t fully diagnose my car without getting it started first. When they finally determined that my engine had completely failed and would need to be replaced, they encouraged me to call Kia and see if my engine had an extended warranty. And it does! The mechanic wrote up a very detailed summary of how they came to the conclusion my engine was bad and gave me a copy so that I could pass it along to Kia. But wait, there’s more! The nearest Kia dealership didn’t have any available service appointments until August 5th and wouldn’t allow any car to be towed in before that. So this auto shop immediately said I could leave my car with them and they wouldn’t charge me a storage fee, since it would only be there a couple of weeks. What kind of business does so many generous things like that for a complete stranger that they have no prior experience with??? Glen Allen Transmission and Complete Auto Care apparently does!
A place like that deserves a hearty thank you. So what better way to say that than to make them something out of yarn, since I was on the way home from a knitting/crochet event when they rescued me? I decided that I would make a replica of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine on monster truck wheels they have on the grass in front of their shop. It was the landmark I used when I ordered my Uber ride the first time. Of course, my knitting friends said I also need to send a basket of cookies for the shop guys. I’ll certainly do that too, but right now, I am obsessed with making this Scooby-Doo van! I am using a pattern for an old school, hippie VW bus and modifying it to look like the Mystery Machine. I started it yesterday and have made some good progress! I’m especially proud of the waves I was able to improvise along the body of the van. When it’s done, I’ll pack it up along with whatever cookies I decide to make and mail it up to the shop, along with a letter of thanks, and a very good review left for them online.
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