Another saga that won't end.

I've been waiting to blog about this because the whole thing is so very unpleasant. But...here it goes...

It all started about 6 weeks ago on the evening of the Twins by the Bay holiday party. While Susan was organizing volunteers and setting up the banquet hall, I was picking up the food for the party. We ordered food for 200 from a local taqueria. We got all manner of mexican food from rice and beans to tacos, aqua fresca, quacamole, chicken, pork, beef. The back of my nissan was piled high with tray after tray of delicious smelling food. When I stopped to pick up another twin mom, I noticed some of the beans had spilled. It didn't look too bad so I didn't worry about it. When we arrived at the party, even more had spilled. I still didn't worry about it, as I figured I was due for a car wash anyway.

After the party, we put much of the uneaten food back in my car and drove it to Susan's. She was going to have it picked up by a social worker and/or bag it up for left overs for some friends. I picked up the car the next day in the afternoon and the smell was strong.

I immediately took the SUV to the car wash to get a complete inside shampoo and detail. $150 and 3 hours later, it was done. It looked clean, but...it still smelled. I noticed at home that the carpet in the bed of the truck was pretty wet so I figured the smell was from this. So I closed up the car and didn't go back in until the next day.

When I opened the door, the smell was almost unbearable. It was like something had died in there. It was like a combo of salsa and beans and something else disgusting. I drove the car for a couple days like this, airing out the car with all the windows down each time and trying to overpower the stink with air fresheners. All which failed horribly.

I figured the carpet in the back was the problem so I called Nissan to see if they could reinstall the carpet. Sure they could for $500 and it had to be special ordered. Figuring I had no other plan, I ordered it. Back at home, I ripped up all the existing carpet. But still, the smell remained. We were baffled, as we saw no other remains of beans or salsa. So Michael started digging around. He found a little compartment under the carpet. I little well for storing stuff and it was soaked in a big pool of disgusting mexican sauce. He cleaned it up and I took the car in the next day where all the carpet was replaced. And were thrilled the situation had finally ended.

The next day we left for Hawaii. When we returned, I opened the door to the car and it was as if someone punched me in the face. It was beyond disgusting. We were both frustrated, confused, and mystified. We couldn't find the stink.

It was then I decided I couldn't drive the car anymore. It was too depressing, too disgusting, and too stressful for me. We had been contemplating getting a minivan for about a year and so we bit the bullet, did some haggling online with a few local Honda dealerships and then went in to buy one. We were going to try to trade in the Nissan, but both decided it wasn't fair to do that to another driver. We could disguise the smell for a few minutes, but once the doors were closed, it would be revealed. I was happy with my new car (with sliding doors, heated seats, back up camera, and dvd player), but saddened it had gotten to this point. It was all bitter sweet.

Then I remembered that my friend Shari's husband Sam knows about cars. (He has his own auto shop.) So I emailed her, she talked to him, and a few days later, Michael took the car up to his shop to take a look. They ripped up the entire back of it down to the metal, where he found more mexican crud. Although I didn't see it, he said the mold was an inch think and repulsive. They cleaned it out and Michael borrowed an ionizer so we could suck out the remaining smell after cleaning over all the plastic pieces that had been pulled out.

So back at home, we cleaned, we ionized, we cleaned again. And you know??? THE SMELL IS STILL THERE!!!!! It's driving me crazy.

Michael is going to take the car back to Sam to see if they can find more. The saga will continue for now, but hopefully one day, the smell will be gone and we'll be able to sell the car. It's not even the money I'm bummed about it. It's the frustration about not being able to find the source of the stink.

One day when I was particular upset about the whole thing, Michael gave me a present. He said it was a mourning gift. I opened it up and found a picture. This particular picture was of a large fancy wedding donut cake. The picture had been above the passenger visor in the Nissan when we bought it. We found it there one day and both cracked up about it. Whenever we needed a good laugh in the car, he would pull out that picture and we would both giggle. He had framed it and it now sits on our mantle piece. I hope I can look at the picture one day and laugh, but for now, I just miss my car and try not to think about the stink.