A Magical VT Holiday Experience - by Noam Shoshan

T’was the night before Christmas and me, my wife Karen, and three children, Evan 12, Hannah 10 and Olivia 9, were glory bound to meet our friends at the White Plains Ski Club located at the base of Mad River Glen (our favorite ski destination), in Waitsfield for a Christmas ski week. Our family rig, an older Suburban, was packed to the gills with groceries, ski gear, and we were excited for a long-awaited escape from fast paced suburban NJ living to breathe fresh VT mountain air.

The drive up was uneventful. It being Christmas Eve, not many cars were on the road and we were making great time to meet our friends at the Club house for a late dinner. Until….I see my headlights dim for a quick second. I think to myself, “that’s strange, I just put in a new battery” and keep driving thinking it was probably my eyes being road weary from driving for 4 hours. After another forty minutes heading north, my battery indicator light illuminates. Now, my concern set in big time. We were on 22A and I saw the sign that we were in Orwell, VT, where it was very dark, the outside temp was in the mid-teens, there were no signs of any gas stations or places to stop for assistance. As we drove into Orwell, I saw the Gas N’ Go and pulled over to try making a call and of course, there was no signal on my cell phone. I knew we were in a tough spot because Waitsfield was over an hour north and Middlebury was thirty minutes east. As I pulled over and came to a stop, the lights completely dimmed for 3 lonnnng seconds. I whispered a big explicative to myself followed by an “OMG this isn’t good.” I knew that I had to keep driving with hope that the battery wouldn’t completely go on us, so I headed east towards Middlebury thinking there’s at least a hotel or somewhere we can get help and make a call. About one mile after making this decision, I got excited to see a house up ahead with someone on the front porch and a few cars parked in front. Unbelievably, as I started to slow down to approach the house my headlights go completely dark about 300 feet in before I reach the house. We were all aghast and as I came to a stop in front of the person on the porch….the engine dies and all inside electrical is off….FREAKY!

I tell the guy on porch my predicament and he invites me in to the house. Low and behold, several family members, friends and young kids seem to just be finishing their Christmas Eve dinner celebration. I apologized for interrupting, explained my situation that we were on way to Mad River Glen to meet our friends for a ski week, and asked if they knew of any motels that may be open in the area to spend the night, with hope that I can find someone to fix our vehicle within the next couple of days. The way everyone looked at each other, I knew the answer was “no”.

To my astonishment, the patriarch in the room Mike Moore, stepped forward and said “I think I have a solution for you. My wife and I aren’t going anywhere this weekend and we have an extra mini-van in our garage down the road a bit. Come with me to pick it up, load up all of your gear, and drive up to Waitsfield to meet your friends. Tomorrow morning, (Christmas nonetheless) I’ll come back with my portable battery charger to give it enough juice and hopefully get it back to my house. Leave Waitsfield early Sunday morning, meet me at my house and my friend in town will probably have a Chevy Suburban alternator in stock. We’ll put in your new alternator and you’ll be good to enjoy the rest of your vacation”. I couldn’t believe my ears! Was this nice stranger St. Nick himself, or what?

The kindness didn’t stop there! After picking up the mini-van, I came up back to the house to find that my kids were offered homemade Christmas cookies by a very nice woman named Kelly and her daughter. This gesture put my wife and kids at ease and it was nice to see them smiling! We were able to fit everything into the van and drove up in with the kids surrounded by bags of groceries, bags of ski clothes and we made it up to MRG for a nice Christmas after all!

Sunday morning I arrived at Mike’s house and he explained that he had put a plan “B” into play. His local buddy with the parts store was unfortunately closed because he was out of town for the weekend, so Mike called his friend at the auto parts store in Middlebury. Luckily, he had the appropriate alternator in stock for me - at Mike’s discounted commercial rate, nonetheless! Mike offered that I take his van to Middlebury to pick up the part, and he would ask another local friend Mike Dundan who owns the Gas n’ Go where I first stopped, to see if he could put in the new alternator for me. Within an hour of great conversation with Mike and his lovely wife Kathy, Mike Dundan came through for us and for a very fair price installed the new alternator in his heated garage where he expertly restores classic cars (I never knew a Studebaker could be so beautiful!). Amazingly, I managed to meet my family by noon for a great day of skiing! Orwell, VT certainly is home to the Christmas Spirit!