Is it a Lemon or are there Goblins?

Do you find certain locations to be bad luck? Are you suspicious? Life is full of strange events. Some can be explained, while others remain a mystery. Is there a dark force at play? The story I am about to share is 100% true. I will not mention specific locations or times to protect those involved. I will say that this past year, my wife and I took our 1969 Ford Talladega to a major car show out of state. The car has been a multiple Best in Show winner and is truly exceptional.

We had been to this particular show (none of the photos in this article are from that show) a year earlier with a different Best in Show winning car. We unfortunately had a very strange and disappointing experience with that car at the show. This time, we decided to take the Talladega since it had just been refreshed and was running great.

Before this trip, I was unsure if someone or someplace could be cursed. I did not believe that I had ever experienced any such visits from ghosts, or had a spell, curse, or other negative, unnatural experience.

Are you a believer? If not, consider the following. After this trip, I am a believer. However, I have learned to believe that if you bought a car that seemed to be a “lemon”, one that always seems to have mechanical troubles or is a magnet for getting into accidents, you must get rid of it. It will continue to be a problem and get worse. I only owned one such vehicle, but I finally got smart and sent it to the junkyard after it was hit multiple times while sitting still, it was stolen, wrecked, and the insurance company totaled it!

Well, let me tell you about a place and show I will never return to. We will never return to within 100 miles of this location.

Last year, we attended a nationally recognised, prestigious show, and as soon as we arrived, everything seemed to go wrong. I will not go into all the details, but when we got home, we had to do a $12,000 engine rebuild! At the same show this year, things started even worse.

First off, the host hotel for this show did not have us booked for the right week. This could have been a major problem, but after a conversation with the manager, the Front Desk clerk was able to find us a room for our stay. The room was not as good as the one we thought we had reserved, but at least we had a room. Next up, the TV in the room only wanted to work on its schedule. I could turn it on, but not select the channel we wanted; it just stayed on the one it selected. Then it would, at its pleasure, work fine without us doing anything. It continued this way for our entire 4 day stay. Next up, the night light in the bathroom would not work. So far, these were minor annoyances and not major issues.

The next morning, my electric shaver would not work. It somehow got turned on, and the battery was dead. This has never happened before in 50 years! The hotel’s heat thermostat would not work. No matter where we set the temperature, it did not agree. It would not take the temperature we wanted. It would be either much too hot or too cold. Now, I should add, this was not some Motel 6, it was a name brand 5 Star, high end resort.

Ok, we are at a car show, and all that’s important is that the car does well and we enjoy the event and meet some new friends. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Now things really started going downhill! The Talladega has always been one of our most dependable and easy to drive show cars. We had just gone through it, put in a new battery, and had all the electronics checked.

We unloaded the car and drove to the showgrounds. As soon as we arrived, the car overheated and died. We had to be pushed into our show spot. After cooling down, the car still refused to fire. At that point, we also noticed that some little electrical issues were showing up. That was really bad because at this particular show, the cars are judged not only for authenticity and condition, but also mechanically; everything must work. We now had a car that would not start, plus the running lights would not come on, the heater and defroster would not blow, the cigarette lighter would not light, and I lost track after that. Obviously, the Talladega did not do well. As a side note, the Judges were some of the worst I have ever encountered. I am not blaming them for the car’s poor performance; they simply did not know how to judge. Their Team Leader obviously had not instructed them on how and what to look for.

Fast forward, the show was over, and it was time to leave. Opps, remember, earlier in the day, the car would not start to reach its show field location and would not start for the judges?

The problem now was how to get the car off the show field. We were told it had to leave the same way it got on the show field. Well, that meant we needed some big time help to push it back to the hote” The problem? No tow vehicles were allowed on the manicured “golf course” show field. I was about ready to cry!. We decided to give it one more try. Well, it fired right up! What changed? It knew we were leaving! Was the car trying to tell us something?

We loaded up the car in the trailer and went back to the hotel, scratching our heads, wondering what had just happened to us. At this point, we were beyond depressed.

We got a good night’s sleep, even without control of the heat or TV and without a nightlight!

The next morning, we hooked up the trailer and headed for Tennessee. Our F350 has never given us a minute’s worth of trouble or concern since the day we drove it off the dealer’s lot. You guessed it, as soon as we headed out of town, our electric mirrors decided they did not like their current settings and moved to new ones. I could not get them to function correctly. I could not adjust them. Not only that, but the memory in our seats kept moving to whatever position they wanted, regardless of our desires. It was at this point that I was just about to give in to some black mystery dark power that seemed to now be in control. I would just sell everything once we were safely home!

We finally got out of the show city traffic, but before we could get completely out of town and off the two lane roads, the truck’s GPS and the truck’s video screen went completely blank! We had no GPS directions and no map on the screen. This has never happened before! Not once since we bought the truck new 8 years ago! What the hell is going on? A few minutes later, all came back on. Wow, that was strange, but a relief to have it back.

At this point, I also got back control of our electric mirrors!

I was starting to get excited, but a few miles down the interstate, everything went out again! Now, I was getting pissed. This was going to be a very expensive repair.

Erica! We were now many miles from the show field and show city, and the GPS and video screen magically came back to life!

For the rest of the 10 hour drive, I was a nervous wreck waiting for something else to go bad or break.

Nothing more happened. At the time of this writing, it has now been many months, and there has never been one hint of any problems with the truck, its GPS, video screen, mirrors, or anything else.

I don’t want to say we were jinxed when in that particular city or show. However, strange events like this two years in a row should give a warning. We will never go close to this show or city again!