AAP 2nd Caravan - 2nd Stop: GBR Museum

November 27, 2010

To continue with my journal about the 2nd AAP Caravan, our next stop was the GBR Museum, in the compound of the Gateway Business Park in  Gen. Trias, Cavite.  The Museum contains more than 3,000 vintage photographs chronicling the History of the Philippines.  Once you reach the compound, you'll see the monument to the Cavite Mutiny.  

There are five (5) pavilions inside the building:  Pavilion A showcases 19th century photographs;  Pavilion B has the Underwood and Underwood archives from 1898-1905; Pavilions C & D showcase collections of different model aircrafts and paintings; Pavilion E has photographs during the 2nd World War.  Here are some interesting pictures from inside the aircraft pavilions.  

Space Shuttle Lapel Pins

Space Shuttles

Here on the right is a Flight Certificate awarded to GBR for riding the Concorde in November 1995.  

 

To the left is Charles Lindenberg's plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, which he flew when he made the first solo trip across the Atlantic.  To the right is a piece of mail, signed by the original crew of the China Clipper during her maiden voyage in November 1935.

In another pavilion, I took the liberty of taking these photos (of photos) which really made me smile.  I had such a fun time going around and gazing at photos from this period becaue it's like being taken to that point in time even when I can see and touch the "now" version.  Photos from Quiapo, Binondo, Avenida are so endearing because you see them in their heyday - clean, well-dressed folk, trains and calesas.  There were just too many pictures to take in and to savor.  :)

Being a kid from Sampaloc, Manila I am familiar with the Malacanang Palace.  Here's a picture of the old Malacanang Palace on the Pasig River (left).  If you love visiting Tutuban, Divisoria, here's the original facade of the main terminal station of the Manila-Dagupan Railway inaguarated in 1891 (right).  

Coming from a replica of the "Bahay na Bato" from the Museo De La Salle, here are actual pictures of the 'sala' of the photographer M. Rodriguez's sister's house during that time.  They really are very opulent !

Dana was delighted to see pictures of the Philippines' national heroes on display as they have been studying them in school.  She especially found it funny to see the picture on the leftmost side because there was an exact replica of it in JT's Manukan Grille, one of our favorite restaurants.  I even took a picture of the names because in JT's picture the names were blurred and we couldn't read it LOL

I found it funny to see our national hero, Jose Rizal in such a relaxed pose with Juan Luna, here after a bout of fencing :) Coolness! :D  Emilio Aguinaldo sure looks handsome! :)

 

We took such a long time looking at the pictures that we were the last ones to leave the Museum hahaha Dana even found time to relax inside. After, there was a snack break at the Petron Station in Tagaytay where we all enjoyed ice cream! :)

More to come in the next post! :) Stay tuned! :)

Stanley gets towed!

Sometimes you just have to listen to your instincts.  Today, I didn't really want to go anywhere because the weather was cloudy and it felt good to just lie in bed.  But, the weekend is when we do our grocery shopping especially for the kids' snacks for school so I really had to drag myself out of the house to get to it.

When we left the house,  it wasn't raining yet, just a little windy.  The kids were in their jackets just in case and then we all trooped to JT's Manukan Grille in San Juan.  This is our favorite chicken inasal restaurant and not just because it's owned by theater actor Joel Torre ;) Their kansi (sinigang broth) is really good, we can't get enough of it.  Their serve hefty servings of chicken and their garlic rice is really tasty! :)  Anyway, while there, the rain started pouring and we can see that traffic was beginning to get heavy.

We lingered over our meal hoping that the rain will eventually thin out.  When it did, we all got in Stanley and headed over to Shopwise Cubao.  What we didn't expect was the road going to Cubao, specifically, that stretch of N. Domingo between Gilmore and Hemady was going to flood.  It was relatively passable since traffic was moving albeit slowly.  We did notice several new cars parking off to the side, not willing to risk getting their engines wet.

What happened next was a nightmare!  Two cars moved off slowly to the curb leaving the stretch of the flooded street open.  Seeing as we weren't sure if there were potholes or large ditches along the road, we wondered if we should go ahead.  Then, a jeepney braved the flood (like they do!) and pushed hard creating waves on its side.  We followed in its wake with Patrick driving hard and fast.  I think that was the mistake.  In the middle of the road, Stanley stalled!  His engine just stopped and died.  Never have I heard Patrick shout an expletive that foul.  Fortunately, we stopped across a car wash and its workers helped push Stanley safely to the side of the road away from the rushing flood.  No matter what Patrick did, Stanley wouldn't start.

In the end, we had to call the Automobile Association of the Philippines to ask for assistance.  They can come to you and jump start your car and if that didn't work, they'd send a tow truck.  I was hoping it wasn't serious and that jumpstarting Stanley will be all that would take.  After waiting for over an hour (traffic was backed up even though we were just behind the AAP Main office and parking) he was pronounced dead.  We were told it was probably an electrical problem and that we needed to be towed home.  So we had to wait another 2 hours since the next available tow truck was coming from Marikina.  In fact, while waiting for it, another AAP Tow Truck passed us carrying an Audi! LOL

You can just imagine our frayed nerves, especially for the kids who were stuck in the car with nothing better to do.  Dylan had to pee in the street (yeah, yeah) but desperate situations call for desperate measures.  Dana didn't want to do that so we had to put a diaper on her as a compromise LOL  Thank God for my phone which I used to entertain myself hahaha

By the time the tow truck arrived, it was around 8pm and it was a miracle maneuvering around the narrow street and the mechanics having to push Stanley onto the ramp.  And they had to push Stanley with us inside ! hahaha It was a real adventure for the kids.

So here we were, on Stanley, on the AAP Tow Truck!  It was a good thing that the next day, Stanley was feeling better hehehe but we still took him to the shop for inspection.  He was pronounced okay, he just got a little cold.  After that clean bill of health we took him to Shopwise for that postponed grocery trip! :D

Car Emergency on the NLEX

September 12 - Today, we went to visit Uncle Dennis and his family in Pampanga. This time, we were joined by Stevie and his family as well. It was a good time spent catching up, mostly it was Stevie and Uncle Dennis because we were there recently. Around 5 PM, Stevie announced we were going home and so we packed up and left.

Immediately after exiting the tollway station, Stanley (for those who don't remember, Stanley is the name of our car) just started to shake and the steering wheel was really going crazy. We immediately stopped at the shoulder of the road. We tried driving slow to see if it was caused by the speed. It wasn't. Even if we were traveling at 20km/hour there was a minor "wiggle" to the car that can't be ignored. So we decided to stop at the nearest gas station to have a mechanic check the problem and if it's possible, to fix it. Surprisingly enough there wasn't a mechanic available at the Caltex Station. They gave us a number to a mechanic in San Simon whom we had to wait for. When he arrived 30 minutes later, he looked at the tires pronounced them unfit, released some of the pressure and sent us on our way. Oh and he told us that there was an accident on the Southbound lane of the NLEX. What a joy! right!

So on we went, it was now 6 PM. Oh and we let Stevie and his family go on ahead because the kids were getting fussy. And when you're traveling you don't want fussy kids in the car LOL

We were moving again but the wheels were still a problem. I asked Patrick to stop and call the emergency service of NLEX using their phone on the side of the road. That's what they're there for, right? So that in itself was an adventure for Patrick LOL Because he said, it wasn't technically a phone but a box - a talking box LOL He wanted to take a picture but it was getting dark and it was drizzling. Perfect timing and weather for your car to breakdown.

He talked to someone, they said they'll send the nearest Patrol Car (which happened to be a few minutes away at the scene of the accident we just passed LOL) They examined the car, said it was something else that was the trouble. Finally, we decided we can't go on like this forever and so we asked them the rates for towing. P1,200 up to the nearest exit which was Pulilan. P4,200 up to the end of the NLEX, further than that, they charge more of course. hmm.. so that kept us thinking LOL

And so we thought. And the solution at that time was to call Sharon (my sister) and have Jowell (her husband) tow us back to Manila by any means necessary LOL But that didn't pan out because as the Patrol guys said, only the accredited towing service of NLEX is allowed to tow vehicles there. The option was, we get towed to Pulilan have them pick us up there and then use the McArthur Highway to get back to Manila. So that was our option. Better, P1,200 than P4,200 LOL

When the towing service came, it was from AAP or the Automobile Association of the Philippines.. Woohoo!! We were members which meant we didn't have to pay the P1,200!! hahahah one less problem solved LOL

They towed us to Pulilan and they recommended a car shop who can probably fix Stanley. By that time, Sharon and her family arrived in Pulilan too and Jowell was there at the shop with a watchful eye.

They replaced the left wheel with the spare tire. They fiddled with something. Jowell test drove it. It seemed to work fine. So we were off, no towing necessary but we were running at 40km/hr on the shoulder of the road because it was still wiggling. The steering kept fighting with Patrick.

We arrived at the house around 12. The kids were tired. We were tired but we arrived safe though not so sound LOL In our stress, we even landed on the truck lane at the exit tollgate because we were concentrating on every sound and move that Stanley was making, we didn't notice that the lanes were widening LOL

Monday morning, we took Stanley to my aunt's vulcanizing shop and one look at Stanley's underside and we saw the problem. The CV joints were busted. Not the tie rod, not the wheels. The CV joints were blown out, bearings gone, it was a surprise they didn't break off too, the mechanic said. Got those parts replaced from Banawe (original parts for P3,000) each.. expensive but at least they're not surplus.

And Stanley was as good as new.. well sort of :) Here are the pictures, forgive them if they're dark LOL
The Towing Truck

Preparing to get Stanley on the truck

Stanley on the truck. As Dana said, Stanley has his own driver now :)