whew!

The car problem is resolved. The repair guy says it is a "miraculous outcome". The problem was caused by the fact that when I had an oil change, the garage had not sufficiently tightened the oil filter. This is the kind of major issue that could indeed have caused my engine to blow out. I had had the oil changed and not driven the car until leaving for this trip. So the oil filter had not been asked to do much until I drove out here. When I had the car towed in, the dealeship manager said that the odds are my engine was toast. Today the repair guy said that I must have pulled over just in time and had enough oil to keep the engine from siezing up. Bottom line, they put in a new oil filter, new oil, cleaned up the undercarriage, cleaned out the oil from the rear brakes and that is that. The engine is fine. Total bill= $104. I called my garage where the oil change was done and they will reimburse me the $104. If the engine had been toasted, my warranty would NOT have covered it, because it was a garage error, not a parts failure. My regular mechanic might have covered it, but that would have been an ugly thing for everyone....fortunately that is not an issue. Pardon me if I sign off as I need to go shout "Hallllllleluia!"