Woe, woe and thrice woe - Part the Second: What's that noise?

I am on the highway. It's about, oh, 8:15 a.m.. Travelling at 112 kms per hour, the maximum you can travel and not get stopped for speeding. Without coffee. But with lots of gas. HA!

Having avoided the Tim Horton's (oh how we love thee!) across the street from the gas station as it was too busy, I pull into the last gas station for about 100 kms, just outside of town for coffee and a bottle of water. This is the gas company that has the pumps nicely configured for debit/credit payments, but I don't need gas (snork), I just need coffee and a bottle of water.

On the road again, I taste the coffee. Gah. Should have stopped at Tim's.

Pull back on the highway... get up to speed and realize... at 100 kpm there is a shimmy. A decidedly shaky shimmy, the kind that will drive you mad after the first 15 mins and I've got a 7 hour drive ahead. I look over at the stuff on the seat and it is visibly vibrating. This is not good. For I am the Princess and The Pea. I have a very high threshold of pain but a very low tolerance for annoyance. I may go mad. Not to mention, just what kind of damage am I about to do to my almost-new tires? (Yes. t-I-r-e-s. Tyre is a city in Lebanon**. You know who I'm talkin' to, Duck.)

Also, it's getting foggier the further west I go. It was overcast when I left, which is good because driving on really sunny days is very tiring for the eyes, but the cloud cover is getting lower and lower... until eventually the fog was gets so thick I could barely see ahead of me and had to slow down to about 80 kph. (Long after this picture was taken. I'm not crazy enough to be taking pictures in pea soup fog.) At this rate, if a moose does amble onto the road, I won't see it until it's far too late.

So, to recap. Bad coffee, water, lots of gas (giggle), incredible fog and we're about 100 kms out of town when I realize that I can hear something over the sound of my stereo. It's an all-too-familiar noise... exhaust noise. I just had the frickin', frackin' exhaust repaired not two weeks ago! I turn down the stereo and sure enough, the exhaust is grumbling like a grumbly, grumbling thing. Prior to the last repair, it sounded like this for a couple of weeks then suddenly..... ROAR!!! something let go and the sound was so loud it was unbearable and the vibration was so great I could barely get the car to 50 kms per hour. How much faster will whatever's wrong deteriorate at highway speed? There is no way I'm going to be able to drive hundreds of kilometers for hours if it gets that loud again. Either the police will pull me over, I will lose my mind or the car will explode. None of these options appeal to me particularly.

But there is nothing for it but to soldier on.

It's now about 9:30 a.m. This is going swimmingly, don't you think?

Next up: Woe, woe and thrice woe - 1,344 kms to be exact - Part the Third - A decision