Monday, March 31, 2008

Driving Home in My Automobile...



Hehe. For those of you who know my 1996 Ford Taurus, you won't be too shocked to hear this story. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Taurus and all its glory... be thankful.



*This is not my Taurus, but rather a stock photo. Mine is much dirtier and covered in bumper stickers.


Thursday night I had class. Our instructor let us out about an hour early. I had carpooled with two of my co-workers so I dropped them off where they needed to be and got back on the freeway (highway for all you East Coasters). I maybe drove a mile when my car started making a HORRIBLE sound. At first I thought it was the exhaust, so I pulled over to investigate. I shut the car off and turned it on again. No sound. I started to pull forward a little bit, clunk, clunk. Ugh oh. I have a flat. No worries. I have AAA!


I call AAA. They tell me I am a priority because I am on the freeway (highway) at almost 9:30pm sitting in the dark. About a half hour goes by and noone shows up so I call them back. Ya, the first truck they were going to send is busy. Their simple jump start turned into a tow meaning it will be a 40 minute wait. By now I've already waited 40 minutes! Would I like them to find another truck? Hmm, yes, let's do that. Would I like them to call Highway Patrol? Hmm, no. Wait. Considering that I am a young woman sitting by herself in a dead car on the side of the freeway (highway) surrounded by woods and no street lights... yes, let's call them.
Do they ever show up?
No.
Finally, "Grandpa's Towing" shows up. Thank God. Of course, by now I am standing in the woods by the side of the road because my battery is dead and since my hazards don't work I was really a sitting duck for all the semis driving by at 60 MPH. The driver goes to work on fixing the flat. At this point I wasn't even sure if there was a spare, but I figured there must have been because why would my parents have ever taken it out and not replaced it? He gets the spare on and... its flat. Big shock.
He says he can fix, he'll just have to jumpstart the car first. Remember, dead battery. He jumpstarts it and then goes to work pumping air in the spare. Heh, at this point I remember that I'm riding Elvis already (no gas) so I ask the guy if I shut the car off again will it start back up. He tells me to not shut the car off until I'm parked in my driveway.
I have never in my life pumped gas with the engine still running. I really felt like I was tempting fate to start my car on fire!
In the end, I left class at 8:45pm. Rather than get home in 30-45 mins. like I should have, I got home at 11:30pm!
Is the flat fixed? Well, it completely BLEW OUT. Gone. Of the rim. The wonderful Taurus now has 4 wonderful new tires, a new battery and its going in for a front end alignment on Thursday. I will never listen to my mom again tell me "No car needs a front end alignment."

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