a roadside adventure.
we haven't heard from my car lately, have we? wonder how she's doing no longer.i've been a little suspicious recently that she wasn't feeling well and last night, on my way home from joel and kathy's at about 9:30, she really seemed to be ailing. her lights were really low and getting dimmer, the radio had become full of static and her power was becoming increasingly less. i knew with a fair amount of certainty that it was my alternator, so i prayed really hard, lord, please just let me get home. i was on hwy 25, between monticello and buffalo, when my prayer changed to, okay, god, i just want to make it to the walmart. i started up a small hill when she she started to chug a bit. and my speed was rapidly declining, despite my pleading. just as i was cresting the hill, i knew. i said, this is it. she's gone. i pulled over and threw my hazards on right away, hoping the truck that had been trailing me would stop to help. he didn't.
in classic girl car thinking, i decided to let it sit and hope it might charge up enough for me to finish the two or three miles to walmart. i waited about 15 minutes and nodded my head at the complete deadness of it, knowing it really would never work. but it was cold out last night. remember? cold. i grabbed my camera and my purse, locked the doors and started out along the cold, dark highway. after about 15 minutes of walking, i could see walmart. a car pulled over in front of me, obviously with the intention of giving me a ride, so i made a pact with myself. if it's a man, i don't get in. if it's a women who doesn't look nice and is big enough to maul me, i don't get in. it was a little old lady named marjorie whose dashboard proclaimed that god was her pilot. i felt okay about accepting a ride for the last three blocks.
on a side note, i'd like to point out that once upon a time, it took me twenty minutes to run a mile and it only took me 15 minutes to walk over two miles. i think this is really sad.
so i had a nice four minute chat with marjorie and she dropped me off at walmart. i called my dad, told him what i knew and ran my plan by him. charge the car up enough to get it somewhere other than the side of the road and call my grandpa in the morning to see if i could borrow his car. he came. we charged. i started the car.
my dad said to me, 'okay, wait until i turn around and then start driving, but don't turn on your headlights.' okay, but i should drive on the shoulder, right? no, drive on the road. oh. but i should go really slow, right? no, go as fast as you can and still see.
what??? this goes against all that i believe to be true about safe driving at night. this seems wrong. but i trust my papa, so i did as he said. i think the fastest i ever went was 45, but it was tough to see the speedometer with the lack of light, so i can't be sure. we passed one cop and i thought for sure this was the end of the line for me. i sent up a giant thank you when he turned off and not around.
we made it to the garage and dropped her off. i got home and crawled into bed. so today, i have my grandpa's large car and will leave work early to go meet nicky, drive both cars to maple lake and drop nicky back off at work before driving myself back into maple grove for the american idol party tonight. oh, what i put up with for this car.
posted by julie @ 4:05 PM
3 Comments:
Glad to see you survived.
Wouldn't it be kinda dangerous if that happened in Winter in your neck of the woods?
if it had been winter, i would have been properly attired, so i actually would have been warmer! it's just been so warm here lately and then we had a little cold spell.
I love the new look! It's great!
I am glad your adventure turned out o.k.!
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