Monday, March 2, 2009

How Many Family Members Does it Take to Fill a Tow Truck?

Early Saturday morning, we decided to take an overnight trip with my Mom & Dad.

We were on the road before 8:00 a.m.

About 80 miles into our journey, we decided to stop for gas before heading over the Mackinac bridge. It's a tradition of sorts to buy scratch-off lottery tickets at this station, so we all went inside to get some.

We got back to the car and settled in for another hour of driving. Dad turned the key and ........... nothing happened. He tried again..........and again.......NOTHING!

So began a new experience for all of us.

It was a very cold weekend and it's common for batteries to fail in sub zero temps. We crossed our fingers that a jump would do the trick.

It didn't.

We were in a small town and the tow truck driver thought the Ford dealer and all the repair shops were closed on Saturday. We made a few calls...closed, closed, closed. After much frantic searching through the local phone book, the driver remembered a dealer across town that may be opened. He called and hallelujah, they were.

So the driver tells us to get in the tow truck. My mother gave him her best you've- got-to-be-kidding look and says, "But there are 4 of us."

The young driver shrugs and says, "Yeah, it'll be tight." Then he assures us he won't get pulled over because he is considered an "emergency" vehicle. Like that makes us feel any better about climbing up 6 feet and squeezing our ample butts into that truck seat.

We had no alternative, so we started climbing.


They are already squeezed in there like sardines and I still had to get in.

I climbed atop DH's lap. My face was almost pressed against the window.
None of us had ever been in a tow truck. We laughed over our predicament all the way to the dealer.

At the dealer's we sat in the waiting room for an hour. When the mechanic came out just minutes before their noon closing time and said he would not be able to even look at our car until Monday, we stopped laughing.

We had no choice but to rent a car and head to our hotel and hope they could extend us for one more night. I had to call my boss and tell him there was no way I could get to work on Monday. He took it better than I expected, though I know he was probably not too happy about having to go in at 7:00 a.m. to cover for me.

Somehow we made it though the two days and are now happily back home.

Remember when I said it was cold? Here is the actual temp. when we left this morning.

Yes, it really does say 27 BELOW zero.

Now that's it's all over, we think it was a pretty fun unique experience. I am sure we'll be talking about it for years to come!

10 comments:

  1. That was one "cozy" ride! Glad you were able to extend your stay and had an understanding boss!
    I can't even imagine weather that cold!
    xo

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  2. Zoe,

    Oh, you poor thing! I guess it was lucky you could all ride inside the wrecker, it would have been my luck we would have had to wait for another one or ride in the back. Glad your back home safe and sound! I guess I better stop complaining about 40 degree weather....

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  3. WOW way too cold for this missouri girl. But as Paul Harvey would have said ....the rest of the story, what was wrong with the car?
    Osagebluffquilter

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  4. Quite the experience girl..fun to look back on!

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  5. I got stranded once on the way to Kentucky from Pennsylvania. And it sure helped having a sense of humor. Sounds like y'all took everything in stride. I'm glad it happened there instead of someplace out in the boonies.

    One more thing, if you've subscribed to receive updates from my blog, or if you were following, please resubscribe. I switched templates and I'm afraid followers and subscribers might have lost their connection. Thanks!

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  6. Oh my-that's colder than cold! I can't believe we went through almost the same thing-sorry you were so far from home. I guess yours was the battery. We haven't heard about Brian's car yet.
    I'm glad the weekend went well despite what happened. You made the best of a lousy situation.

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  7. You'll do anything to have fun! hehe Oh boy, what a thing to happen in such frigid temps and it figures it wouldn't just happen when traveling from home to the store or something like that, it had to happen on a trip! That was too funny about the 4 of you having to fit inside the cab of the tow truck!!! lol Glad it all worked out though. xoxo

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  8. Sorry, I forgot to tell you what the problem was!

    The battery was fine. We had to put in a new starter and something to do with the solenoid-- which has something to do with starting the car. That's all I know. :)

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  9. I'm very happy you all made it through your adventure with all fingers, toes, and noses intact. But damn that's cold.

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  10. I shoudn't have laughed but I did, having had a similiar experience. Glad you got home okay. Can't believe you took off on holiday when it was that cold!

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