Our little adventure: Celebrate Monday with a story

 

Well...............it wouldn't be a good story without a photo.

So. There's the photo. My children had a week break from school last week. (Fall break all ready? They started Aug 5) I load them into the car to go to Grandma's house, a day’s drive away. We are driving a 13 year old Saturn Wagon with 178,000 miles on it. We made it through the mountains with no problem. On the way down the mountain, I get dash board lights. Battery, thermometer and coolant level. I call my DH, he says "pull over". Just in time, a truck parking area shows up. Perfect.

I pull over and he uses his google-fu to assess the problem. He thinks it is a blown fuse. He patiently walks me through checking the fuses after I text him a photo of the fuse box. (my phone fritzs out and we use DS's phone to finish the job) It's not a fuse. It is cooled off enough for me to check coolant level. Full. Crap. (poop) He says get back on the road, let's see what happens. I get back on the highway, temperature gage back up to hot and now- no power steering. He says, "get back off the highway." At this point I've exited and turned around. We pull off and stop at the truck parking on the other side. We decide I should call Geico, he thinks it is a fan belt.

I call, wait 2 hours for a tow. It is now 5:00 pm. Tow truck driver (with a flat bed!) loads up the car and heads us into the nearest town, bringing us to the dealership that dispatched him. Great guy, courteous, clean and friendly. The dealership GIVES me a loaner and points me to a hotel. I negotiate the room rate by calling the hotel down the street for a rack rate and then calling back as I sit in the other hotel's parking lot. Success! $8 below the military rate with free wi-fi and hot breakfast.

The next day? They don’t even look at the car until 1:00 pm after I phoned three times to inquire about it. I finally showed up and had a little discussion with the service manager. At 1:30, he phones me and tries to charge me for 3 hours of labor for a job that involves removing a few bolts and replacing a belt and a tentioner. When my husband phones? The price is suddenly much lower. Classy. Overcharge a stranded woman with two kids. We finally did make it home on Tuesday after spending most of the day sitting in the public library. (don’t forget about the library when you need to kill time in a strange place!) What an exercise in patience!

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