Haven't posted in awhile, but had to share this adventure. When I go out it's with a GG friend. She usually drives which makes things easier for me and removes some of the worry. We've had some really good times and gone many places and done many different things. Never really had any problems until Saturday.
We decided to go "dressy" and I wore a new black and white print skirt, a black short-sleeved sweater, a red blazer and red heels. We had some plans on places we wanted to go and off we went.
Driving along through a very rural area (think Deliverance!) we started hearing this wow wow wow sound. I said to her, "You're van is making some weird noises." And then THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP. Yep, it happened.
1. FLAT TIRE
She pulled off the road and pulled out her AT&T cell phone....nothing. I pulled out my Verizon cell phone....nothing.
2. NO CELL SERVICE
As we were debating what to do next, a man came out of a nearby house and came over. He asked if we had a spare and my friend said, yep, a donut.
He climbs in the back of the van to retrieve the donut. Oh yeah....
3. THE SPARE WAS FLAT
He rolled the donut over to his garage and blew it up. Things are looking up. He brings out a floor jack. But...
4. THE JACK WON'T FIT UNDER THE VAN
Now I've watched NASCAR pit crews lift a car to get the jack under, but two damsels in distress (and in their nicest clothes) aren't about to lift the van. He gets a block of wood, has my friend drive up on it, and gets the jack under the van. Things are looking up again....until
5. THE LUGNUTS WON'T COME OFF
He sprays them with rust penetrant, brings out a breaker bar. They won't budge. My friend goes up to the house to use the phone and call her cousin who runs a garage. He says he's coming. While she's up at the house, I'm standing by the van alone and a car comes along, goes by, then turns around and comes back and stops!
6. NEED HELP MA'AM?
So I muster up the most feminine voice I can manage and say, "No thanks, these people are helping us."
Then my friend's cousin calls back.
7. HE'S NOT COMING
Back to square one. Just when we're getting desperate, some other neighbors come over to lend a hand. They look at the situation and go and get torches to heat the lugs. After quite some time of using heat on them, they got them to break loose. They put the donut on, threw the flat into the van.
I'm ready to go. I've been standing on the side of a state highway for two hours, in heels, and my feet are starting to complain.
8. THEY DECIDE TO VISIT
They're leaning on the van and one is showing the other pictures of their trailer in Florida. We offer them money and they refuse it. We finally get on our way.
So, it was quite an adventure. We were lucky that we were in a spot where these helpful people were. We could just as easily run into some rednecks.
We drove back to my house, switched to my van and went off to salvage would we could of our day. We had a very nice time and I survived being stranded in the boonies.
Joyce