My husband and I were out working on Friday, and we had paused on a far back road to take photos of a renovated barn when my car went THUNK and turned off.
It wouldn’t restart.
My husband got it turned around in neutral so it wasn’t blocking the road, but it would NOT turn over.
This was about 1:30 pm.
He walked up to get the nearest property owner, and that gentleman drove down and tried to jump us for over an hour. While it snowed and got progressively more miserable.
Finally, I called around for a tow.
No one was available – the weather was going south and there were too many people in ditches.
Okay.
That’s fair. I wasn’t a crisis.
I called my tow insurance, and I fought with THAT on the phone because it wanted me to use my smart phone to fill out a form.
Ya’ll, I don’t have a smart phone.
Finally I got a person and got an order put in. Then I called Dad for help. Finally, I called our local shop and told them my car missed seeing them and would be visiting shortly. That got a laugh, and they said it could drop off even if they were closed.
The gentleman drove us up to his house and left us in the truck because his wife was at risk of Covid. So we sat waiting for someone to pick us up (THANK YOU DAD!) in the truck until his gas chimed and I turned it off to keep him from running out.
Dad came and picked us up, and I tucked $20 in the dash because I KNEW he wouldn’t let me pay him.
We drove home in a nasty storm brewing, slow and careful.
Around 8 that night I became suspicious of a lack of delivery notifications, and I called my insurance again. The guy on the phone was horrified – I’d been put down for a JUMP, and even that hadn’t arrived yet. He fixed it, told me he’d do his best to get a tow yet that night.
I told him it was NOT a crisis and that a winter storm was rolling in. Roads were dangerous, and I wasn’t a priority, and THAT WAS OKAY.
He apologized and I went back to playing Guild Wars.
He called back an hour later. He’d called every tow truck he could manage in and out of network, and they ALL told him no. The side roads were closed, plows were only clearing the main roads, and it was too dangerous, even the truck that was only a few miles away refused.
I told him it was okay to tow the next day and reminded him that it was NOT a crisis. I was not in danger. I had a spare vehicle. I was home safe and warm and it was OKAY.
So he scheduled a tow for 10 the next morning.
The next day, Saturday, 10 rolled around and they called to reschedule. They were still clearing roads and pulling people from ditches.
That’s fine, and I told them as much.
Around 1 the tow truck driver called because he had gotten the wrong address to drop it off, and I got that handled.
The car arrived around… 1:30pm. The next day.
*facepalm*
It turned out that the driver had to BACK UP a hill for over a mile on an unplowed road to get to my car safely. So my hat’s off to him!
And now my car’s in the shop.
