We were just cruising along I-20, listening to a CD, drawing nigh to Augusta. Suddenly there was this loud sound. I turned the CD off to try to locate it. It was us! So I pulled over to the shoulder. Mary’s car has this message center and it said, “Check Transmission.” That is not good. So I turned off the car, got out and opened the hood. I don’t know why, maybe if it was bleeding I could fix it? Ha! Since I didn’t see anything different that the last time I looked, I closed the hood and returned to the car. When I tried to re-start the car, nothing. Here we are on the side of the interstate in the middle of nowhere – great!
Mary had the foresight to get roadside emergency coverage with the insurance so she set about calling them and getting help. And help came even quicker than they promised! A nice guy. He towed us to Aiken, SC. Now I can scratch Aiken off the list of Things I’ve never done and places I’ve never seen.
We got to Wayne’s Automotive and got the bad news – “It’s the transmission and we won’t have it fixed until sometime next week.” They arranged for us to go to a car rental place to rent a car. This was nice and it was Enterprise, so we thought, This is great! There is an Enterprise in Rock Hill; drive the car home and turn it in there . . . WRONG! They were quick to tell us they don’t rent one way. So we rented the car, went for a wonderful visit with Mary K and Lucca, and drove home. The next day we drove BACK to Aiken to return the car. So my days off were spent mostly on the road.
Fast-forward to this week. Wayne’s called and said the car was ready. So Wednesday morning we took Erica’s car and head off to Aiken, once again. I worked Tuesday night so I was sleeping a little on the way down. About an hour into the trip, Mary said, “Uh-oh. What does this mean, Jeff?” The battery light had come on, then the ABS light. I, with great wisdom and insight said, Pull over. We need to go back. She pulled over and the car stopped. And would not re-start. Honestly, we looked at each other and said, What is this? I jokingly said, Who have we made mad? I walked up the road to check the mile marker, got back and Mary called roadside emergency. Only this time, they had no idea where we were! A state trooper pulled up behind us and told me it was most likely the alternator and that we were closest to Ridgeway. So we hung up on Allstate and he called his fellow who came and towed us to Ridgeway. A nice enough place, only VERY small.
The guy checked the car and confirmed, It’s the alternator. Won’t be ‘til this evening that I can get it fixed.
My son-in-law Keith said he would come down and get us and then offered to take us to get our first car in Aiken. I should say, I had already determined to rent a car to go get the Taurus! But Keith took us and we got back and I finally go to bed about 3! Then on Thursday we went down to Ridgeway to pick up Erica’s car. Without incident!! Yeah!
I am thankful that we weren’t in an accident and that there was help available. This did cost an arm and a leg. I asked Mary if there was anyway to sell back the plane tickets to Ohio – No. If there is some kind of lesson, it hasn’t been revealed yet. I do know this, it is scary standing on the side of the road with cars and trucks whizzing by at 80 mph!!
Not how I would want to spend my days off, either! Glad you were safe; sorry it all cost so much to repair. Now we'll have to make your trip here worth it - the pressure's on! :-)
ReplyDeletehaha! no pressure, just be there!
ReplyDelete