As a free-spirited 21yo, I drove from Atlanta, GA to Columbia, MO in my 1966 MG Midget for the express purpose of engaging in physical activities with several young students at (all-female) Stephens College. A GF from high school went there, and assured me of a Sure Thing with any breathing student I should encounter.
After a week of living in various rooms with various new friends (she was not wrong),
I headed back to Atlanta faster than I should have in a 1966 MG Midget. I threw a rod, and had to hitch to the nearest town. Got a towtruck to go get the car and bring it back to my motel. The O’fallon Motel, in beautiful O’fallon, MO, population 12,000
Stayed there 2 nights, while waiting on a neighbor to come rescue me.
Since there was nothing to do in O’fallon, (a condition I suspect still exists)
the girls came and got me each night, and we partied more.
When Randy got there, we got a U-Haul trailer, loaded the MG, and thought “We don’t want to head home at night”, so we headed back to the school, partied with the girls, and a good time was had by all. I get sore just thinking about those 10 days.
In April, I blew out a tire coming down the mountains of Utah at about 2:30 in the morning. We got the spare on, looked up “Auto Repair” in the Garmin, and found out there was a town called Green River 12 miles ahead. They had the dodgiest motel I’ve ever had the privilege of staying in, but it was only $50 for a urine soaked room for 5 hours or so. :rolleyes:
The next morning, my Garmin showed me where the local auto repair shop was, just down the road. Turns out the ancient man running the joint stopped doing auto repair some years back…all he does now is sell tires - one brand only. I suspect that mountain has chewed up more than a few of them.
New tire, and I was on my way back to Chicago by 10 am. With a tire embarrassingly emblazoned “Kumho”. :smack:
When scheduling long distance drives I tend to look into rental vehicles. That way if the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere it isn’t my responsibility to find a repair shop and get it going again. I call the rental car company get another car and continue on my way.
In cases where I drive my own vehicle I’m going to be calling AAA having my car towed where needed and hoping I brought a good book to read while I spend far to much money getting my car prioritized, paying someone I don’t know to fix my car. Hopefully it gets fixed before I miss any important schedules.
You go to a nearby house, in the rain and dark. In the lightning flashes you see that it has a strange gothic looking form. You knock on the door. No one answers and your scared wet under-dressed female companion suggests you return to your car, but then from inside you hear the distinctive footsteps of someone with a limp walking across a gritty wooden floor. The door creaks open and a mis-shapen, dishevelled, tangle haired figure holding up a guttering candle says "Yes? in a deep sepulchural voice. You explain your plight and he invites you in. He closes the door behind you with a solid thud and extracts a bundles of keys from his pocket and turns one in a heavy iron lock. You notice him carefully return his keys to his pocket, and following your eyes, he mutters something about it not being safe outside after dark, not when the moon is full. But you recall that when he first opened the door, it was not locked…