Okay, What Next?

New experience, new experience! Don't you just love them??? It depends on what the new experience is, says I!

Yesterday I went over to Bedford to visit my father-in-law in the nursing home. On the way home, on 101 in rush hour traffic while stopped about 5 cars back from the traffic light at Meetinghouse Road, my clutch "went!" I mean, "grind", zilch, nothing, no gear, no move, no nothing. I kind of panicked at first as I turned on my flashers, then grabbed my cell phone to call Neil and ask him to call AAA. I could have dug out my AAA card and called myself, but I was feeling kind of flapped and was busying myself with looking in my rear view mirror to make sure the cars were going around me and not into me!! Like I could have done anything about it if they weren't!!

After 10 minutes or more, a police car pulled up behind me to see what the trouble was. "Clutch gone," says I. They asked if help was on the way, which after calling Neil back I could confirm that in the affirmative. They then pushed me off the road onto the shoulder, set out a flare behind me and positioned themselves to guard me for awhile. I waited probably another 20-30 more minutes before the AAA truck came, after which the driver escorted me to the cab of the truck and proceeded to load old "Sooby" up onto the truck bed.

Then it was just the "long" ride home, made interesting by various verbal interchanges between the driver and myself. Never learned his name, but did learn he was married, used to live in Brattleboro, VT, had recently ordered his wife a brand new 2007 Ford Explorer, had an 18 year old daughter whose boyfriend had twice wrecked his wife's car (hence the new Explorer!), had driven for AAA for 20 years fulltime and now was driving weekends and evenings, presently drives a 7 car transport truck for a dealer from car auctions, once had a AAA customer swear at him and denounce him so badly for taking half an hour to arrive that he walked off and left him standing by his broken down vehicle, etc. etc.

Also, just in case you've ever wondered if it is possible for one of those cars on a big transport truck to come off unexpectedly, the answer is "yes." One of his friends hooked up the chains the wrong way one time and the car catapulted over the hood of the truck. So if you've ever driven by one of those things and said to yourself, "I wonder if. . ." (like I did on our recent trip), the answer is "yes." It could possibly happen. One of those cars just might fall off!

Cell phones and AAA. How thankful I am for both of them. If you have an old car like we do, AAA Plus is the way to go. For the few extra dollars it costs a year, it is well worth it, since you get 100 miles of free towing which means they will tow you to the garage of your choice and not just 5 miles to the closest one. And we have a family plan so that we pay a base rate for the primary driver (me, because I'm the female and need it the most!) and then an add on for the rest of our family members (which they pay for, of course!)

Wheeee! Now in addition to our 213,000 mile van, we have a clutchless car. Good thing we like walking! I'm not worried. God has never deserted us yet!