Journal dacetone's Journal: AAA Rules! 2
What a perfect time for my car to break. My first day of finals was today, so I decided to go out and have some fun last night, and drove up to Camano Island to see some family. Headed home around 10:30, noticed that my headlights/dash lights were *really* dim. Figured, ehh, I'll make it...made it about halfway to the freeway, the radio died, and the radar detector started freaking out, saying there was a W alert. Unplugged it, started chanting "you can make it, you can make it" (no radio, nothing else to do, heh). Kept driving southbound on I-5, passed Marysville, where my cousin who I had planned on seeing lives, but the car was being really weird (sputtering, sort of), so I decided to press on and try and make it home.
About a mile past the Marysville exit, car begins to slow down, I push on the gas pedal, it speeds up, then slows down, I floor it, it doesn't move. The 'Check Engine' light comes on. Damn. I coast to the side of the road and curse. I try and call Bernie, but he's already asleep (by now, it's 11pm). Try and call my insurance company (I have a little towing insurance), wait on hold for 20 minutes, curse and hang up. Try and call 911, it's busy?!!?! Good thing I wasn't being raped/murdered. Finally resign myself to figuring a way home without the car, call my cousin, beg a ride back to her house. Made it home around 3am (She had an errand to run, and we tried to take a look at the car in the dark), had to be up at 8 to catch the bus on time for school *grumble*. Get woken up at 4:45 by a panicked Bernie that my car is not out front. Mumble out an explanation. Sleep another 3 hours, get up, study for final, take bus to school, fail Japanese final (probably, I'm really bad with the ta/tai/te grammar forms, especially on so little sleep), take bus home.
The good stuff happened after the final. Bernie and I came up with the plan concerning his AAA membership (which he's never had to use), which comes with 5 miles of towing, and we could at least tow the car to my cousin's house and off the freeway. While I was waiting for the bus, I thought, well, why don't we just add me to the AAA plan and upgrade it to the plan with 100 miles of towing? I told Bernie all of this thinking, and he had already done it all. :) We're on the same wavelength.
Get home, Bernie and I drive up to meet the car, WSP had already tagged/painted it, but luckily hadn't towed it (Surprisingly, as they will tow it immediately if it's abandoned during night hours with no lights on, but luckily they didn't mark it until 6am), and we called AAA, they answered the phone *immediately*, found out that the primary tow truck in the area was running about 2 and a half hours in the traffic (arggh!). She put me on hold, and came back and said someone else could come in about an hour. We waited...eventually, Bernie went and got some food/drink for us. While he was gone, I played on the side of the road, sat on top of a hornet's nest (eek), found a magnetic ad for a church, and nearly died from the heat.
While I was waiting, someone from AAA called and just wanted to make sure everything was OK! How sweet! I couldn't believe that. Finally, the tow truck showed up, and took my poor car away. We had it towed to our house, as the shop we usually go to is closed on the weekends (of course, arggh), and it's close enough that we can just push it there on Monday. Total cost to me: about 60$ for adding myself and upgrading to the plus membership. How much it would have been without AAA: astronomical. Last time I had the car towed, it was from the 85th exit on I-5 in Seattle, towing that ~10 miles was 200$. This time, it was about 40 miles. Now, I just have to wash that ugly 06 0547 off the back window. :{
About a mile past the Marysville exit, car begins to slow down, I push on the gas pedal, it speeds up, then slows down, I floor it, it doesn't move. The 'Check Engine' light comes on. Damn. I coast to the side of the road and curse. I try and call Bernie, but he's already asleep (by now, it's 11pm). Try and call my insurance company (I have a little towing insurance), wait on hold for 20 minutes, curse and hang up. Try and call 911, it's busy?!!?! Good thing I wasn't being raped/murdered. Finally resign myself to figuring a way home without the car, call my cousin, beg a ride back to her house. Made it home around 3am (She had an errand to run, and we tried to take a look at the car in the dark), had to be up at 8 to catch the bus on time for school *grumble*. Get woken up at 4:45 by a panicked Bernie that my car is not out front. Mumble out an explanation. Sleep another 3 hours, get up, study for final, take bus to school, fail Japanese final (probably, I'm really bad with the ta/tai/te grammar forms, especially on so little sleep), take bus home.
The good stuff happened after the final. Bernie and I came up with the plan concerning his AAA membership (which he's never had to use), which comes with 5 miles of towing, and we could at least tow the car to my cousin's house and off the freeway. While I was waiting for the bus, I thought, well, why don't we just add me to the AAA plan and upgrade it to the plan with 100 miles of towing? I told Bernie all of this thinking, and he had already done it all.
Get home, Bernie and I drive up to meet the car, WSP had already tagged/painted it, but luckily hadn't towed it (Surprisingly, as they will tow it immediately if it's abandoned during night hours with no lights on, but luckily they didn't mark it until 6am), and we called AAA, they answered the phone *immediately*, found out that the primary tow truck in the area was running about 2 and a half hours in the traffic (arggh!). She put me on hold, and came back and said someone else could come in about an hour. We waited...eventually, Bernie went and got some food/drink for us. While he was gone, I played on the side of the road, sat on top of a hornet's nest (eek), found a magnetic ad for a church, and nearly died from the heat.
While I was waiting, someone from AAA called and just wanted to make sure everything was OK! How sweet! I couldn't believe that. Finally, the tow truck showed up, and took my poor car away. We had it towed to our house, as the shop we usually go to is closed on the weekends (of course, arggh), and it's close enough that we can just push it there on Monday. Total cost to me: about 60$ for adding myself and upgrading to the plus membership. How much it would have been without AAA: astronomical. Last time I had the car towed, it was from the 85th exit on I-5 in Seattle, towing that ~10 miles was 200$. This time, it was about 40 miles. Now, I just have to wash that ugly 06 0547 off the back window.
Sounds like charging system (Score:2)
How much is the shop going to get to replace your alternator or VR or whatever?
Re:Sounds like charging system (Score:1)