The Trip (Pt 3 The Tow)
Posted on | July 3, 2010 | Comments Off
Having vented at the ticketing agents about the flight over run by teenagers and still reeling from the “inspection” of her coin purse full of potentially dangerous quarters and her “suspect” pork roll, she and her “very happy to see her” Mother made their way to the garage to make the drive from the airport 115 or so miles to her Mother’s home.
She had offered to drive since her Mother had driven all the way to this airport to get her, even though there was a much closer airport, there were no straight through flights and even tickets with a connecting flight were much more expensive. She got behind the wheel and heard nothing but a clicking noise. This was not good. She checked to see if the lights had been left on, any doors open, anything that might have drained the battery but saw nothing.
So they walked back into the airport to the airport police to find out the procedure since she was pretty sure since 9-11 tow trucks couldn’t randomly come in to jump people. She was correct. The airport offered a free jump service. How nice. They’d be on the road in no time.
By the time they made it back to the car, a nice gal arrived with the jump box and the car was jumped. Hooray.
They headed out northbound on 101 towards San Francisco and all of a sudden the car just stalled. This was really not her day. She was in the number 2 lane from the left and those behind her were not exactly patient about them blocking traffic. (As if they had a choice!!!) AAA was called and that question where they ask you if you are safe was answered with a big fat and loud NO! This was not like the time her ambulance died in the middle of busy road. At least then she had lights she could turn on and her vehicle was big. This was a little Toyota sedan!
At one point AAA asked if she could get out of the vehicle and put the hood up to alert people to the fact she was broken down. Another big fat and loud NO came out. This was a busy highway.
The next thing she knew, two guys in shorts jumped out of their car and pushed them off to the side of the road. That was nice. At least they weren’t out in the middle anymore, but the shoulder wasn’t exactly as wide as the car. Then tow truck #1 arrived. He said he worked with the California Highway Patrol and was called in by the CHP officer that saw them stranded. (The same one she cursed out for not stopping to at least put himself behind them with his lights on so no one would smash into them.) These guys do nothing but tow you off the highway to safety. (In reality, they get you off the highway so you stop causing traffic jams)
Tow truck #1 then saw their AAA truck and told him where to meet them. They then bid farewell to tow truck #1 and tow truck #2 hooked them up. But when they told tow truck #2 where they needed to be towed (thank you God for 100 mile towing with AAA Premier service!!!) they had to have tow truck #3 meet them because he would be the one towing them to their destination.
So in a little while, tow truck #3 arrived, and their driver George got to meet what I’m sure he described as some kind of strange comedy team of loon and loonier. Which was which was still to be determined. This was a long, LONG drive, during rush hour traffic mind you. Oh, welcome to California after such a wonderful check in to the airport and a wonderful flight!
She would like to point out the center seat of a tow truck is not a happy place to be for a couple hours.
They had lovely conversation with George. They discussed airport security and what she had gone through with the quarters and the pork roll and how poor Mother had been put into the booth and given the full terrorist treatment. Her sweet grey haired round faced Mother then asked him if he thought she looked like a terrorist. He choked and spit and almost swerved the truck he laughed so hard.
Before long they were home and George was inside having a glass of lemonade and getting his paperwork signed. Hopefully his trip back to San Francisco was a peaceful one.
[stay tuned for part 4]
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