Story with a happy ending
Ok, let's start from the beggining. This is an epic. The first part of the story, well, all of the story, doesn't have much to do with the "sob" part, but if I just told you the "sob" part, then it wouldn't be much of a story.
I decided to come home from college (Auburn) this weekend. I called my friend, Nats (actually Natalie, but that's more to type, so she will be refered to as Nats) to see if she'd like a ride, since I drive right by her (UTenn Chattanooga) on the way home. She did, but asked if I wouldn't mind stopping at the mall there to pick up her friend, Chelsea, who goes to Georgia. Chelsea managed a ride to the mall in Chattanooga, but didn't have a ride from there. I was also planning on going straight to the HS football game when I got into Oak Ridge (home) to try to catch the half time show, because I have friends in the band.
Last week I noticed that my coolant was low, so I bought some antifreeze on Thursday. When I put it in, the car was still a little warm, so I guess it probably didn't quite get filled all the way. That wasn't really important. Friday afternoon, I got out of Calc, went to my car and left. I had about 3/4 of a tank in gas, but I wanted to top it off, just in case something crazy happened and I couldn't get gas. It was 3.49 at Chevron, but just down ther road at Wal-Mart it was only 3.09. I think my choice was obvious... I put $18-19 in and headed up the road.
Just after Atlanta, I hit some monster traffic. I was stuck in start and stop for a while, and it was heavy from there all the way to the Tennessee border. Will, who goes to MTSU in Murfreesboro called me at this time to ask how long I thought I'd be, and if I thought I'd be able to make it for the half time. He thought I would. When I stopped, I called to get directions to UTC from Nats, which she got from her older sister. I did something very stupid there. The directions were very simple (Hop on I-24 (I was about 1/2 mile from there at the rest stop), get off on this street, follow it until this other street, and there is her appartment, right on the corner). They were so simple, that I didn't check them against the map. Don't ever accept directions from Nats' family without checking them against a map.
So I leave the rest stop, falsely confident in my way. I hopped on I-24, stayed on 24 when I came to a junction with 27, and looked for "the Fourth Street Exit". I couple minutes, and I see "4th Avenue." I don't want to pass it and end up that being the right one, so I get off and call Nats. "By 4th Street, might you have actually meant 4th Avenue?"
"No, it's deffinately street."
"Ok, yeah... This doesn't look much like a college campuse. It looks more like a... Ghetto."
So I hopped back on the interstate and continued on my way. A while went by, maybe 25 minutes or so, and I was not in Chattooga anymore. I was deffinately on my way to Nashville. I decided to do what I should have done before. I saw a rest area ahead, so I stopped and checked the map. It took me a while, because I could find no 4th Street anywhere. Then I realized my error. I was looking for 4th Street off of 24. 4th Street was off of I-27. I yelled loudly and threw the map onto the floor, got back on the interstate and prepared to get off at the next exit and turn around.
When I get back on the interstate, I call Nats to let her know that 4th Street is not off of I-24, it's off of I-27. Here sister had told her that 24 turned into 27. I told her that it in fact does not, it's a junction, and 24 keeps going as 24. I hung up and get off 24, and I saw a sign for highway 27. Hmm. I stopped and looked at the map. Highway 27 is very curvy, and it leads to I-27. I think my decision was obvious... The curves were tight and the traffic was light. Need I say more?
Somewhere along Highway 27, Will called. I told him I was on a back country road somewhere around Chattanooga, and I probably would not be home in time for half time. Sometime after that, Nats called and asked where I was. I told her I was on 27 with a triangle, which would lead me to 27 with a square, which would lead to 27 that's an interstate, and then it would be a very short trip to 4th Street and then to her appartment. It took about half an hour from the time I got on Highway 27 to get to Nats' appartment. It was a fun half hour. Fortunately, Chelsea was later getting to the mall than she expected, and her friend who dropped her off was nice enough to wait with her until we got there.
I finally arrived at Nats' appartment around 8:30. I had planned to get there around 6:30. Oh well. We set off to find the mall. We got to the interstate, almost got on South, made an emergency lane change, and got on going North. Nats' sources told her we needed to be going South. We turned around. We soon found ourselves at the 75/24 junction. I realized the Nats' sources were wrong... Again. We turned around... Again. We passed the Tennessee welcome center that I stopped at earlier, and realized it was 10 minutes from Nats' appartment, and it took me an hour from that point. 10 minutes down the road, we saw the exit for the mall. We started screaming, jumping up and down, and doing other such happy things. Then our "special song" (whole 'nother story, and this one's long enough as it is) came on the CD, and it was a very happy time. We farted around in the parking lot (it's a very big mall) searching for Chelsea. We finally found her. There was much rejoicing. I turned off the car, and it told me I needed coolant. Crap.
We went to get something to eat to let the car cool down a little. There was much running across streets, accompanied by surprised shouts by Chelsea, then disatisfaction with DQ's pricing by Nats. I always enjoy a DQ chicken basket, so I was pretty happy. We walked back to the car and put the coolant in. It really didn't need much. And we were off! We had a little bit of trouble finding the interstate again, but we found it, and it was a straight shot from there. Yay.
An hour and a half later, we arrived in Oak Ridge. At 11.30. I was planning on being home by 8.30. Bummer. We dropped Chelsea off, and went to Nats' and my neighborhood. Neither of us were tired, so we decided to watch a movie at her house. I got home at 2.30. My mom had not gotten the message that I was coming home, but I was planning on not being in until very late. Needless to say, an unexpected visitor at 2.30 kind of freaked her out a little.
I woke up today at 12. I needed a haircut, so I went with Mamaw to Wal-Mart. I filled up on the way. Instead of the slightly more than 300 miles and half a tank, it had taken 400 and 3/4 of a tank to get home. 3.47 was the price, I believe. Crap.
We got to Wal-Mart, and I noticed a knocking. I popped the hood, and assessed that it was coming from the fan. I shut off the car and decided to deal with it later. We went in to Wal-Mart, got a hair cut, some oil because it's time for a change, and various dental care products. When I got back to the car, I popped the hood. I spun the fan a bit, didn't hear it hit against anything. then I noticed a chunk of plastic missing from what my dad called the shroud. Hmm. Then I saw the ground. It was covered in green liquid. Crap.
I was tired and hungry, so we walked over and had lunch. When we got back, I tried to assess the damage. I opened the radiator cap, and it was pretty much empty. Crap. It all came out within 45 minutes. That's pretty much very bad. The current hypothesis is that a chunk of plastic fell off the shroud, and the fan knocked it into the radiator, causing a monster leak. While we were looking at it and I was crying inside, a man with a broken shoulder who was having trouble getting his disability check came to see what was wrong and to ask for money to buy his family a gallon of milk. We gave him $5 and he gave me a nice crescent wrench. I tried to tell him to keep it, but he wouldn't. I then called 5 people to get a ride home. Finally Amy was able to come and get us. Mamaw talked her ear off on the ride home. Hah.
The end. My car is at Wal-Mart. I'm going to see how far AAA will tow for free to see if I can get it out to my dad's house. Getting a new radiator is going to take more than a weekend, so I am without a car, plus, I have to give Nats a ride back to UTC, too. Luckily, we have the Accord sitting in our driveway that no one drives, but I don't know what kind of shape that's in. I guess we'll be taking it in to the Honda place to get it looked over this weekend. Bleh.
But driving the Honda isn't going to be as bad as it seems. I only drive on Sundays at Auburn, so I'm not going to miss much fun. Oh well.
Wasn't that a good story? You laughed, you cried, you were touched. Make a good movie, yeah?
Ok, let's start from the beggining. This is an epic. The first part of the story, well, all of the story, doesn't have much to do with the "sob" part, but if I just told you the "sob" part, then it wouldn't be much of a story.
I decided to come home from college (Auburn) this weekend. I called my friend, Nats (actually Natalie, but that's more to type, so she will be refered to as Nats) to see if she'd like a ride, since I drive right by her (UTenn Chattanooga) on the way home. She did, but asked if I wouldn't mind stopping at the mall there to pick up her friend, Chelsea, who goes to Georgia. Chelsea managed a ride to the mall in Chattanooga, but didn't have a ride from there. I was also planning on going straight to the HS football game when I got into Oak Ridge (home) to try to catch the half time show, because I have friends in the band.
Last week I noticed that my coolant was low, so I bought some antifreeze on Thursday. When I put it in, the car was still a little warm, so I guess it probably didn't quite get filled all the way. That wasn't really important. Friday afternoon, I got out of Calc, went to my car and left. I had about 3/4 of a tank in gas, but I wanted to top it off, just in case something crazy happened and I couldn't get gas. It was 3.49 at Chevron, but just down ther road at Wal-Mart it was only 3.09. I think my choice was obvious... I put $18-19 in and headed up the road.
Just after Atlanta, I hit some monster traffic. I was stuck in start and stop for a while, and it was heavy from there all the way to the Tennessee border. Will, who goes to MTSU in Murfreesboro called me at this time to ask how long I thought I'd be, and if I thought I'd be able to make it for the half time. He thought I would. When I stopped, I called to get directions to UTC from Nats, which she got from her older sister. I did something very stupid there. The directions were very simple (Hop on I-24 (I was about 1/2 mile from there at the rest stop), get off on this street, follow it until this other street, and there is her appartment, right on the corner). They were so simple, that I didn't check them against the map. Don't ever accept directions from Nats' family without checking them against a map.
So I leave the rest stop, falsely confident in my way. I hopped on I-24, stayed on 24 when I came to a junction with 27, and looked for "the Fourth Street Exit". I couple minutes, and I see "4th Avenue." I don't want to pass it and end up that being the right one, so I get off and call Nats. "By 4th Street, might you have actually meant 4th Avenue?"
"No, it's deffinately street."
"Ok, yeah... This doesn't look much like a college campuse. It looks more like a... Ghetto."
So I hopped back on the interstate and continued on my way. A while went by, maybe 25 minutes or so, and I was not in Chattooga anymore. I was deffinately on my way to Nashville. I decided to do what I should have done before. I saw a rest area ahead, so I stopped and checked the map. It took me a while, because I could find no 4th Street anywhere. Then I realized my error. I was looking for 4th Street off of 24. 4th Street was off of I-27. I yelled loudly and threw the map onto the floor, got back on the interstate and prepared to get off at the next exit and turn around.
When I get back on the interstate, I call Nats to let her know that 4th Street is not off of I-24, it's off of I-27. Here sister had told her that 24 turned into 27. I told her that it in fact does not, it's a junction, and 24 keeps going as 24. I hung up and get off 24, and I saw a sign for highway 27. Hmm. I stopped and looked at the map. Highway 27 is very curvy, and it leads to I-27. I think my decision was obvious... The curves were tight and the traffic was light. Need I say more?
Somewhere along Highway 27, Will called. I told him I was on a back country road somewhere around Chattanooga, and I probably would not be home in time for half time. Sometime after that, Nats called and asked where I was. I told her I was on 27 with a triangle, which would lead me to 27 with a square, which would lead to 27 that's an interstate, and then it would be a very short trip to 4th Street and then to her appartment. It took about half an hour from the time I got on Highway 27 to get to Nats' appartment. It was a fun half hour. Fortunately, Chelsea was later getting to the mall than she expected, and her friend who dropped her off was nice enough to wait with her until we got there.
I finally arrived at Nats' appartment around 8:30. I had planned to get there around 6:30. Oh well. We set off to find the mall. We got to the interstate, almost got on South, made an emergency lane change, and got on going North. Nats' sources told her we needed to be going South. We turned around. We soon found ourselves at the 75/24 junction. I realized the Nats' sources were wrong... Again. We turned around... Again. We passed the Tennessee welcome center that I stopped at earlier, and realized it was 10 minutes from Nats' appartment, and it took me an hour from that point. 10 minutes down the road, we saw the exit for the mall. We started screaming, jumping up and down, and doing other such happy things. Then our "special song" (whole 'nother story, and this one's long enough as it is) came on the CD, and it was a very happy time. We farted around in the parking lot (it's a very big mall) searching for Chelsea. We finally found her. There was much rejoicing. I turned off the car, and it told me I needed coolant. Crap.
We went to get something to eat to let the car cool down a little. There was much running across streets, accompanied by surprised shouts by Chelsea, then disatisfaction with DQ's pricing by Nats. I always enjoy a DQ chicken basket, so I was pretty happy. We walked back to the car and put the coolant in. It really didn't need much. And we were off! We had a little bit of trouble finding the interstate again, but we found it, and it was a straight shot from there. Yay.
An hour and a half later, we arrived in Oak Ridge. At 11.30. I was planning on being home by 8.30. Bummer. We dropped Chelsea off, and went to Nats' and my neighborhood. Neither of us were tired, so we decided to watch a movie at her house. I got home at 2.30. My mom had not gotten the message that I was coming home, but I was planning on not being in until very late. Needless to say, an unexpected visitor at 2.30 kind of freaked her out a little.
I woke up today at 12. I needed a haircut, so I went with Mamaw to Wal-Mart. I filled up on the way. Instead of the slightly more than 300 miles and half a tank, it had taken 400 and 3/4 of a tank to get home. 3.47 was the price, I believe. Crap.
We got to Wal-Mart, and I noticed a knocking. I popped the hood, and assessed that it was coming from the fan. I shut off the car and decided to deal with it later. We went in to Wal-Mart, got a hair cut, some oil because it's time for a change, and various dental care products. When I got back to the car, I popped the hood. I spun the fan a bit, didn't hear it hit against anything. then I noticed a chunk of plastic missing from what my dad called the shroud. Hmm. Then I saw the ground. It was covered in green liquid. Crap.
I was tired and hungry, so we walked over and had lunch. When we got back, I tried to assess the damage. I opened the radiator cap, and it was pretty much empty. Crap. It all came out within 45 minutes. That's pretty much very bad. The current hypothesis is that a chunk of plastic fell off the shroud, and the fan knocked it into the radiator, causing a monster leak. While we were looking at it and I was crying inside, a man with a broken shoulder who was having trouble getting his disability check came to see what was wrong and to ask for money to buy his family a gallon of milk. We gave him $5 and he gave me a nice crescent wrench. I tried to tell him to keep it, but he wouldn't. I then called 5 people to get a ride home. Finally Amy was able to come and get us. Mamaw talked her ear off on the ride home. Hah.
The end. My car is at Wal-Mart. I'm going to see how far AAA will tow for free to see if I can get it out to my dad's house. Getting a new radiator is going to take more than a weekend, so I am without a car, plus, I have to give Nats a ride back to UTC, too. Luckily, we have the Accord sitting in our driveway that no one drives, but I don't know what kind of shape that's in. I guess we'll be taking it in to the Honda place to get it looked over this weekend. Bleh.
But driving the Honda isn't going to be as bad as it seems. I only drive on Sundays at Auburn, so I'm not going to miss much fun. Oh well.
Wasn't that a good story? You laughed, you cried, you were touched. Make a good movie, yeah?
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Glad it was just the waterpump.
