and I have to do it again on Sunday night. Blah.
It could have been a nice trip--the weather was nice, traffic was normal for Dallas late afternoon-thru rush hour.
But the stupid car. stupid stupid car. A belt broke about 15 miles, maybe more, from the airport. I was driving along getting ready to exit in a mile or two when I suddenly see yellow stuff creeping up from underneath the hood and moving with the wind towards the window. Once i take this in, I look at my guages and notice the temp guage is as high as it will go. We must get off and quick. I baby the car into a gas station and ask for directions to the nearest car garage. "Luckily" there was one just a block a way and by babying the car along on some more water, we get it there and I form a plan not expecting to be leaving anytime soon and Josh still needing to get to DFW. However, for the cost of an arm and a leg and the "luck" of the car repair place not being to busy, I can get my belt replaced because they have what we need in about 30 minutes. I am duly amazed but the thought of waiting a half hour for a cab anyways to get Josh to the airport and the thought of leaving the car in Dallas only to wait two hours for someone to come and pick me up is not pleasant. Therefore, I tell them to go for it and we drive off in less than 30 minutes and grateful that we had some time padding for the airport. We leave the car place at 500. It was better that we left just at 5 because that gives us a few minutes before traffic gets really bad and the exit to the airport wasn't too far away. Things move a little slow the last mile or two, but all is well and I drop my boy off and give him the whole be careful talk and stuff and drive off, depressed at what lay ahead. You see, it is now around 530-545 and I at DFW and must drive back to Longview. The traffic begins not even a mile away from the booths where we pay. So, I make my way at an inconsistent speed--sometime crawling along in first/second gear, at other times having my foot ready over the break while i go with the 40-60 mph flow of traffic. I need to remember not to take the loop back from DFW because lanes will be closed due to construction. The road is crap anyways. Finally, I'm approaching my exit to E-I20 and I am listening to the radio to see if I need to beware any accidents or such. and than I'm keeping a close eye on some reckless drivers around me trying to avoid getting in an accident. and I miss my exit. Of course, the road is goofy at this point because the loop ends and people go off in any number of directions, so I figure I'll just go east and turn around first chance on 75 and I manage to do so. As I'm entering back onto 635 and find E I-20 again, I notice that my exit is four lanes over a quarter a mile from the entrance and as I make my way over, I pray not to get hit be the three or four semi's. I manage to get going the right direction and continue my long journey back to Longview without incident after a stop at Dairy Queen for a bite to eat and something to drink since we gave the car the water from my water bottle and other than calculating to make sure I had enough gas in the car to get to Longview when the light comes on about 15 miles out. I had enough. and I finally get to my apt home again.
stupid car. I still have to take it in to somebody here because the belt had been replaced less than six months ago and there is still a funny noise. My dad thinks it's either bad water pump bearings or idler bearings and we don't want to have to worry about me getting stuck in the middle of somewhere with another broken belt.
so goes life. so goes life.but hey, God is good and he provided just the place we needed and the safety over the entire trip.
Posted by Anna at July 15, 2004 10:14 PM | TrackBack