- 4,680
I had a rather interesting 24 hours, so I thought I might as well talk about it! Keep in mind me and my parents don't have a cell phone... you'll understand in a few minutes.
So, I had a weekend where I brought up 8 friends to my cottage to celebrate the end of school. We go up on Friday, and despite rather hasty planning, everything goes off without a hitch; a rare occurance since all hell breaks loose at the drop of a hat at my cottage.
So, it's Sunday evening, and everyone is ready to go home, and finally, our luck runs out. We're on an island, and we find out the ferry service stops at the moronic time of 7PM, despite the fact that the sun sets at well after 9PM now. So, with 3 cars and 12 people (one of my friends parents came up on Sunday making it 12), I can't fit into either my friend's car or my mom's Hyundai Santa Fe, and no way for me and my dad to get back to the mainland without illegally docking our boat overnight at the ferry docks, I have to spend yet another night at my cottage because of this.
But, I was able to get my PS2, so I was able to complete the 4h Nurburgring race during the night. Morning comes, and me and my dad leave the island at 10AM. Everything seems good, but the fun is just starting...
I drive us around 15 minutes in his '93 Explorer to Tim Horton's (Canadian coffee and donut place)where we quickly pick up a small breakfast. We get that, and we continue on our way. I drive us to the highway, and I get on, curious how my dad's old car drives on the highway. It rides a lot better than I expected, although power was lacking, as I was doing 3000RPM cruising along at 120km/h, with little power available for passing.
I'm driving along, and I notice the check engine light is on. I ask my dad if this is normal, like with many other old cars, and he says no. Upon further inspection, the radiator fluid temperature gauge was off the scale. I get off the highway and pull off to the side. We check the engine bay, and it the radiator fluid is boiling, literally. This ends, after 12 years, my dad's car's streak of perfect reliability, thus now leaving it with no redeeming qualities, other than good towing ability (which only comes in handy in April and November for hauling our boat in and out of the water).
We then waited a while for the car to cool down before setting off again for a gas station where we could at least buy some more coolant. So, after about a half hour, and eliminating leaks as a problem, we drive less than half a kilometer before finding a gas station. We top off the radiator coolant, watch it all be drawn in by the radiator, eliminating a bent line as a problem, and try setting off again.
So, we get as far as a kilometer before noticing the temperature is again way too hot. So we pull over, and notice our location; the private golf course for the massive corporation Magna. The gates are locked, and numerous security personel are watching the gates as we pop the hood yet again. I see a cop down the road, likely doing radar, so my dad starts to walk towards him to ask for a tow, since we can't keep going like this. But, before he starts off, a motorcycle cop comes to us, and asks us what's going on. We tell him our mechanical problem, and he calls for a truck. He then explains that we got really lucky, because they are actually doing security for a charity golf tournament, with Tiger Woods attending. This explains why they are so concerned about two guys with a crappy car, and the news helicopter that appeared shortly afterwards.
So we get the truck there, and we get loaded up. If anyone is wondering, the tow truck has a 6 speed manual transmission. Not bad!
He takes us up the road to a mechanic's in a nearby suburb, and it will be a while before the car can be serviced. So we decide to walk 15 minutes further up the road to a good pub. We run into a family friend in the parking lot, obviously surpirsing him because of our unusual location. He would have offered a ride, but he was late for work. We eat at the pub, and walk back in the sweltering sun, which is really bad, considering I haven't had a shower for days, and I had no deoderant up there (my mom took it home with other stuff the night before, and I didn't have any time for a shower on the weekend). Somehow, I didn't smell horrid though.
We got back to the mechanic's to wait, and I was expecting a long, boring wait, but my luck continued. They had a TV there, and two back to back episodes of Seinfeld were on, and that kept me thoroughly entertained. Right when the last episode ended, a mechanic came out, and told us our car was fixed. It turns out the problem was a stuck gauge, since the gauge not only provides a temperature reading, but also controls the flow of fluid.
We drove home, and thus concluded my strange day. First mechanical breakdown I've ever experienced!
So, I had a weekend where I brought up 8 friends to my cottage to celebrate the end of school. We go up on Friday, and despite rather hasty planning, everything goes off without a hitch; a rare occurance since all hell breaks loose at the drop of a hat at my cottage.
So, it's Sunday evening, and everyone is ready to go home, and finally, our luck runs out. We're on an island, and we find out the ferry service stops at the moronic time of 7PM, despite the fact that the sun sets at well after 9PM now. So, with 3 cars and 12 people (one of my friends parents came up on Sunday making it 12), I can't fit into either my friend's car or my mom's Hyundai Santa Fe, and no way for me and my dad to get back to the mainland without illegally docking our boat overnight at the ferry docks, I have to spend yet another night at my cottage because of this.
But, I was able to get my PS2, so I was able to complete the 4h Nurburgring race during the night. Morning comes, and me and my dad leave the island at 10AM. Everything seems good, but the fun is just starting...
I drive us around 15 minutes in his '93 Explorer to Tim Horton's (Canadian coffee and donut place)where we quickly pick up a small breakfast. We get that, and we continue on our way. I drive us to the highway, and I get on, curious how my dad's old car drives on the highway. It rides a lot better than I expected, although power was lacking, as I was doing 3000RPM cruising along at 120km/h, with little power available for passing.
I'm driving along, and I notice the check engine light is on. I ask my dad if this is normal, like with many other old cars, and he says no. Upon further inspection, the radiator fluid temperature gauge was off the scale. I get off the highway and pull off to the side. We check the engine bay, and it the radiator fluid is boiling, literally. This ends, after 12 years, my dad's car's streak of perfect reliability, thus now leaving it with no redeeming qualities, other than good towing ability (which only comes in handy in April and November for hauling our boat in and out of the water).
We then waited a while for the car to cool down before setting off again for a gas station where we could at least buy some more coolant. So, after about a half hour, and eliminating leaks as a problem, we drive less than half a kilometer before finding a gas station. We top off the radiator coolant, watch it all be drawn in by the radiator, eliminating a bent line as a problem, and try setting off again.
So, we get as far as a kilometer before noticing the temperature is again way too hot. So we pull over, and notice our location; the private golf course for the massive corporation Magna. The gates are locked, and numerous security personel are watching the gates as we pop the hood yet again. I see a cop down the road, likely doing radar, so my dad starts to walk towards him to ask for a tow, since we can't keep going like this. But, before he starts off, a motorcycle cop comes to us, and asks us what's going on. We tell him our mechanical problem, and he calls for a truck. He then explains that we got really lucky, because they are actually doing security for a charity golf tournament, with Tiger Woods attending. This explains why they are so concerned about two guys with a crappy car, and the news helicopter that appeared shortly afterwards.
So we get the truck there, and we get loaded up. If anyone is wondering, the tow truck has a 6 speed manual transmission. Not bad!
He takes us up the road to a mechanic's in a nearby suburb, and it will be a while before the car can be serviced. So we decide to walk 15 minutes further up the road to a good pub. We run into a family friend in the parking lot, obviously surpirsing him because of our unusual location. He would have offered a ride, but he was late for work. We eat at the pub, and walk back in the sweltering sun, which is really bad, considering I haven't had a shower for days, and I had no deoderant up there (my mom took it home with other stuff the night before, and I didn't have any time for a shower on the weekend). Somehow, I didn't smell horrid though.
We got back to the mechanic's to wait, and I was expecting a long, boring wait, but my luck continued. They had a TV there, and two back to back episodes of Seinfeld were on, and that kept me thoroughly entertained. Right when the last episode ended, a mechanic came out, and told us our car was fixed. It turns out the problem was a stuck gauge, since the gauge not only provides a temperature reading, but also controls the flow of fluid.
We drove home, and thus concluded my strange day. First mechanical breakdown I've ever experienced!
, 'bout a million times crazier than the vast majority of my days, heh...ya shoulda posted this in that random story thread or somin, though.
