Ah, the joys of geeking in the wild. judiang and I are sitting out by the fire pit enjoying the fire and listening to the evening Cicada Concert. And geeking on our laptops.

So while I’m here, I’ll continue my tale about Saturday. When I last left you faithful readers, we had gone to the Toodleedoo Zoo. We found I-75 quite easily and headed down south. And we got to my house in just over 2 hours.

I wanted to stop home (which is further south than the cottage at the Lake) because (a) I wanted to check on the kitties and (b) I wanted to pick up the beer bread mix that I had from Tastefully Simple. Judi had tried the beer bread at the Vendors hall at the Fair and actually liked it. (She who poo poos anything beery.)

The kitties were just fine when I checked and I got the mix and some truffles (Russell Stover, not the really good ones from Trader Joe’s that I’ve been hoarding – I like these people, but not THAT much!) and we headed back north. And soon after we passed through Covington, I went to shift into 5th gear and the stick just keep going. And I didn’t go into 5th. Yikes!

My first thought was “This isn’t happening – I’m actually just dreaming” and the second thought was “Oh shit! I need to pull over safely!” and the third was “Crap, I just paid my college tuition and now my clutch has gone out!” We were very close to Ebbert’s grains, which has a big grain elevator, and I started to pull over. I was in panic mode and missed the driveway, but thankfully also missed the ditch. I pulled up near the house next to the grain elevator and stopped the car.

So, what’s a girl to do when her car has gone kaput? Call AAA? No, call her dad and he’ll tell her to call AAA. Heh. Of course, as I was packed light for the outting, I didn’t have both of my wallets with me. And my secondary wallet had my AAA card in it. Thankfully, dad gave me the number to call and the lady was able to look me up on the computer.

The AAA lady wasn’t sure I’d be all that easy to find and kept trying to get more information about my location, but a big ass grain elevator is a very noticeable landmark, so I wasn’t all that concerned. Eventually a dispatcher called to say that a tow truck would be by in 45 minutes, so Judi and I sat & waited.

After 45 minutes, an SUV showed up and the fellow inside asked if we were OK. Said that his parents were concerned (they lived in the house we were parked near) and called him to check on us. We assured him that AAA had sent us a tow truck, and just then, the truck arrived. It was a flatbed and the fellow running it was a master at flatbed tow trucks. He had the car up on it in 5 minutes, and that’s even with it resisting the pull since he couldn’t get it into neutral.

I get 5 free miles of towing and every mile beyond that is $2.50. So I had him tow it into Pleasant Hill to my auto shop and that was only $10. We rode in the truck as he zipped through Covington and then through P. Hill. It was an amazing ride.

I used the night drop off box to inform Baker’s about what happened to my car (and Judi was amazed – had never seen anything like it before) and then we gathered up our stuff and walked home.

Dad was waiting on me at his house and he gave me the key to his truck. Then Judi and I headed north again. And this time successfully. Yay!

The car, as it turned out, needed a new shifting cable. The boys worked on it today and it was done in time for me to come back & get it. So now I have my car back. And it wasn’t the $900 I feared it would be (they say the clutch is still good) but rather half of that.

Sunday was relatively uneventful. We had a Girls Day Out here at the Lake. Aunt Becky, Deanna, Cheryl and mom (with dad as an unofficial girl for the day – hey, he owns all this shit) came round for steaks and card playing. Becky beat us all at Shanghai Rum, but Deanna came in second, which we think is the best she’s done yet. And today was also uneventful and relaxing.

But now the fire is getting low and the mosquitoes are getting vicious, so I think I’ll wind this down.