Saturday 16 August 2003

My Trip Doesn't End Well

So, I took a risk, drove down to visit Michael and Bethany in Pennsylvania, had a worthwhile time and some deep talks, and then on the way back home today my car's engine finally blew properly (connecting rod loosened right up and started whapping around) and I was stranded on the Pennsylvania/New York border in a tiny village called Great Bend. I got the car to Bill Buzzard's Pump 'N Go Gas Station. I phoned people, was a bit panicked, got the number of a mechanic who officially pronounced the car dead, and found out that no buses came to Great Bend. I resolved to phone a a taxi to come get me and take me to Binghamton (half an hour away) where they have buses and so on. I phoned the taxi number a clerk had given me, but it was no longer in service, so I asked the lady at the Pump 'N Go for another taxi number, and she insisted on calling her husband Darren to drive me to Binghamton. Not only did he drive me, he insisted on waiting while I talked to the Greyhound bus people, who apparently will not drive you 4 hours due North from Binghamton to Ottawa without taking a 5 hour detour through Toronto first. My pointing out that Binghamton is actually closer to Ottawa than Toronto is made no impact whatsoever. Darren suggested I rent a car, and I arranged this over the phone for only $40 more than a bus ticket, with arrival in 4 hours instead of 24. This meant I didn't have to sleep in the bus station. Darren drove me out to the airport (which is in the middle of nowhere, by a landfill, the road it is on being the only road around, and actually ending at the airport terminal) and we got the burgundy Kia Spectra that was their cheapest option. Darren knew both the older man and the young teenaged girl who were manning the Hertz desk, so he had fun talking to them while I got things finalized. Then he had me follow him back to Great Bend, where he helped me load all of my stuff from my dead car into the Spectra. Naturally, he refused any money whatsoever. The last thing I saw, he was teasing his wife as she came offshift at the Pump 'N Go, and giving directions to a guy who was lost. I drove back, with a half-hour delay at the border due to a mile of cars and trucks and only two customs agents working. My cat had been very worried about me and scolded me quite a bit when I got home. Now I have to go back to Great Bend somehow in the next 3 or 4 days to sell the car to a mechanic or else rent a trailer and bring it back up here.

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