Adventures in Driving
Driving to the Bay Area Sat morning started off so well - got up early, got my Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade Passion Tea (sweetened, light ice) from Starbucks and no rain…
…Then, as I’m pulling up to the Costco gas pump, I suddenly notice that there is smoke…coming from under the hood of my car and my temp gauge is at H.
I noticed that the attendant was possibly watching me, so I played it cool and proceeded to get out my car like smoke was not coming out of my car. But of course, I had to go to the attendant because my card couldn’t be read.
After filling up, I made it to a real gas station and bought some H2O and coolant. Read, re-read, and read again the manual and several online resources (I’d be dead w/o my smartphone). Called my Dad and filled up my reservoir tank & radiator. Car seemed to cool down ok and I was on my merry way!
But, not 15 mins later and driving through the hills no less, my car got angry and I had to pull over the side of the freeway. Fluid levels were fine so I sat for a bit then drove on for a while longer and made it out of the hills before I had to pull over again to let it cool down. Made it to an exit and sat at a gas station. Not even 30secs later it was hot again and I had to exit immediately, praying I’d make it to a gas station. At this point:
I was on the verge of calling a tow truck to drive me the rest of the 40miles to the auto shop.
But then I got some help fr a guy at the gas station who was also having car problems (transmission issues -yuck). He definitely needed a tow. All he did was kinda look car over, offer some ideas (which I already knew), but he was just so nice and helpful. Possibly because I was a girl. Not that I minded or cared; he was just so nice. This time I really filled up the reservoir, made it over one bridge, and to Emeryville before having to pull over again to fill up again. Let me tell you, the sight of your reservoir tank bubbling over and steam rising up is freaky.
Thankfully, I made it over the Bay Bridge (not w/o silently freaking out I wouldn’t -omg so many slow drivers!) and got to the car shop w/o further incident. What was just supposed to be an oil change turned into that + new radiator + new water pump + new front brakes = lots of $$ >_< And a 2hr drive turned into 3.5+ trip.
So glad I decided not to make the drive the night before at midnight and in the rain. And pretty proud of myself for getting the car and me to the shop w/o a mental breakdown.
