Weekend Troubles
As you can surmise from the above title, my weekend wasn't all that great. I had already planned to go up to Crosbyton, TX where my folks live for the 2nd Annual West Texas Sacred Harp (Southern Harmony) Singing. Due to the coordinator's daughter going into labor a couple days before the singing was to take place, it was cancelled. However, because I had already taken off work and been excused from the "constructive and exciting" meeting at work, I decided to go on up to visit the folks and hang out with my older brother Stephen and one of my friends from Texas Tech.
Well, everything was going just dandy! I did leave a wee bit late, though because my last class let out at 2:40pm and I still had to finish packing and burning some cd's for the trip. I left about 5pm which was about 1.5 hours after I was hoping I would leave. I got going at a good clip and no cops were around for the longest time. :D I go north on TX 6 until it hits I-20 West to Abilene. I took I-20 to Abilene and I missed my exit north! Well, I was rather ticked off, so I rushed to the next exit and turned around. I hit the gas and all the sudden my car jerked, started losing power, and started this loud tapping noise.
By this time I was back on the interstate hoping it would fix itself (haha) but to no avail. I pulled over and tried to look at the engine to see if I could figure out what the problem was. I couldn't see since it was about 8:30pm or so. My cell phone decided not to cooperate, so I was totally helpless. Thankfully, somebody pulled over and let me borrow their phone to call the folks. Then the guy offered to push my car with his car down to the next exit where there was a Texaco. That was rather dangerous because everyone was blazing past us and we had to cross over a couple of entrance ramps. We safely got to the Texaco.
The folks decided to come down (It was about 2.5 hours away) to get me and the car. They borrowed a trailer and took off to pick me up. About 12:30am they arrived. It took nearly two hours to get the car onto the trailer because the electric winch dad has borrowed would not cooperate, but thankfully he had grabbed a manual winch that used these long yellow straps. Dad had to winch it up inches at a time. It was finally secured and we headed out around 2:30am. We arrived about 5:00am. We ended up sleeping about 5 hours total that night.
Saturday, I was not able to do much since I had no car. Dad said he would take the head off because he suspected it was a valve and piston problem. In the meantime, I was trying to figure just how I was going to get back to school Sunday. I decided to just rent a car. I made the reservation and decided to ride back to Lubbock with a friend who was spending the night since I was in town. I spent the night with him in his dorm at Tech and the plan was to pick up the rental car at the airport (since no free-standing rental car companies would be open on Sun.) on the way to church. We got to bed late and then at 2:30am the dorm fire alarm went off, so we had to run outside. They didn't let anyone back in until about 3:15am.
We got up the next morning and headed to the airport to pick up my rental car. My friend dropped me off and headed to church. I walked in the airport and went to the Enterprise counter to pick up my car. They took my license and credit card and began to enter the information. The all the sudden raised his head and said, "Wait, you don't turn 21 until next year. I can't rent a car to you. I'm sorry." I was just plain shocked! I was stuck in Lubbock! I tried to call my brother in Lubbock but his cell was off. Dad ended up having to come get me. It was then decided my only option was for mom and my little brother to take me back to Texas A&M after church.
I got to Texas A&M successfully only without a car. All I can say is what a blessing it is to have such loving parents! If they hadn't helped me, I would be in a much worse situation than a sick car! It really made me realize how much they really do love me and that they don't just say it. All mom said when I thanked them for all they had done was that "some day you will have kids and you will want to do the same for them. Then you will know why we love you so much and why we did this for you." Do I not have the best parents in the world?????:D
Well, everything was going just dandy! I did leave a wee bit late, though because my last class let out at 2:40pm and I still had to finish packing and burning some cd's for the trip. I left about 5pm which was about 1.5 hours after I was hoping I would leave. I got going at a good clip and no cops were around for the longest time. :D I go north on TX 6 until it hits I-20 West to Abilene. I took I-20 to Abilene and I missed my exit north! Well, I was rather ticked off, so I rushed to the next exit and turned around. I hit the gas and all the sudden my car jerked, started losing power, and started this loud tapping noise.
By this time I was back on the interstate hoping it would fix itself (haha) but to no avail. I pulled over and tried to look at the engine to see if I could figure out what the problem was. I couldn't see since it was about 8:30pm or so. My cell phone decided not to cooperate, so I was totally helpless. Thankfully, somebody pulled over and let me borrow their phone to call the folks. Then the guy offered to push my car with his car down to the next exit where there was a Texaco. That was rather dangerous because everyone was blazing past us and we had to cross over a couple of entrance ramps. We safely got to the Texaco.
The folks decided to come down (It was about 2.5 hours away) to get me and the car. They borrowed a trailer and took off to pick me up. About 12:30am they arrived. It took nearly two hours to get the car onto the trailer because the electric winch dad has borrowed would not cooperate, but thankfully he had grabbed a manual winch that used these long yellow straps. Dad had to winch it up inches at a time. It was finally secured and we headed out around 2:30am. We arrived about 5:00am. We ended up sleeping about 5 hours total that night.
Saturday, I was not able to do much since I had no car. Dad said he would take the head off because he suspected it was a valve and piston problem. In the meantime, I was trying to figure just how I was going to get back to school Sunday. I decided to just rent a car. I made the reservation and decided to ride back to Lubbock with a friend who was spending the night since I was in town. I spent the night with him in his dorm at Tech and the plan was to pick up the rental car at the airport (since no free-standing rental car companies would be open on Sun.) on the way to church. We got to bed late and then at 2:30am the dorm fire alarm went off, so we had to run outside. They didn't let anyone back in until about 3:15am.
We got up the next morning and headed to the airport to pick up my rental car. My friend dropped me off and headed to church. I walked in the airport and went to the Enterprise counter to pick up my car. They took my license and credit card and began to enter the information. The all the sudden raised his head and said, "Wait, you don't turn 21 until next year. I can't rent a car to you. I'm sorry." I was just plain shocked! I was stuck in Lubbock! I tried to call my brother in Lubbock but his cell was off. Dad ended up having to come get me. It was then decided my only option was for mom and my little brother to take me back to Texas A&M after church.
I got to Texas A&M successfully only without a car. All I can say is what a blessing it is to have such loving parents! If they hadn't helped me, I would be in a much worse situation than a sick car! It really made me realize how much they really do love me and that they don't just say it. All mom said when I thanked them for all they had done was that "some day you will have kids and you will want to do the same for them. Then you will know why we love you so much and why we did this for you." Do I not have the best parents in the world?????:D
posted by cpuaggie at 8:34 PM
1 Comments:
Just searching the blog sites for comments on Sacred Harp singing and ran across your blog. We were also thinking of going to the singing in Crosbyton.
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