As I mentioned about a week ago, Sue and I went to Burlington for the weekend of June 4-5 ... and things didn't go quite as planned ...
We headed out of Salem, MA (have to say MA around here due to Salem, NH being so close) around 8am. Drove for about an hour and a half to Cracker Barrel in New Hampshire. Had a great filling breakfast, which really came in handy later ...
After Cracker Barrel we drove a little over an hour to get into Vermont ... so far so good. As we passed exit 2 going into Vermont we saw a car on the side of the road that had just broken down (looked like the tire had actually came off while they were still on the road) ... it was about this time that Sue and I both made the remark to each other about how much it would suck to break down around there. Not too long after we saw that car ... around a bend and up over another hill ... the temperature light in the jeep came on and we started to loose power. So I pulled to the side off the road ... just in time to see steam start coming out of the hood. I opened the hood up and could smell the antifreeze that was steaming off the engine ...
First thing I thought was, “let me boot up my laptop and check Mappoint to see if there are any service stations in the area” ... well it seems that that area of Vermont doesn't have much in Mappoint (yet) ... so that didn't help. Next thought was, “get on the Scoble phone and do a lookup on Yahoo for service stations in the area” ... again not much help ... while I was playing around on my laptop and phone (all this NEW technology) - my wife was getting actual phone numbers by talking to the Vermont State Police, whose number she got from dialing information ...
Not too long after the tow truck shows up. The guy looks under the hood and soon decides that a hose has busted, so he tells us, if we are lucky we might be back on the road soon .... We all get in the tow truck and get a nice little tour of the town of Bethel, VT, stop at the auto parts store and then head up to the tow guy's shop. While he replaces the hose he gives me a little lesson in what that hose does (which is great because I don't know a lot about cars). He then fills the radiator up with more antifreeze, starts it up ... and things seem to be fine! So we wait a little while, rev the engine and whatnot until it seems that things are back to normal. Since I didn't have much cash, we head back into Bethel to get the guy some money and then thank him for all his help. Now that it is afternoon, we decide to fill the car up with gas and take a small break before getting back on the highway. Once we get to the gas station the temperature light comes back on ...
Preview of what is coming up ... (remember we were driving a jeep)
