I am back at college.
This last weekend I decided to make a trip back home.
I mainly decided to do this because there was a career fair going on at a school close to home.
I have realized that I will be graduating in about a year and a half.
And I should probably figure out where I would like to work afterwards.
I left early Thursday morning before the sun had risen.
And it was cool to both see the world wake up and change before my eyes.
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| I actually took this picture about a year ago, but I love it. |
Anyway, I had been driving for about 2 and a half hours when my temperature gauge went far too high.
And by far too high, warning lights turned on and everything.
So, I pulled over onto the side of the highway.
I then proceeded to sit there for 5 minutes while I watched smoke rise from under the hood of my car.
I then took a deep breath and called my dad.
Because who else are you supposed to call in these situations?
He told me to open my hood and tell him where the smoke was coming from.
Apparently I'm not that great with cars.
Because the only thing I could tell him was that it was coming from the passenger side.
I should really work on that.
While I was standing on the side of the road with my hood up and cars flying by, a pickup truck pulled off in front of me.
A man from Montana got out and asked me what was wrong.
I simply answered by telling him I thought I had overheated.
He then asked if he could help me with anything and offered me a ride to the next gas station.
I politely declined, thanked him for his help, and he drove off.
I waited for the smoke to stop coming and then slowly drove to the next exit to a gas station.
This gas station was the only thing around for miles.
And then I sat there.
Because I had absolutely no idea what to do.
And then it started raining.
Ironic right?
My dad kept trying to help me, but I couldn't figure out what he was trying to get me to do.
So here I was, alone, standing in the rain, outside of a gas station in the middle of nowhere, the hood of my car up, and absolutely no idea what I was going to do.
I closed the hood of my car and got back in the driver's seat to warm back up a little.
As I was about to burst into tears, a trucker walked over and asked what was wrong.
He said that he'd seen me with my hood up and I looked a little distressed.
I told him that I think I had overheated, but I really had no idea and I didn't have a clue what to do.
He opened my hood, took a look, and told me exactly what I should do.
I thanked him and then he left.
I did what he told me to do and then called my dad.
My dad then said that my Aunt was an hour away and was going to come follow me the rest of the way home.
This way if something else went wrong I would at least have somebody there with me.
I waited until my Aunt showed up and then managed to drive the rest of the way home.
My car didn't overheat again the rest of the drive.
I did take it in to the mechanics and it turned out I had a slow leak.
I had been slowly leaking coolant for a while and that's why I had overheated.
I am so grateful for the kindness of strangers.
The fact that they saw someone in need and took a few minutes out of their day to help them.
If it wasn't for them, it probably would have taken a lot longer for me to get home.
Go out and make the world a little better.
