Thursday turned Friday

Last Thursday, we had a team meeting in our Burbank office. My boss and I drove from here at 6:00 am in the morning to reach Burbank at 8:30am. The day's meetings were good. In the evening, we finished dinner and started to drive back.

Few miles we drove and all the lights on the dashboard started to blink. Suddenly, engine lost pulling power and we had to exit and drive to a gas station. First idea - Someone should help us 'jump-start' our car. One guy on pickup truck helped us do that. A minute later, the engine died. It was ticking 9:00pm. Just then, we made few calls and got some idea - replace the battery. Where do we get a battery at this hour? Only place which was open was Walmart. The nearest was 8 miles away and they close at 10pm. We took a cab and reached the store by 9:55pm. We had 2 minutes to checkout. We ran in and picked a low-end battery, checked out and got a cab to return back. It was 11pm now. We replaced the battery ourselves and started to drive back.

40 minutes later, same story - lights in the dashboard started to dim and slowly engine began to lose power. The exit we took then was the best ever available - Just off the exit was a lodge. All we could do was pull the car into it with whatever momentum it had. It was almost 30 minutes past midnight by the time we hit bed. We rested there that night hoping to find a mechanic next morning and fixing the car. Next morning, we took the car to the nearest mechanic and found out that the alternator was not functioning. It had to be replaced which will take some time.

We had to return back home as my boss had to fly the next day. We rented a car and drove back to reach safely! How much did all these cost??? $850.00! Lodge - $150.00, Alternator replacement - $550.00, Car Rental - $150.00 (because of drop-off at different location). Add 50.00 for Battery and 35+35 for cab to get the battery (i.e., 120 more).

End of this, our return got delayed by 12 hours. We were supposed to return by 11pm Thursday; actual return was 11am Friday.

Comments

micromysore said…
hmm .. lots of klpd ..
Unknown said…
You could have saved everything with a AAA membership. Go, get it.

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