Drive ‘Em On the Right*
If you found yourself unable to make a right turn from Rockville Pike onto Tuckerman Lane on Sunday morning from about 9:40am to 10:20am, IP and I apologize. If you found yourself puzzled or even a bit angry as to why we didn’t have our hazards on, let me clarify that for you – our electrical system went kaput, so therefore we didn’t have hazards. We’re also sorry if we sounded somewhat impatient when explaining that yes, we had tried that, and yes, a tow was on the way; please keep in mind that we’d been asked these questions multiple times and would not have let ourselves sit there if we could have possibly avoided it. But many thanks to everyone who offered their help, and a huge thanks to the Montgomery Police officer who was kind enough to leave us flares, let the area know what was going on, and said she would check on our situation since the AAA tow hadn’t shown up as of yet.
IP’s car has been trucking along for close to 20 years (it’s been, IP says, on the road longer than he has!), giving out occasionally on various systems, but not to the point where we found ourselves stranded in traffic. IP did once lose a tire on his way out to Colorado, but since then, nothing has really kept him or us off the road completely. The past year, however, has seen the car in the shop for different things (tires, battery, various inspections).
What has coincided with these automotive mishaps has been the fact that we’re usually on our way to do some major shopping when they happen. Back in December, several people shouted out to us that our tire was flat as we drove to Home Depot to order a few rugs for our new apartment. Yesterday, we were on our way to Target to pick up more than a few things in preparation for a major business trip, our Hawaiian vacation, and wardrobe accents for IP’s next career move. Both times, we’ve been frustrated by the fact that we can’t go more than a few miles without having something happen that renders the car unusable.
Yesterday was the kicker, though. We crawled through the December incident, but we couldn’t even do that on Rockville Pike. The car began to have a hard time accelerating; the gears didn’t seem to be shifting and we were barely able to make the speed limit. We started to hear a funny noise, which prompted me to wonder if we were about to lose the muffler. At Tuckerman, the car died. The engine quit and wouldn’t turn over when IP tried to restart. “Hit the hazards,” I immediately said, and the clicking noise that accompanies the hazards began. The honks from cars began also, though, as we failed to move. Obviously the hazards weren’t doing their job at this point.
IP gave me his AAA card and I called to report the problem and request a tow. After describing our situation (while IP waved traffic from the right lane into the middle lane), the dispatcher made us priority since we were in a pretty bad traffic situation. We tried a few times to move the car onto Tuckerman with the help of pedestrians who offered a hand, but the car wouldn’t budge in neutral. Everything had absolutely frozen up on the damn car.
“Pop open the trunk,” someone said from their car, “that’ll let drivers know there’s a problem.” “Get that cone and use it,” someone else pointed out, spotting a cone off the side of the road. We next spotted a police car about 20 minutes into our ordeal. “Please pull over,” IP and I said almost in unison. After updating her on our situation, she left us flares to help keep people out of the right lane. Shortly afterwards, we saw the tow truck coming, lights flashing.
After the driver loaded the car onto the truck, we were taken to the Firestone that IP’s been using for the past few problems. We reported the problems to the person on duty, who let us know that they’d be calling us after they looked at the car. We then walked to the nearby mall (which we usually frequent) and sat down in the food court to talk about the situation.
When the car stalled, I was immediately of the mind that this baby had to go and new one needed to be introduced. Being from Michigan, cars are just a fact of life to me – had I not been with IP, I probably would’ve invested in one shortly after arriving in the DC area. The cost is a lot, of course, and you begin to lose value as soon as your drive off the lot, but not having a car would mean moving into – eep! – downtown DC. Or using Zipcars. Or getting rolling grocery baskets. Considering we live a mile from the Metro, it wasn’t a prospect I enjoyed contemplating.
Since last year, when the car really started acting up, IP wasn’t entirely convinced of the need of getting a new car. His thought had always been to run the current car into the ground – we just never imagined it would happen on Rockville Pike, with us having to direct traffic since the damn thing wouldn’t move. Now, the benefits of the new car outweighed the costs. We would be able to drive to that wedding in upstate New York without having to rent a car; we could actually explore Maryland a bit, perhaps head to Shenandoah, and go to the store without having to worry about what the car would do next. The fact of the matter is this: we can afford a new car and won’t even really feel the monthly payments.
After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that a new car was needed. We narrowed in quickly on the type of car we would get: the same make as IP’s current car, but obviously a different model and year (as the model he has no longer is in production). My mother and my brother both own this car and love it; I was able to drive it in Michigan and found myself comfortable behind the wheel. As it’s in the Ford family of cars, we’d be able to get a discount thanks to my dad. The price isn’t too outrageous, and we think we’d get a good financing rate and we’d be able to put down a hefty deposit. We plan on doing some searching this coming weekend.
As for the current car, it was diagnosed with a dead alternator, which makes a lot of sense. Starting with the failure of the A/C a few weeks ago up to the moment we stalled on the corner of Rockville Pike and Tuckerman Lane, the alternator has been battling bravely but finally lost. The cost to fix the car is around $350, but IP asked me to remind him that even though this turned out to be a relatively cheap problem, it’s not an excuse to put off the inevitable any longer. So here’s the reminder – we need a new car, babe. And I won’t needle you for the red one, either.
So again, apologies to motorists on Rockville Pike and Tuckerman Lane – it’s not where we wanted to be, but these things do happen.
*Paul Simon’s “Car are Cars” from the Hearts and Bones album.