Scraaaaape!

Last night was not one of my best nights!

Ok, it started out great. My friend Karen and I met up after work last night for a nice dinner and gossip and catching up. The trouble came along when I started to head home.

We met up in Strongsville for dinner so I got on the turnpike to come home. I think people like the higher speed limit on the turnpike as now traffic was MUCH heavier than I can remember.

Anyway, I'm driving, probably doing 75 mph in the center lane and I hear something "funny". Sounds like metal scraping and at first I thought it was coming from the radio. I shut the radio off but I still heard it. I was next to a semi that was in the right lane so then I decided the sound came from the semi.

However, I eventually passed him up and had no one around me yet I STILL heard the sound. I made an SOS call to Ron and told him I thought I was having car trouble and I was pulling over to check it out. I tried to wait until I got to the next exit, or to a mile marker number in case I had to call for help, or at least to a pull off on the turnpike, but the metal sound was getting louder. I pulled as far off of the road as I could get, put my four-way flashers on and got out of the car. I looked all around, I didn't see one of my bumpers hanging and I saw all four tires were on the car and not flat. It all looked good to me! Yeah, so much for my expertise!

I got back in the car, told Ron it might be a false alarm and then started to mosey along the shoulder picking up some speed. I didn't make it far since as soon as I started moving, the noise was right back! Dang, something was seriously wrong! I was back out of the car and again, all around looking for what could be making that noise. After finally looking further UNDER my car, I see it. I have no idea what "it" is, but I see it. It's metal and it's hanging from about the middle of my car, just behind the front tired. Damn, this ain't good.

Still with Ron on the phone, I came to the realization that I was going to need a tow. That decided, there was nothing Ron could do, so I called the turnpike emergency number (which for the record is *990) and prayed someone would answer.

I'm not sure who monitors that number since it was hard to hear standing by the side of the road with cars and semis whizzing by you at 80 miles an hour. But, whoever answered transferred me to someone and I tried my best to tell them where I was. I've been on the turnpike a gazillion times and I obviously drive it without thinking because I had NO clue where I was.

I knew I was west bound. Ok, I HOPED I was west bound. After thinking for a minute, I remembered passing the go kart place by the Route 10 exit. I thought I couldn't be but a minute past that heading west. She asked me for more specifics. If I knew, I'd tell you! But telling her I was standing next to a white flower or next to an empty Diet Coke bottle wasn't helping her. I looked around and realized I was between two overpasses. THAT for some reason helped her.

She said she'd send help and that they'd be there in 30 to 45 minutes. When you're stuck on the side of the road and that road is the turnpike, 30 to 45 minutes is an eternity. A few minutes later, the tow truck driver called me and again tried to nail down where I was and I gave him the same information. He said he'd look for me west of the Route 10 exit and if he didn't see me, he'd call me back. I knew I was in trouble because if he didn't see me then I really had NO idea where the hell I was.

Once I hung up that phone, I was suddenly feeling more alone than I can remember feeling in a LONG time. I didn't know what to do with myself, I didn't know where to go.

I remember when I lived in Houston, it was common to hear about people getting hit on the freeways while pulled over. Also common were Good Samaritans getting killed while they were changing some one's tire. You know, as people are driving by, they are looking at what's going on at the side of the road and they end up aiming for and hitting the stopped vehicle. That's all I could think of so I was terrified to get back in my car.

I thought if I walked down the embankment from my car and a little behind it, I'd be safe. That way, if someone hit my car, they'd both miss me as momentum would carry them to my right. Unfortunately, standing in the grass I was a feast for every living creature there. I am one big bite all up and down both legs. Before bleeding to death by bug bite, I came up from the embankment and back to the shoulder of the road.

Afraid to stand behind my car for fear of someone hitting me before my car, I decided to walk about 100 feet in front of my car and stand there on the shoulder. I thought that way, if someone did hit my car, hopefully I'd have time to jump out of the way. Yeah, that's what I thought. Like I said, I haven't been THAT alone in a long long time.

Where is the safest place to be? People I've talked to have differing opinions. Finally out of fear of someone throwing something at me while driving by, I got back in my car, belted up and prepared for impact. Like I said, it was a LONG 30 to 45 minutes. Semis crossed the white line of the shoulder and passed by me with hardly more than two feet to spare. I was going to get out of the car and go back on the embankment and faced more bug bites but I was afraid of what would come out of the taller weeds behind me and drag me back into the weeds. I felt like I was in a no-win situation.

I was always a big fan of the turnpike when I traveled. Yes, you paid for it, but you got what you paid for. I got to where I was going much faster than if I traveled the local highways. In the winter, the turnpike would be plowed and maintained MUCH better than any other road. Also, the turnpike is patrolled well. As a woman traveling alone, I appreciated this point thinking if I ever broke down, it wouldn't be long before help found me.

I was wrong on that point. I was pulled over for 45 minutes from my phone call for help to the tow truck showing up. Since I called an emergency number, I guess I assumed an emergency vehicle, such as a patrol car of some denomination, would show up to make sure I was ok. I never even saw one go by. For most of that 30 to 45 minutes I was a woman standing alone on the side of the road. I guess I'm not skinny enough or have boobs big enough to warrant anyone pulling over to see if I was ok. That is a rude awakening as a human being, that with the increased traffic on the turnpike, and trust me, the traffic was CRAZY, no one would pull over.

I was never so happy to see the flashing lights from a tow truck before! My new best friend Doug with Rich's Towing & Service. Doug was very nice and didn't live up to the bad reputation of a lot of tow truck drivers. I explained my situation and Doug crawled up under the car to have a look. As I'm thinking of how I'm going to get to work the next day, Doug had diagnosed my problem and had a temporary solution for me.

I guess the cover from my catalytic converter had rusted apart and the bottom half was now dragging on the ground, hence the metal sound. Doug said he could rip off the cover so that the sound would stop and that I didn't need to be towed. He said I would be good to drive home and that sounded good to me!

Doug crawled back under the car, gave the cover a couple of pulls and off it came. I had to pay for the service call which I gladly did and even gave Doug a tip for his trouble. Hey, he could have easily towed my car and charged me a HELL of a lot more than the $50 service charge and then I'd be at the mercy of some mechanic that I don't know to fix my car. This way, my car was good to get back on the road and I will head over to get it fixed this weekend.

I know, it could have been worse. My self esteem took a hell of a shot last night and I have a whole new family of gray hairs that sprouted up from the terror of being that close to speeding death machines unprotected.

I put the piece of crap cover from my catalytic converter on my table to take some pictures for the blog. Benny had to help me take the pictures! He was the bright spot of my evening for sure. Most of my pictures came out blurry with some part of Benny running through the shot. Here is the rest of them, including one gratuitous cat shot.





Thanks to Doug for not gouging me on the tow last night. I do appreciate that.

And phht to everyone that didn't stop to see if I was ok and a bigger PHHT to the semi that crossed the white line and came WAAAY too close to hitting me.

I'll let you know how the repairs go. Hopefully I can get them done this weekend in between everything else.