Just a Little Delay

This is going to be lengthy. .......................

Tuesday I was headed to Cape Giraudeau, MO. It is about a 5 1/2 to 6 hour drive. I was up early and even made zucchini bread, along with laundry and picking up piles of stuff. I met Hillary at JoAnn's to look at material for the new baby's curtains, then headed to the airport to pick up a rental car. I would then return home, pack the car and head to Cape, hopefully no later than 1 PM.

I chose this wonderful red Impala and headed out. About 10 minutes from the airport I was moving along in double lane traffic on 152 and realized that everyone was slowing down. I looked for the problem and slowed down myself. Unfortunately, the person behind me was not as successful as I was at slowing and while I was focused on not hitting people in front of me, I heard and felt a THUD. Darn. I really did not have time for this.

I pulled over in front of a car in the 'pull over' lane. (A lady was parked there talking on the phone.) The vehicle that hit me was a small SUV. It pulled over behind this lady. I crawled over the console and emerged from my car. A cute little gal was doing the same from the SUV. About this time, the lady on the phone finished her call, put her car in drive, and left. My damage was isolated to the passenger side rear bumper. Her damage was on the driver side front bumper and headlight, but was pretty extreme. The bumper was knocked clear off the vehicle. She was talking on the phone. I asked who she had called. Her answer, "My boss." She then disconnected the call and I told her she needed to call 911 and report a non-injury accident. (I left my phone in the car). The amazing thing at this point, I heard her tell the 911 operator that we did not need a tow truck, but within five minutes, three had arrived. The police weren't even there yet.

My attacker was a very nice young woman from Utah. She had arrived in Kansas City on Monday evening, with her very cute little dog, after an 18 hour drive. She was here for an extended work assignment ( I think around 4-5 months). Her company put her up in a hotel Monday night and she was on her way to check out the apartment they had rented for her. She was shaking and kept asking if I was okay. I'm fine. It's not my car, not my insurance, and I was hit from the rear. If you have to have a wreck, just may be the best possible circumstances.

Back to the wreck..... The tow truck guys were irritating. Apparently, they cruise around listening to the police scanner, waiting for someone to have a wreck. They then capitalized on the moment. I'm in a rental car and I'm not going to pay them to tow. I'll call AAA if I need a tow.

The rental car company said that if I could drive the car, to bring it back to the airport and they would give me another car and send me on my way. If I couldn't drive it, they would bring me another car and remove the damaged one, but it would take from 2-3 hours to make that happen. I thought I could easily drive it, but the tow truck guys said I could not. The muffler bracket had been broken and the muffler was rubbing against the tire, thus they would need to tow me. Why can't we just move the muffler away from the tire????

I asked the highway patrolman what he thought and he hedged. He couldn't make any recommendations, bla, bla, bla. Since Charlie has a 'halo', I called David (Brook's Dad). He said he would come and check it out. He arrived in about 20 minutes. He shoved the muffler back onto the brackets, then wired it there with bailing wire he brought. He followed me to the rental car place. I got a new car and the ordeal was over, except for the six hour drive that was still in front of me.

Thought for the Day: When Brooks married Hillary, it probably didn't occur to David and Lana that they were getting me, too."