Apparently I didn't take many pictures on Wednesday, and none were post worthy!
We stopped by the vet hospital to see Mikey in the morning and I got him to move via mint offering. And by move I mean, awkwardly three legged sideways hop that almost looked like he was going to fall down and break a hip. Apparently he can walk, but moves awkwardly at first. They walk him to the treadmill room every day to change his bandage.
It was like, 40 degrees that day, so Mom and I decided to go to the Columbus Zoo for a few hours in the afternoon. We were on our way there when I got an error message on my truck dash that said "Service Brake System". I checked for error codes, nothing. I found the nearest Chevy dealer on my phone, and off we went.
When we got there, the building was empty, the parking lot was empty, and everything was just abandoned. Great. By this point I realized that when I stopped at traffic lights, after ten seconds or so, my truck would slide through the brake and creep forward.
I remembered that we passed a Ford dealership on our way to the Chevy dealership, so I went back there. I explained we were out of town, the truck brakes seemed to be going, I was supposed to take my horse home the next day, and he had had surgery two days before. They weren't willing to work on my truck because it wasn't a Ford. I didn't understand, they sell used cars. Not every used car is a Ford. Fix my brakes. Instead they sent me a quarter mile up the street to another Chevy dealer.
I got to the service center of that dealership, explained the brakes were going, out of town, horse had surgery at OSU, blah blah, emergency, can you fit me in today/tomorrow/this week? I was told, nope, nothing until next week. Try somewhere else. I asked, can you give me a phone number of a dealership near OSU? I wasn't about to keep driving a truck that was slowly losing it's brakes. They grudgingly gave me a phone number of yet another Chevy dealership. Thank goodness I was near a major city and they're all over the place.
The phone call went something like this:
Me: "I'm out of town, I lost my brakes, I have a horse at OSU for surgery and no way to get him home without the truck, and no way to get myself home either. This is an emergency. Can you fit my truck in sometime this week?"
Lady: "Well we might be able to get to it tomorrow."
Me: "Good enough for me, what's your address?"
Lady (whatever the address was) "Our service center closes at 6, will you be dropping it off after hours?" (it's about 3:30pm by now)
Me: "No, I'm coming by right now. I can't get anywhere else. Do you have a rental car available?"
Lady: "Well... I'm not sure. We might, but I think they're all gone."
Me: "I'm five hours from home, if you don't find a rental car I'm going to be sleeping in your showroom."
By this point in the day, I was frustrated and upset, and mom and I were mostly laughing so we didn't cry. Nothing else we could do.
To get to the dealership, I was that guy on the 70 mph highway going 45 mph with my blinkers on. I'm sorry. I got to my exit ramp, put my foot on the brake, and nothing happened. Talk about cold pits in your stomach. Pushed the brake down harder, finally got some stop.
By the time I got to the dealership, I had very little brake so I rolled my truck to a stop by running into a snow bank. I wasn't driving through the glass doors of the service center or hit one of the brand new cars.
We went in, they asked where's the truck, I pointed out the door and they said to bring it in, and I handed them the keys and said go for it. The brakes aren't so hot. The guy almost hit the glass door after pulling into the center.
They got me set up with a rental, a brand new Chevy Cruz with 3 miles on it. I think it wasn't a rental, and when I called and threatened to sleep in the showroom, it became a rental.
I apologize if anyone has a Chevy Cruz, but I hate that car. It's small, uncomfortable and I hate it. But it got us out of there.
As we were moving stuff to the crap car, some of the guys looked under the truck and waved us over. The rear brake lines were pouring all their fluid out onto the service center floor. They said they would have a mechanic look at it first thing in the morning and call us then.
We went back to the vet hospital after leaving the dealership and let them know that we couldn't take Mikey home Thursday like we planned, it would be Friday at the earliest. We stopped by to see Mikey and he was doing just fine, and being spoiled rotten by the staff. His 2lb bag of carrots was almost gone!
Ugh! That's happened twice to my truck! Once because the brake lines rusted to the truck and somehow got pulled loose. And once they gave out when my husband had to slam on the brakes to avoid a big accident. Luckily that time, the brakes worked all the way to his work, but he left work to find a big puddle of brake fluid around the truck, and a brake pedal that went flat to floor. :(
ReplyDeleteSo scary!