Unfiltered Story #246928

My parents and I have been on our annual fall fishing trip, which was lousy as fishing was extremely slow, only five fish caught between the three of us, four of them caught by me, one by dad. We’re leaving Lee Vining to spend the next two days in Virginia City, NV, which we also visit every year.

We’re barely five minutes out of town when we hear a weird noise and a foul smell enters the car. Dad pulls over into a turn out that overlooks Mono Lake and right away calls AAA. Explaining that we’re northbound on route 395, five minutes outside of Lee Vining, where the nearest AAA towing is. The time of this call is about 7:15 am.

Agent: “And what cross street is near you?”

Dad: “As I said, there is no cross street. We’re northbound on route 395, in a turn out overlooking Mono Lake.”

Agent: “And how near June Lake are you?”

Dad: “We’re not near June Lake at all. We are five minutes outside of Lee Vining, NORTHBOUND on Route 385, in a turnout overlooking Mono Lake just past the first turn off for Mono Lake.”

Agent: “Okay, we’ll have a tow truck out there by 8:50.”

Dad, wondering why it was going to take so long, hangs up. Meanwhile on my phone I’m looking up the phone number for the towing serving in Lee Vining. I try calling them once but after ten rings hang up. Dad calls AAA back to ask why it would take so long to send a tow truck from a town less than five minutes away. They have no answer for him. Finally, I call the service station and hand my phone to dad.

Dad: “I was just wondering why AAA says it’ll take over an hour to get here when we’re less than five minutes away.”

Owner: “They told me you were broken down at June Lake! I’ll call my guy and get him to turn around right now.”

Yes, despite a clear description of where we were, the lady at AAA STILL sent the tow truck to June Lake. We got our tow. Sadly, the repair was something that couldn’t be done and we had to get a rental car and go home instead of going to Virginia City. I cried the whole way home as it was the first time in my 42 years on this earth not getting to go visit. It was a crappy ending to a lousy trip. Made worse by a AAA who couldn’t understand that June Lake is SOUTH of Lee Vining!