This Day Took A Turn At The Turnpike

Every year in the month of May, a particular venue in my state has a Renaissance Festival that is open every weekend of that month. My partner and I decide to take our twin boys this year, as we haven’t been able to attend for several years.

The drive is about an hour on the turnpike, and we are four miles from our exit when our engine overheats and we have to pull off to the side of the road. When I pop the hood, white smoke emerges from the engine in a very impressive plume.

I try to call our roommate, but get no answer, so I start looking up tow trucks and mechanics on my phone. My partner is pretty upset, as we had been planning the trip for weeks, and the twins are starting to fuss because they are realizing we won’t be able to attend.

I call a tow company in the town we were heading to and they say that they could come to get us, but no mechanic in town is open on a Sunday. I thank them, then manage to find a mobile mechanic all the way back in our hometown, almost an hour away.

As I am talking to the mechanic, I notice a vehicle pull to the side of the road ahead of us and a woman get out. She’s walking back in our direction, so I go to meet her. She hands me a gallon jug of water and said she had noticed us and was worried we would overheat. She checks to see if we have somebody coming for us and I reassure her that a mechanic is on the way. I thank her and she gives me a quick hug, then goes on her way.

I take the water back to the car, where my sons are extremely grateful for it, as they had finished off the drinks we had brought for the trip. We settle in to wait for the mechanic, who, on arrival, sets to work.

While he is working, a Highway Patrol Officer pulls up behind our car. I look at my partner in confusion, then to the mechanic, who glances toward the police car and asks if we had called for one. We both shake our head and pretty soon the trooper emerges and comes up to ask if we’re okay or need any help. I explain that we’re having car trouble, but the mechanic is here with us and a kind woman has given us water already, so we are in no danger. Once he is sure that we are safe, he lets us know to call him if we need him, then goes back to his car and sets off.

It turns out that our thermostat is bad, so he replaces that and adds new coolant to the engine, but when we turn it on again, it almost immediately overheats. He spends nearly an hour trying to figure out what is wrong before we all finally have to accept that he can’t fix it. I pay him for his services, but before he leaves he insists on following our car to the rest stop down the road to make sure we get somewhere cool where we can sit.

As this is going on, my partner is posting to his Facebook in frustration about the situation. Our roommate’s boyfriend spots the post. He offers to come and pick us up, even though we know he is very short on gas money due to having a tight financial situation.

The mechanic follows us to the rest stop and has me stay on the phone with him while we get there so that I can update him on the engine. Once we arrive at the rest stop, he comes inside with us and waits to make certain we have a ride back to town before he is willing to leave us.

My partner goes ahead and gets food for us and I call the tow company from before. It turns out that they suspected we would need to call them back, so they already had the information I had given them earlier, and were able to dispatch a driver pretty quickly.

The driver picks me and our car up, but offers to stay until our friend arrives to pick up my partner and the twins, not wanting to leave them stranded. We reassure him that it will be fine, so he sets out for the almost hour drive back to our house. The whole time he and I chat about cars, customers, and other things, including how it would probably be an ‘easy fix’ for my car and that I shouldn’t worry.

When he drops me and the car off at our house and I pay him, I also thank him profusely, especially for having been willing to make such a long drive. He reassures me that it is all part of the job and that he had enjoyed chatting with me, then heads on his way.

About an hour later my partner, my kids, and our roommate and her boyfriend arrive. I offer to go with him and fill up his tank in thanks, but he turns me down, saying it is fine and he knows we would have done the same for him. I still manage to get him to take a ten dollar pre-paid gas card, but only after quite a bit of insistence on my part.

To the kind woman, the kind mechanic, the kind Highway Patrol Officer, the kind tow truck driver, and our roommate and her boyfriend, if you’re reading this and remember a blue PT Cruiser stranded on the turnpike, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. You made a day that could have been so much worse turn out a lot better for a gay couple and their kids.