Earlier this week my daughter and I were driving on I-5 North, a major California interstate. Our destination was Solana Beach, where my daughter was going for her weekly Japanese lesson. We were going around 75 mph when our ‘92 Toyota Corolla lost power and slowed dramatically. In unison my daughter and I went “Oohhhhhh.” It’s a disturbing thing to lose power on the highway. We were just a few miles from our exit.
I was worried that the engine was completely dead, but we continued moving forward. When we reached the exit ramp for Solana Beach, the car started making knocking sounds and vibrating. We stopped at the red light at the end of the exit ramp and I wondered if the car would move forward when it turned green.
We did move forward, but continued to have the knocking problems and loss of power. I put on the emergency flashers and crawled along at about 10 mph. To make a long story short, we got within two blocks of our destination.
While my daughter had her tutoring session, I talked on the phone with my husband about what to do. I was feeling upset, because we had just had the car worked on earlier in the week, and I wasn’t expecting this turn of events.
My husband was great, he listened patiently to my ranting on the phone. The AAA truck got there in a timely fashion and towed our car 20 miles back to San Diego. My friend, Solange, without a moments hesitation, came and got my daughter and me and drove us home. I was grateful that nobody got injured in what potentially could have been a bad accident on the highway.
This reminded me of something that happened when I was pregnant with my daughter back in the summer of 1994. I was driving on the Beltway that surrounds Washington, D.C. I was on my way to the Maternity Center in Bethesda, MD for a prenatal checkup. I was just weeks from my due date and was hugely pregnant.
The car engine completely died while I was still on the beltway. I didn’t have time to panic, I quickly maneuvered the car over several lanes of traffic moving forward just with the momentum that the car had built up. I was able to get to my exit and still roll forward. But the car stopped about half way down the ramp. I got out of the car and pushed it as best I could over to the right side of the road. I remember thinking, “I can’t believe I’m doing this when I’m so pregnant. I hope I don’t go into labor.”
Within moments of pushing my car out of the road, a kind samaritan pulled over and asked me what he could do to help. He ended up driving me to the Exxon station that was just down the road, where I made arrangements for them to retrieve my car. The repairman in the shop was helpful, but I remember that he was nervous because I was so pregnant, as if I were going to have the baby right there. There was a second repairman that I had to ignore, because he kept saying, “You can’t leave your car on the exit ramp off of the beltway, someone’s going to hit it.” I could tell he was trying to get a reaction from me.
After I made arrangements for the repair, the Exxon employee that had towed my car drove me to the Maternity Center and dropped me off for my checkup. And then my friend, Michaela, came and picked me up and brought me home after my appointment. I remember that when we got on the Beltway there was a horrific thunder storm with a torrential downpour and visibility was almost nonexistent. I was quite relieved to get home.
In both of these incidents, one long ago and one this week, there was the potential for an accident and great harm, but none happened. There were kind samaritans and friends who helped me each step of the way. Clearly, someone was watching out for me.
We’re still waiting to hear from the repair shop about our car. I’ll call that “Car Troubles Part 2-the transmission”
