I was on the way to work yesterday morning when my car died.  Fortunately, it died just as I was approaching an exit so I managed to steer it off onto the ramp.

The ramp was the exit for Grand Ledge which is about 15 miles west of down town Lansing.  We almost made it to work but not quite.

I called for a tow truck from Lowell to come and pick up the car.  My intent was to go back to Lowell and then come up with an alternate means of getting to work.

The tow truck driver said that he would be there in an hour.  Great!  But what do we do for an hour?

Since there were two gas stations right next to the expressway, I suggested to my car pooler that we go up to the gas stations and get a cup of coffee.  After all, we are going to be there for a hour.  My car pooler liked the idea but took it one step further.  He was going to try to find a ride into Lansing.

While I admired his ambition, I pointed out that he would not have any way of getting back home.  That  fact didn’t seem to phase him in the least.  Of course, he was heavily medicated for back pain so he doesn’t always think clearly.

When we got to the gas station, he started approaching people at the pumps to see if he could get a ride into Lansing.  Between the nature of the request and the fact that he was in a stupor  from his medications, he was really freaking people out at the gas station.  I, in turn, when inside the station and got a cup of coffee, though I wondered how long it would be before some called the cops.

Eventually, my car pooler realized the futility of his efforts and gave up.  After about 20 minutes and one cup of coffee, we walked back to the car and waited for the tow truck.  By that time, we had devised a plan where we would return to the car pool lot and pick up my car poolers car.  We would then drive back to Lansing and go to work.

When the tow truck arrived,  the driver loaded up the car and then we all climbed into the front seat.  It was a little crowded but we managed.  He dropped us off at the car pool lot and we climbed into my car poolers car and headed back to Lansing.  We were about 2 hours late but at least we made it.