good Samaritan

You try to be helpful and look what happens.

Yesterday I dropped my daughter off at the high school to leave for high-altitude cross-country camp.  The runners were supposed to arrange their own rides and tents.  McKayla had done so.  Oops!  Others hadn't.  There were lots of runners at the high school who had no ride up to the camp.  So, loving teenagers like I do, I was actually very happy to volunteer to drive a car full of boys up to the campground. 

All was well until the drive back down the canyon.  The car did a funny lurch a couple of times.  Weird.  I noticed the dashboard clock wasn't working.  Strange.  The radio just quit.  Worrisome.  Then, one final lurch and the car was dead.  Completely.  Luckily I was going down the canyon so I could coast off the side of the road.

I tried calling Kevin but, of course, he wasn't anywhere near his cell phone.  I tried several neighbors (at home and on the cells).  I got a complex that no one was taking my calls - drat that caller ID.

Once more luck was with me (and by luck I mean the tender mercies of the Lord) and a police officer pulled up and asked if I was having trouble.  We determined it was the alternator but the officer used his vehicle to charge my car enough to get down the canyon.  Whew!

I finally got a hold of a neighbor who couldn't get Kevin by banging on the door but I told him to just walk on in.  Sure enough.  Kevin and Shanley were downstairs (in air conditioning) watching episodes of Monk.  Nevermind that I was baking and had been gone 2 1/2 hours longer than expected - who misses their wife anyways (it wasn't dinnertime - haha).  I am certain that at some point they would have realized that my 15-minute trip to drop McKayla off at the high school was certainly running overtime.  Nah - who am I kidding?  They might not have ever noticed but I have faith that Chandler would have when he got home from school because he did.  And, since we don't have a home phone, he even made the effort to go to a neighbors and phone me to find out where I was.  Nice to know someone still needs me.

And that is how my 15-minute trip turned into a 3-hour adventure.  (makes me think of Gilligan's Island but with no palm trees, cool breezes, or tropical food)