North Carolina Trip - Day 1

Day 1

Today started out very nice and exciting.  It was the Convocation ceremony where I would actually walk and get my diploma (cover).  I was so excited because that was what really made it real that I was graduating and I would have my bachelor’s degree.  David, my parents, Joni and Chade, and Lisa and Tyler were all there to support me.  I was really glad to see them all there and to have their support.  After the ceremony, we went over to the Snow building to take some pictures.  It was exciting for me to have those that could come be there.  After all that, we went back to our apartment, packed up the rest of our things, and headed out to NC.  I drove to Salt Lake while David tried to sleep. 

We stopped off at his Grandma’s house, picked up his brother, and then went to dinner with David’s old mission companion and his wife.  After dinner we started the long journey to the East.  Going through Wyoming was going pretty good, at first.  No car problems and we were all in good spirits.  David started getting a little tired and asked if I could drive for a while.  We were also almost out of gas so it was a good time to stop.  We pulled over at a truck stop in Fort Bridger Wyoming.  I went inside to go to the bathroom and when I came out David said “The gas pump won’t work and the car is dead.”  Oh fabulous, I thought.  I knew something bad was going to happen while we were driving simply because we had done everything we could to prevent it.  We got a jump from the lady at the pump next to us and the car started right up.  We found a pump and started gassing the car up.  We sat in the car trying to warm up when the car died again.  We decided to wait till the gas tank was full before getting another jump, but the pump was going sooooo slow.  After about 15 minutes of sitting in the car waiting for the tank to fill up, we looked at the gauge on the pump (it was only up to $35 at this point) when David asked “we didn’t use up that much gas, did we?  Is it overflowing?”  We were worried because it usually only takes $40 to fill our tank and that’s when it’s really empty.  I opened the door and sure enough, there was gas spilling all over the ground.  The automatic shut-off was broken.  David went inside to ask if we could get a little bit of a refund, but they said something about how since we paid with a card they couldn’t do anything.  Just our luck.

After that, we got another jump and managed to make it all the way across the parking lot before the car died again.  We figured it was either the battery or the alternator.  But we didn’t have a way to test either.  I went in to get the number for a tow truck when a Russian truck driver that was standing there started asking me what the problem was.  I tried to describe it the best I could and he asked if I’d done a bunch of tests to see if it was an alternator problem.  I said no and had no idea how to do anything he said, so he came out to the car and helped us out.  We got another jump and he ran his test.  He said it wasn’t the alternator.  That was good, but we didn’t have any way to replace our battery or even make sure it wasn’t the alternator.  About 10 minutes after we got the jump, our car died again.  The Russian truck driver helped us as much as he could for another 20 minutes and we even had one of the clerks out there trying to help us.  We tried everything we could, but the car wouldn’t start.  That began our other adventure.

We all went inside and decided we had to find a tow truck because we didn’t want to spend all night at the gas station.  We tried to call as many numbers as we could of different tow trucks, but apparently there are none that are running at 7pm in Ft. Bridger Wyoming.  The numbers we called were either out of order, busy, or no answer.  My dad had an idea that he told me later and that was to call 911 and they would be able to contact someone, so I’ll have to remember that for next time.  As we were sitting in the Burger King area of the truck stop, one of the girls that worked there asked me what the problem was.  I told her what was going on and she called over to her friend (I’m pretty sure she called him Scraps-hopefully a nickname) and asked him if he knew some tow trucks we could call.  He said he didn’t know and so she took me over to the diner that was in the truck stop as well and got me talking with one of the waitresses that worked there, and she gave me a couple numbers to try as well.  It surprised me how nice and friendly everyone was.  They were all doing their best to help us fix our car. 

After we had tried all the numbers we could, we sat down in despair.  The Russian truck driver came over and told us there was an area at the back of the truck stop where we could watch TV and wait until morning to find someone to help us.  We thanked him for all he’d done for us and headed back.  David and I started listening to our audio book on his computer when a guy came around the corner and said he had saved our day!  We were both confused because we didn’t know him at all, but he said he had heard us talking and he got ahold of a tow truck and it would be there in 45 minutes.  We were all so grateful to him for helping us out!  His name was Anthony and he was a truck driver that was on his 34 hour break.  He told us that truck drivers are on for 70 hours and then they are required to take a 34 hour break.  He said some trucks have something on them so that if you reach your 70 hours the truck will automatically turn off.  He was a VERY talkative.  I think he was getting a little lonely because he stayed to talk to us the whole time we were waiting for the tow truck.   Here are some of the things he talked about (I edited out all the swearing):  He has 3 kids that he has to pay child support for (I got the feeling it was with 3 different women too) and that in Ohio if you didn’t pay child support they throw you in jail which is totally whack because it’s hard enough to pay for your own stuff.  One time he was in Florida and he was with this guy who attacked an alligator.  He went to Canada for about 3 months and there were all these people selling weed and prostitutes all over, he managed to get a lot of day jobs to pay for stuff.  He traveled around the country because one time when he was high his friend told him that traveling is amazing because you get to see so much more stuff, and while you’re high everything is so amazing and such a great idea so he just got on a bus with nothing else and went across the country.  My favorite story was how he got put in jail.  He said he was in a bar and super drunk when some guy started giving him this bad look.  He asked him if he wanted to go outside to take care of things and so him, this guy, and the guys friends all went outside and they were all beating up on him.  He said it wasn’t a fair fight because it was 8 on 1 so he pulled out his knife and started stabbing people.  He said in California (where he was from) it would’ve counted as self-defense but since he was somewhere else he got 2 years in jail.  Luckily, when he was helping us he was 7 years sober.  When he found out that we were Mormon, he said his mom was too, but she wasn’t a very good one because she also practiced Wicka.  Apparently she always tries to cast spells and stuff.  One day she was trying to cast a spell and she fell down the stairs and gashed her head open.  Anyways, Anthony was a very nice guy that did help us out.  When the tow truck got there he gave us all knuckles and we were on our way.  The tow truck driver reminded me of my dad in about 10 years.  He had a huge gray beard and this little dog in the cab.  David and Brian thought he said the dog’s name was Varmint, but I’m pretty sure it was actually Nikki.  The dog rode on his lap the entire way to Evanston.  We had our car dropped off at Autozone and we stayed at a hotel.  That was our first day of vacation.  Pretty fun, huh?