Adventure to Tinley Park

Just thought I might share this little story of herpers determination to get to a show.

It started Saturday morning. I was up at 7:00am doing a local show here in Michigan (90 miles away, not really local) Hoping to make a little money before I had to drive down to Chicago yet that night. The show went well, I packed up drove back home(Now mileage is 180 total) where I waited a few hours, got things put away. Passenger #1 showed up after she got out of work around 9:30pm. From my home in Lansing, MI I drove to Jackson (40 miles) to pick up passenger #2. From there we were on our way to Tinley Park. Now it is important to describe my car. It is a 95 Olds Cutlass Supreme, nice car good condition, but a total of 199,000 miles on her. Only ever had to replace her transmission. We get past the Indiana border, rolling strong on Highway 94/80, it's about 1:00am. And about 15 miles from the Indiana/Illinois border I hear this grinding noise, at first I thought it was just road debrie it stopped for 30 seconds and started again. At this time I know somethings wrong, maybe it was the fact that my lights dimmed, or my battery symbol came on, or my care about to over heat. So I pull over, Myself and Passenger #2 see what the problem is. Looks like we lost the belt. No big deal I think I first, I carry a spare. Well...turns out the power steering pulley came off. After fishing it out from under the engine we realize it's a press on pulley so we try it, no go, it's shot and warped. Car isn't going anywhere. Now obviously being from MI I don't have a recor number handy to I call 911. They send out an emergency vehicle which looks like a truck and an ambulance had a child with severe mental problems. I tell him whats wrong and all he says is "What do you want me to do about it" "I can call a recor" well that would be nice, could you please. It's about 2:00am when the recor shows up. He loads the car and we head to the nearest hotel. Being Sunday moning, there isn't going to be anyone to fix it. We get off the highway and got to this little cluster of hotels. I don't know if it was because of the show or not but all of the hotels are full. THis is 30 miles or more away from the show. So we go back onto the highway and to another cluster of hotels. At this point I tell the recor to just drop the car. If we can't find a room we will just sleep in the car.(It's about 40 degrees out that night) Thankfully after checking 6 hotels the Economy Inn has a room. One king size bed. Now remember, I have 2 passengers. Thankfully passenger 2 is my girlfriend and I paid for the room and drove down. So it is quite quickly agreed that we get the bed. Passenger #3 is fine sleeping in the two chairs. Thankfully because of the time change it is really 2:20am at this point and not 3:20am. We discussed it and all agreed that we didn't come all this way to break down and drive back home so we get the number for a taxi and schedule a 9:15am pick up. We'll worry about the car after the show. We all go to sleep, passenger #3 especially slow and his snoring kept myself and passenger #2 awake most of the night. The taxi arrives on time and gets us to the show. (Any idea how much a 30 mile taxi ride cost, about $65.00) It's 10:00am, I've driven around 375 miles the night before with 3 maybe 4 hours of sleep. But still determined to enjoy the show. Which we did, all of us getting what we wanted, Passenger #2 suprised me when she purchased a Cobalt Blue Tarantula. To make the rest of the story short, my father came down with a flat bed trailer and spare car. We loaded my car up and I drove the spare car passengers included. The share car is in good shape but similar to mine. Lots of miles and really shouldn't be making long trips anymore. So from Tinley Park to Lansing I had to follow my fathers truck just incase something happened. Note: Average speed of 88' Chevy with trailer = 60 miles per hour. The man needs a cell phone. Get everyone to their desired locations, got new kids set up and proceeded to sleep for the next 12 hours.

So there is my fun adventure. I've got to stop going to these big shows. Went to Daytona, got a hurricane. Went to Tinley Park and broke down. But we all know, not weather nor mechanics can stop a herper from their herps.