Rules of the road

Yesterday on the way to Shoreview the van broke down. The van waited until we were in a construction zone (the unweave the weave project) , in rush hour, and bumper to bumper traffic. Of course Tim is out of town (the van seems to know when he is gone). I sat on the phone with AAA for 45 minutes trying to explain where I was. It must have been her first day working for AAA and she must have failed "maps" in high school. She kept telling me I was in Osseo. Hello, I was not in Osseo! I finally agreed so that I could just get off the phone so I could call my own tow truck. Oh, Yeah she also wanted me to call someone to pick up my 3 children because there wouldn't be room for them in the tow truck. Hello! If I could have found someone to pick us up we wouldn't have been on the side of the road!

I called my sister (she lives about an hour from where I was). She was going to help me find my own tow truck. But then the tow truck company called me. I told him where I was and he said Oh, that's not Osseo (oh, really!). He said he would contact a towing company closer to where I was. People I was just past Hwy 61. You know there are about a 100 car dealerships and service places right on 61.

Then the Hwy help dude came. His knowledge of cars included a possible hot wheels collection.
I got back on the phone with AAA. This new gal seemed to be better with maps. I talked with her for a while. They seem to need lots of info before sending out a truck. Why don't they just contact the truck first and then ask me my eye color and shoe size while he is on his way.

Well, a tow truck finally came. We had been on the side of the road for an hour and a half. People could see Hwy 61 from my van and see a few car dealerships. I could have walked and purchased a new van in this time.

Well the tow truck that came the AAA lady did not send. The lady on the phone said she wouldn't pay him because he was not AAA approved! I told her I wanted to get off the road and off the road now. I was more than a little mad. He got on my cell phone and talked to the lady, they finally agreed that I could pay him directly and send the bill to AAA and they would pay me back.

So, the kids and I are in the tow truck and driving to a repair place. No we didn't just loop back and go to a big service station on HWY 61, we drove to Shoreview (6miles). The dude thought that made sense since that's where I was going anyway. At this point I just wanted someone to "save" me.
The repair place didn't know if they could get it fixed before they closed. They were open until 11pm if I wanted to just wait and see. OH, OK the kids and I will sit here and hope that it will be done. (NOT) We walked to gymnastics (just a block away). Mikale joined his class and Mikkena jumped into a different class. I called my sister back and she gave me some numbers for rental car companies. It was 6:45 by now and all car rental places close at 6pm. The only rental place open was the airport. One of the gymnastics Moms that I know lives 5 minutes from the airport. Once her son was done (8pm) she drove us to the airport to pick up a rental.
The guy at the rental desk asked me if I was in town for business or pleasure. I didn't even know what to say to him.
As we were driving home I finally talked with Tim on the phone. We fought. I hung up on him.
I hope today is better. I feel like just going to bed and pulling the covers over my head. I am going to label this post "vacation" . I was just at the airport, I must be on vacation.