The Truck Breaks Down-Memorial Day Weekend, '06

 

So a few weeks ago, I walk out to my 1998 Chevy 2500 series Pickup truck in my driveway.  Twist they key.  The battery is dead.    Hrmm.  That's unusual.   How could the battery be dead:  it's 3.5 years old??!!     Well, It's a Heavy duty truck, with running lights, and the Battery I bought back then was a brand I wasn't familiar with.    So I run off and buy a new $95 Battery.  The truck starts right up.   Everything's charging.   Coincidentally, I had a truck maintenance appointment scheduled with the mechanic the very next day.     (Before every catering Season, I submit the truck for a full Sanity Check/Maintenance, just so I can go thru catering season with high confidence. )    $700 later, the truck emerges with a clean bill of health.    I drive for a week and a half, and the truck is Awesome.

 

I run down to a Pig Roast in South Jersey, roughly 2 hours from my home.   I was up at 4:30am, my two crew members at my house at 6:45am.    The Pig roast was a good amount of work, under the hot sun.   It presented at 5pm.  We left the event at 8pm, completely exhausted, but psyched to be headed back home.   As the night fell, I noticed my headlights weren't so bright...and I was messing with my dashboard light brightness adjustment.   But quickly discounted that anything was wrong.

 

At Exit 12 on the NJ Turnpike, the truck starts shuddering and sputtering.   I was lucky to get the truck/trailer to the side of the road.     Dead. Caput.  Muerte'.   The Alternator Went.        The tow truck arrives, and drags us thru the exit, to the first parking lot we found.   This was a 1 Mile tow job, costing $215.     No Service centers are open.   It's 11pm on Saturday Night, Memorial Day weekend.     After maybe 10,000 phone calls to friends, Karl's Buddy Alex comes to bail our sorry asses out.    He drives us back to Denville, which is about a 50 minute ride.   We get home at 1am, Exhausted.

 

The next day, I loaded all my tools into my Toyota Camry.  I Drove back down to the truck.  Fortunately, in the strip mall parking lot where we got ditched, was an Autozone.    I climbed under the hood.   I did an Alternator-ectomy.   Slammed this dirty hunk of broken crap onto the counter, and was totally taken care of by Louis C. of the Carteret store.    In no time, I had the truck running again.   And I drove it home.

 

But it being a beautiful Memorial day weekend, I had trouble finding anyone willing to take me back to retrieve my car.    So around 3pm, I walked to the Denville Train station, took the train to Secaucus.   From Secaucus, I boarded a train bound for The Jersey Shore.   I got off at Woodbridge, without having a any clue whatsoever how to get to my car in Carteret. (Last resort being a taxi).     Fortunately for me, I asked the right person on the train.   A Young Man named Milton drove me to my car.    Milton was just one of those kind, caring young soul who totally restored my faith in all humanity.   He wouldn't even take the $20 I insisted he take for his troubles.   Milton, you rock!    

 

As much as this sucked, I'm still lucky that this breakdown did not occur on the trip down.    At least I was able to perform the catering services, and have a wad of cash in my pocket to rapidly resolve the situation.    Had I NOT made it to the job, this would've been a true EPPO disaster.    However, a source of concern was that I came very close to booking a catering job the next day.   (That Job fell thru).     Had that Job materialized, It would've been a 15x as hard to pull it together with the primary vehicle out of service.   

 

I wished I could afford back up towing vehicles.    I'll tell ya, this really freaked me out.    Everything revolves around my truck working! 

 

 

 

 

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