Though I have more stuff to write, I don't have time to write it right now because we are getting ready to go to the b5 panel and/or check out.
I'll have to write them after I get back home later tonight.
Well, I finally made it home from my hellish trip back from Atlanta around 1am Tuesday.
First, I'll give you a bit of background. I went to Dragon Con knowing that I would have to come back a day early due to the fact that the con is scheduled for the first week of school. If I miss the same class two times during add-drop, they drop me from the schedule (in addition to having two absences and being behind.
Scott's girlfriend Deanna also had to come back Monday, but since neither of us knew the other very well, we both thought that an eight hour car ride with just the two of us would consist of extremely awkward silence. So my first option for getting back early was out.
A one-way Greyhound ticket was suggested, but I would literally have had to buy a ticket right then when I found out, because the price was going up about $30 the next day. So I decided against that. Plane rides and such were also rejected.
I was working all of this out at the beginning of last week because it took that long to determine whether I would even be able to get off work Friday. Eventually, with time running out, I just said screw it, I'll drive my own car. I drove to MidsouthCon and had no troubles, and this time, I'd have other cars along for the trip down there. We got down there with no problems, aside from trying to find a place to park (parking in the garage across the street from the Marquis: $48 for the weekend).
On the way back, things went pretty well for the first half of the trip. Around 2:30 I stopped about an hour outside Atlanta for lunch, and stopped again for cooler ice a little later. I got to Chattanooga with no problems. When I started getting close to Athens, TN (just about the halfway point of the trip), I decided to stop at a rest area (around quarter after four). This is where the fun began. When I got back out to the car, it wouldn't start. In fact, it didn't even try to start. Hmm, sez I, this could be annoying. Oh, I've been running the CD player, and occasional AC for a few hours, and apparently my dome light has been on for an indeterminate amount of time. Perhaps the battery is drained. I shall ask some random stranger for a jump.
The jump is successful (and easy), and the car starts right up. I check to make sure the terminals aren't corroded or something (they aren't) and go on my merry way. I quickly notice that my turn signal causes the speedometer to jump. This doesn't worry me overmuch … I've known for awhile now that there appears to be a short in the turn signal wiring.
As I get closer to Knoxville, my speedometer grows more and more erratic. People are passing me in spite of my alleged speed, and the speedometer periodically jumps its reading. The speedometer in my truck used to do something similar, apparently because the mechanism was busted, and the only things that could fix it were a good solid thump, or changing speed drastically to get it to “reset”. Thumping seems ineffectual, so I decide that I'm going to pull off onto the shoulder, slow down to reset it, then pull back out.
A wonderful plan, except when the car decides to die as I implement it, stranding me on the shoulder of I-75 around 5:30pm. Bah! So after some back and forth, the operator gives me the number for the highway patrol. I wait about a half-hour to forty-five minutes before a trooper pulls up.
He jumps the car and tells me he'll follow me to the next exit to make sure I can get that far, then disconnects the cables. The car is running a bit rough, and as soon as I try to pull off, it dies again. Conclusion: alternator is shot. I get the number of a towing service from him and he tells me that he'll check up on me a bit later when he swings back through that stretch of road if I'm still there.
So I wait another half hour or so for the tow truck to show up. By this point, it is getting close to 7pm. The driver doesn't appear to be happy to be working on Labor Day. We load up the car, and off we go … but to where? The only places likely to be open on the holiday have apparently just closed. We take it back to the towing service. Cost: $55.
Since I have to be back in class Tuesday, and also don't relish trying to find a place to stay overnight, some debate on the cellphone with my friends settles the plan that I would be picked up by Deanna as she comes through the area about 4 hours behind me.
The irony of this solution was not lost on me: Deanna. Who I originally could have ridden back with in the first place, obviating the need for me to take my car at all.
Anyway, to make a long story short, that is what happened. She got there about 10 or 10:30 (meaning I sat around at the towing service for nearly four hours). The most ideal solution for me to handle the car itself would be to call my dad, and have him come down with the car trailer and take it back up here to be fixed. Unfortunately, he wasn't answering his home phone for several hours, and I didn't have his new cellphone number. After Deanna picked me up, he finally called me back. Having just arrived in Pigeon Forge, TN. Sigh.
The car had to be left behind with the key so that the towing people could take it to Firestone in the morning and drop it off, and the Firestone people would fix it. As my brother and the rest of the group came through on Tuesday, they would pick the car up, and Randy would drive it home. Of course, I had to call Firestone and give them my credit card info and such.
The problem turns out to have been both alternator and battery (when alternators go bad, they can sometimes destroy the battery in the process, so no big surprise, though I was obviously hoping it was just the battery). Cost of replacement: $395.48. Sigh.
To top it all off, all of the chaos of the trip back caused me to run my cell phone minutes over, so my bill next month will be larger than usual.
I will post some backdated entries for the rest of my Dragon Con info as soon as I get a free moment (I spent the entire day yesterday either dealing with the car stuff or being in class, and I've literally not had time.)