Okay, so I just spent two hours at a car dealership in Cedar Falls...I was driving to my field experience in Waterloo when I noticed that Leah's car no longer was blowing any heat, even though I had it set on high. I tried the different heat settings and nothing was coming out of the vents at all. I looked at the console and noticed that the engine temperature gage was all the way to the right, past the red "critical" section. Leah has lots of notifications on her car's dashboard that light up, but really don't mean anything... Like the "check engine light".... So I wasn't sure if this meant anything.
As I continued to drive along I noticed that the steering wheel had become really hard to turn, which was bad, because I was getting into the part of Waterloo/Cedar Falls where the highway has a lot of alternating curves. The engine gage was still all the way to the right, so I took an exit off the highway and pulled over to the side of the road. I turned the car off to let the engine cool down.
I called Leah and left a message and then I called Rachel V. who told me to call Margie in the FAC to see if Leah was around. I got a hold of Leah, through Margie's phone. Leah suggested adding coolant, but I didn't want to get out of the car, unless I had to... Because there were still vehicles driving by. Because it had happened to our old van when I was little, I knew that the power-steering had gone out at the very least.
Halfway through the phone conversation with Leah, I looked out the window and the county sheriff is parked beside me. I promise to call Leah back and I explained to the officer my problems. We opened the hood and he pointed out that the alternator belt had come off.
I didn't want to call a tow truck, because those are freaking expensive, so the sheriff led me to the closest car service place, which happened to be a dealership in Cedar Falls. I followed him and he helped me get my car to the garage.
It was really scary driving the car on the highway, because it had started to snow and I had no power-steering and no heat and I was scared that the car was going to blow up because of the temperature gage.
So it turns out that the power-steering pulley shattered and damaged the alternator belt. I had to wait for the mechanics to fix the car and I didn't get to go to field experience. It was really awkward to sit in the lobby and try not to cry and fail.
...I have two major papers due tomorrow. ...
Plus the bill for fixing the car was almost $200. Leah's paying me back, but still. Holy smokes. What a stupid piece of machinery.
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