Beautiful day to sit on the side of the road

As I finished my race  10k race in Lynchburg I was excited to head back home. I had to go to work in a few hours so I was going to come home, shower, take a nap, before heading into work.

I was not 100% sure of the way home because my phone had died while I was running. I did have a car charger with me but apparently, there is a secret port according to Husband where I need to put it to get anything to charge. The most obvious one doesn't work? However, I didn't know that then nor do I know it now.

I follow one of the other races out of the neighborhood/park area and then start going down the road. Most of it looks familiar but I'm just not super confident since I don't visit this area very often.

I read all the signs, look for all the landmarks I saw on the way in and am doing okay until I think I go straight when I should have taken a right. It's okay because it all looks familiar from other trips so I keep going for a while. Until I hit the I don't think this is right at all and after taking a best guess end up on 460 West, which is exactly what I wanted. It took me longer than it should have to get pointed towards home but it's okay.

Traffic has picked up a little bit but not much, the sun is out, the sky is blue, the radio is on and I'm set on cruise control and looking forward to my shower and nap.

And then it happens.

While I'm heading up a hill I hear a noise, kind of like clunk, cruise control is disabled, and I feel the speed dropping, I hit the gas and hear the engine increase but do not feel any forward momentum.

Anyone who's been keeping up with some of my happenings in Her name is Abigail part 1, Her name is Abigail part 2, and Her name is Abigail part 3, knows I've been having a hard time with my car, so at this point, I'm thinking a few things very quickly.

1. I need to pull over to a safe spot
2. I cannot push this truck
3. I need to make sure I have the engine facing the road to help with jumps and tows.

That is exactly what I end up doing. Just at the top of the hill is some kind of shop or shop yard? There are no signs but there are some buildings and a road behind them that leads to some houses.

I pull into this area, point the truck towards the road, and turn it off and the on. It turns on and off super easily and like normal. The problem comes when I press the gas and the engine only revs and the truck stays unmoving.

Wonderful. Just. Wonderful.

What am I going to do? I need to call AAA and get some help with this truck. I don't see any moment tt around these shops but if I look up the road and to the other side I see some people. They have pop up tents and tables maybe I can borrow their charger for a little bit? Charge my phone enough to call for help?

I grab my bag and walk towards the tents.

They see me coming and I greet them with my best friendly, trying not to cry smile, and tell say hello, point to my truck stuck down on the other side of the road and explain my phone is dead and I was wondering if I could borrow some power to charge my phone.

They helped me find a plug and a USB charger and I plugged in and start to make the calls.

I first call AAA but I had misplaced my card since the last use and cannot seem to answer any of the questions right to identify myself. I say thanks and hang up and call the Broha to see if he can find the AAA card at home and send me a picture. While he is looking for the card I call my parents. They are the ones that give me the card each year and see if they can help me answer the questions I am failing. They also find an old card and give me the numbers off of that card at about the same time the Broha has found a copy. I write down the numbers and call triple AAA back.

This time I answer all their puzzles right and they tell me someone will be on their way shortly.

I thank all of the kind people, who I found out were out there for a yard sale, for all of their help.

I cross the road and go sit back in my truck.

By this time someone who must own the shop area I am in drives by and looks at me, leaves, and comes back and asks if I need help. I tell them thank you but no thank you a tow truck is on their way. They come back about 2 minutes later and give me a bottle of cold water. I say thank you very much.

As I sit in the truck, with the wind lightly blowing, the white clouds slowly chugging across the sky I really do think to myself, well, if you had to stop and get stuck somewhere, at least it is a very pretty day for it.

I call Husband, who is at work because it seems like he is almost always at work when things go sideways, to tell him of our newest adventures. He's like, I'm going to leave work and come get you. I tell him I appreciate it but AAA will be here soon and he cannot do anything and I'm in an okay spot. He's like okay, well, call me if you need anything.

AAA had said it would be about 30 minutes but it really turns in to be about an hour I am sitting on the side of the road as I panic and see my battery dying super fast but eventually the tow truck shows up.

I do seem to forget everyone's name but I can tell you that the good people at A&J Automotive Repair picked me up and made everything better. Okay, that's a lie, making everything better would have been them kicking the tires and my truck starting up and that didn't happen. However, they had my truck on their little bed and bring me back home in like less than 10 minutes.

The gentleman was super friendly, great at answering all my random automotive my questions, and brought me to our mechanics shop without any fuss.

I learned our drive that they are a new company less than a year old, at the time of this writing, based out of Lynchburg. They do all kinds of repairs and help poor souls like me stuck on the side of the road. I hope not to have to use their services again but if I'm in the Lynchburg area with problems I would give them a call.

A few minutes after A&J Automotive dropped the truck off at the repair shop Broha picked me up with all my bags of stuff to make it home. I didn't have time for a nap but I did get a shower before he brought me to work.

This, like most plans, did not go the way I had hoped, but if there was ever a day to stop and enjoy the Blue Ridge mountains, 9/1/2019 wasn't a bad day for it.

Anyone else get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a dead phone? If so please leave me your tale of woe with a comment below!