Remember the Alamo

I don’t know what it is about us and rental cars but it seems they don’t like us. Last time we went on a trip there was a big mix up with Enterprise and it was Avis to the rescue. (Click here to read about it.) As I mentioned in my previous post we had to rent a van when we went to Seattle because none of our vehicles would hold six people and luggage for a cruise. There would have been no way we could have taken his family to the seaport.

Tom rented a van at Alamo. When he got there they have no van available. They were very sorry but another customer was late in bringing back the van. Apparently Alamo in our little town has only one van. So they rent us a Durango that seats six but had no luggage room. Tom told them this wouldn’t do. Their answer was to exchange the Durango in Seattle at the airport for a van because one was available there. Okay that’s fine.

We get to Seattle and we exchange the Durango for the van. You read about the weekend in the previous post. Now it’s Sunday and it’s time to take them to the seaport. We all pile in, the luggage fits fine and we are on our way. We’re on I5 going north when a car pulls up next to us. Everyone is pointing to our van as they drive by. Tom felt like something was not right and pulled over to check it out. There was the making of a flat tire on the passenger side in the rear. The exit was not far so he thought he could make it. Soon he realized he wasn’t going to. Pictured below is how close we are to the exit.
This was what the tire looked like.
Tom’s thought was we were early and maybe we could change the tire ourselves and get everyone to the boat on time. We couldn’t find the spare. We call Alamo and they informed us they would someone to change the tire. As we are waiting on the side of the road I called the hotel to see if they could send a cab. The cabs wouldn’t come to pick someone off the side of the highway. We did have three people stop to help while we waited. The third was Officer Ford. He was very nice. I told him about how we had to get our family to the boat before it took off and we had this flat. He asked if I called a cab and I explained how they wouldn’t come for a fare on the side of the road. He informed me they would come for him. He called the cab company and they were on their way. He was very nice. He even posed for a photo. Below is Officer Ford with Teresa and Lorraine.
We took this opportunity while we waited to explore our surroundings.
What do you do when you're stuck on the side of the road? Take more family pictures of course.
His dad started to worry because the cab was not here yet. I remember Officer Ford said he called Yellow Cab and as I saw one pass on the highway and caught the number off the side and called. They said they couldn’t find us. I couldn’t believe it. How many vans with six people standing around right before the exit did the cabby pass? Anyway they sent another cab.

Finally the guy came and changed the tire. First he had to release the spare. Pictured was the release from inside the van. It came up out of the floor.
The spare tire was located under the driver’s side. We never would have found it. I was worried for the guy trying to get it out.
The cab finally got there when the tire was changed. The family got off on their trip. We put the flat tire in the back and we were off to the airport to exchange our car for car No. 3. We couldn’t drive three and half hours on a donut. The red car you see above was what we ended up with.

I will be busy with another class this weekend. I’m not teaching but will be helping out. Have a nice weekend everyone.

© Nadine Z. 2007