The end of an era

This past weekend I made my monthly trip out to DC. I had passed Morgantown, WV 20 min ago, the halfway point to DC, when I looked down and saw that my engine temperature gauge was on hot. I'm on the freeway and couldn't remember the last [close] exit I passed and there were no signs for one coming up. So I had to pull over on the side of the freeway. I called my mechanic friend Dave to ask what all could be wrong with the car. I sat there for 45 minutes before the gauge went down halfway. I was halfway up a hill so I drove to the top and saw the sign for an exit in 2 miles. I drove another mile before the gauge was on hot again. I pulled over again and waited for 30 minutes. Sitting on the car on the side of a freeway is awful. I was finally able to get off at an exit and pull into a gas station. It was about 6:30pm now. I had AAA, so they were called and dispatched a tow truck. I called Dale and she gave me some rental car numbers. I thought I could leave my car in Morgantown, rent a car to DC and then drive back on Monday to get my car (at this point I'm in denial that anything is horribly wrong). Sadly, all the rental car places closed at 5. Jeff finally called after he got off work drove out from DC to get me. We decided to stay the night in Morgantown so we could check on my car before leaving for DC. Anyway, the tow truck driver came about 8:00 and took my car to his shop and graciously drove me over to the hotel. Jeff didn't think to take his GPS out of the truck so he went 2 hours out of his way to get to Morgantown and arrived about 3am.

The next morning we went to the shop to assess the damage. There were three guys looking at the engine when we pulled up and they were shaking their heads. The head gasket was blown (among other things), and I'd need a new (or rather, used) engine put in. They said it would be about $2500. My car was 15 years old and worth about $500. I decided it was time to say goodbye. We emptied everything from my car into Jeff's car (he actually just bought a new car on Wed of that week). We took off the license plates. The guys said they would dispose of my car. And then I drove away from the POS (the nickname Megan lovingly gave it). 10 years of memories left in West Virginia.

We drove back to DC that day and on Monday I rented a car and drove to Cleveland where I picked up my Dad's old car that he wasn't using.

And now I have the "joy" of buying a new car.