The car!

So I was driving into work this morning and all of a sudden the car makes this really loud noise (granted I was doing 60 mph on 35W and everything sounds loud at that speed), so I get off at my exit and the car gets louder and there is this metally grinding noise. So I pull over at this gas stop near campus get out and look under the car. I dont see anything. I then drive to my parking spot and the noise is louder. I park and then lean down and look under the car and see this long pipe, which looks like its part of the muffler, is hanging down (see photo). So I take a photo of the pipe (I love my iPhone!!!) to my mom who then shows it to our family friend and car dude Dan. Dan’s response goes something like this, “Melissa is not allowed to dive the car with that pipe dragging because it could spark and hit the gas tank and blow the car up”! OK!

So my parents make the trek down to the U to find my car and somehow tie up the muffler pipe, so I can drive home at 10pm at night (when I get off of work). Ok, now my parents HATE (did I mention they really hate driving downtown) and my dad refuses to drive on any major highways and it takes them 2 hours to find me (so my dad drives really slow, they get lost, they have never been to the U before, its getting dark, they get totally lost, and my mom cannot figure out her cell phone). At one point they were lost on the West Bank and they were asking people for help and I could hear my mom yelling (I was talking to her on the photo, but if I was outside I probably could have heard her yelling across the river) at someone “WHERE IS THE EAST BANK!” Haha! It was hysterical.

So eventually they found me and I was able to show them the car. But none of the various tools that my dad brought with him would work to tie the pipe up, so he ended up using a metal clothing hanger (which apparently works better then duck tape). So they left and I went back to work. The parents (my wonderful, kind, great parents – they said I had better say something nice about them on my blog) started the trek home and got lost. They ended up going south toward the airport instead of north. It took me twice as long to get home, as I was going about 35 mph the whole way through the burbs. Tomorrow I will deal with the car and getting it fixed. Crazy night!