Experiencing Car Troubles While On A Road Trip

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Every road tripper's worst nightmare is being hundreds of miles from home when your car breaks down.

A Loud Squealing Noise

While road tripping through the redwood forests in Northern California, our car started making a loud squealing noise, and just like that we were living our road trip nightmare. After looking under the vehicle, we discovered a large bolt sticking out of the frame. The bolt was rubbing against the driver's-side tire, making it difficult to steer the car.

We had just passed a small town 30 minutes prior, and were traveling early on a Sunday morning. Since there was no traffic in the area, we figured it was best to hobble along the roadway back to the town in hopes of finding someone that could look at our car.

We found a gas station in the heart of the small town, but it was very early Sunday morning, so we chose to sleep in the parking lot until the store opened. Around 8 am the store finally opened. We spoke with someone working in the gas station for information on a local garage that could fix our car, but being in a small town, we were told there are no shops open on a Sunday. This was bad news for us as my fellow road trippers had to be back at work for Monday morning.

Help From a Stranger

We were fortunate enough to come across a man in the gas station that happened to own a local garage and offered to fix our car for us. We drove a few minutes down the road with a local stranger.

He hoisted our car up in his garage, and was able to weld the bolt onto the frame of our car. He told us we could drive all the way to New York and back without any troubles; this made us feel much safer on our journey back home. 

We carried on with our road trip journey home, making our way through the Redwood Forest, and up the beautiful Oregon coast before arriving home.

Thankfully, our car troubles were minor enough that we were able to get back on the road with little cost and time lost. I can only imagine how frustrating it would have been if we were on the other side of the country and had this happen.

Have you had car troubles while road tripping?