Tow Truck Adventures

Yesterday was...interesting. We hit the road about 1 pm to drop the kids off with Grandpa and Grandma and all was well - until about 5 pm when a deer jumped out of the corn field right in front of us. Needless to say the deer went cartwheeling into the ditch on the other side of the road. We pulled over to check out the damage and though it took out a headlight, it didn't seem that bad. So we drove a few more miles until the temperature gage hit the red zone and steam started rising out of the hood. So we pulled over (in the middle of nowhere) and began formulating a plan. Ashley was thrilled to be parked by a pasture with grazing horses and hoped we could just ride bareback the 45 miles remaining to Grandpa's house.

Fortunately, we have AAA Premier. We joined for the first time ever about a year ago when we took our road trip out west. It includes towing for up to 200 miles. Ironically, we dropped our renewal payment in the mail on the way out of town yesterday.

While we were waiting for the tow truck, Grandpa Bob and Grandma Ginger arrived on the scene. They hung out with us for a couple hours and then they took the kids and went home to begin their week of fun one night early.

It took quite awhile - about 3 hours to be exact - before AAA found someone willing to drive 4 hours to the Cities on a moments notice. Shawn showed up from Detroit Lakes at about 9 pm with a flat bed truck. He loaded up the mini-van and Rich and I climbed in the cab and settled into a long, loud, bumpy ride on seats that felt like we were sitting on a plywood bench.

When we got back to the Twin Cities, Shawn was nice enough to swing by our house so we could pick up our car before heading to the Honda dealership to unload. Here was the scene at 2 am this morning:

All in all, we are grateful that the only damage was the front end - not the precious cargo. (And of course we feel terrible about the deer!) And we are grateful for Shawn who was very kind to drive us safely back home - which, by the way, was 200.5 miles.

Once we get all the insurance and body shop stuff sorted out, we'll be on our way again...the adventure continues!