77/365 Car trouble

Mom and I were driving home on the interstate yesterday afternoon, chatting away, enjoying the pretty weather, when all of a sudden, an angry beeping started yelling at us from the dashboard.

We looked down and saw that the engine temperature gauge was fully maxed out. The car was overheating, after going only a handful of miles on a not-unbearably-hot day.

A truck stop was nearby, so we pulled off and popped the hood to let it cool down. After ten minutes or so, we decided to give it a go and take back roads home.

We hadn't made it a mile before the gauge started climbing again and yelling at us to stop.

Now we knew we were in trouble. When we stopped this time to let it cool down again, Mom and I both searched our purses and planned how we would ration the five sticks of gum and two water bottles we found.

Humans can survive something like seven days without food, so long as they have water, right?

Knowing now that we had a long drive before we'd make it home, we considered pushing our next pit stop to the local ice cream shop. But we decided to test our stamina and just maintain the trek home instead.

And that's the way we continued all the way home. Drive a few miles, stop for 10-15 minutes to let the engine cool. And again. And again.

A drive that should have taken under 20 minutes took nearly an hour and a half.

But we made it. And we only had to chew two of our five sticks of gum.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 4:00 p.m.