Alright, so there we were in Indiana. I had taken an Uber back to the hotel and left my van at Autozone 2, dead in the parking lot.
After a fitful 5-6 hours of sleep, my alarm went off at 7 AM. I called the AAA again and hustled to get ready and head over to meet the tow truck at the car. My Uber driver told me she’d just picked someone up from the Methadone clinic and she “seemed like she was on something besides methadone”. This driver was on her last ride of the morning before she went home to “Get her kids ready for school, and her husband ready for work”. Woof, I thought, rough deal.
I arrived at Autozone to find my friend the tow truck driver yet again. “Oh, Hiiii”, I said. He smiled wryly, loaded up the van and we headed to the original destination from the day before, an actual automotive shop, let’s call it Hex Car Center, for reasons that will become clear soon.
After checking my car in at the shop at exactly 8 AM when it opened, I felt a sense of relief. “Hope to not see you again!” I said to my tow truck friend. I had done all I could, and I hadn’t lost any time. Making it to the gig tonight was now in God’s hands! The man behind the counter lectured me on tow truck drivers giving bad diagnoses and told me they’d get to my van as soon as they could. I sat down in the waiting room armchair, curled up, and went to sleep.
Two hours later, I opened my eyes, thinking that this chair sleeping trick had become far too easy for me. I drank my second terrible coffee of the day and assembled my thoughts. I got someone’s attention and he pulled up my ticket. “It’s the alternator”, he said, “about a three-hour job”. I did a quick calculation in my head, we could still make it! “Alright!” I said, “Let’s do it!”
I am a warrior, I thought. I have brought us through the storm. We shall overcome! I had nothing to do for three hours, and I was feeling the darkness lift a bit. I had been meaning for some time to address my beat-up runners’ feet and decided maybe a pedicure would be a fun idea. There aren’t a lot of activity options in rural Indiana, but luckily nail salons are fairly universal. The van was costing less than I thought, and I could use a little TLC after all this stress.
Sometime later, I floated back down the ugly highway to the car shop, fresh nails, feeling triumphant after a terrible 24 hours.
I walked up to the counter. “So”, the man said, “They got the new alternator in, but when they took it out for a test drive, the mechanic heard a pop….see this picture here? Your radiator has blown out”. All positive feelings left me. “It’s going to be another 4 hours and $750 for that job”.
The panic feeling returned to me. OK, I thought, we won’t make it. I need a rental. After making several calls, and yelling my way through enterprise phone menus, I found a van I could rent about ten minutes away, and the man kindly called me an Uber. I was starting to panic about money, adding up the cost of the repairs, double hotel rooms, and a rental van in my head. What a stupid job this is, I thought.
Arriving at the rental car place, I paced impatiently while the customer in front of me hemmed and hawed. We would certainly miss sound check at this point… but could still do a quick line check before our set, and have time to change clothes. Finally, it was my turn. “I have a reservation for a van”, I said, handing over my driver’s license. “Oh…” he replied “Right, I see that here…Yeah, we don’t actually have vans available”. “What!” I said, “I can see a minivan right there in your parking lot!”. “Yeah..” he replied, “They can see that too which is why reservations gave you this, but they can’t see that it’s actually rented out already starting at 4:30.” Wow, I thought, This is a cosmic joke. “What do you have that you can rent to me?” I asked. ‘I actually don’t have any vehicles available”, he said, “Yeah, the whole town is pretty much out of rentals”. Despair. I was so tired. The recharge I had gained from my pedicure was completely gone.
“Okay”, I said, “Okay.”
I called Hex Car Service “Did you mention that you have a small courtesy car I could use?”
So that is how, approximately five hours later, I arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, with a Toyota Corolla, plastered with “Hex Car Repair” admat, which I had promised not to drive out of the State of Indiana, along with one band member and half of my conscious brain. I left Jacob in Indiana, and Lauren in Chicago. Played the gig with Steve, then drove the Hex car all the way back to Indiana the next day. Maxed out my credit card to pay for the van repair, turned around, and drove back to Milwaukee, with a stop on the way to pick up Lauren. Be a musician, they said. Follow your dreams! they said.