Somewhere in the universe, someone, somehow wanted me to have a really crappy car day. A trip to San Francisco was in the plans to drop someone off and come back same day. I wasn't driving but we were to take my car so I thought I could chill in the car, there's no need to force myself to sleep when I couldn't seem to get to it last night. Finally I clocked out at 3 something am. At 6:15 my mom came to ask me to take her to work because her car wouldn't start. No questions asked. I got up and helped how I could.
We were to get gas in the morning before the trip so I didn't bother getting gas the night before...of course there was zero time to spare now so i had to get on the road to get mom to work. Magically, my car's gas gauge went from 7 gallons to 1 gallon in the span of 25 minutes and 12 miles over the topanga canyon. Damn near running out of gas, we made it safely to work. No problems there. Mom had a ride home and her car's issue had been resolved before I even got back from taking her to work.
No real issues getting to San Fran aside from the car smoking once and again from what we figured was oil burning off like every other cadi I know.
We get back on the road to head home. There's more smoke. Hm. We hit a patch of traffic and the car goes from 3rd gear to first gear....and stays there. We pull off the freeway to a gas station to see WTF is going on. Popped the hood, duck under....some hose connected to the transmission has popped off and has been popped off for god knows how long and there is ZERO tranny fluid. We are fucked. We drove the car 400 miles on zero tranny fluid. Our only option is to turn and head back to Napa. Easier said than done. We are 60 miles away, stuck with one gear...the first one. Max speed is 26mph...35mph downhill.
We limped the car nearly 40 miles until we realized we have to pay a toll on an upcoming bridge and we have no cash. No problem. If we could just find a liquor store, an ATM, a bank...anything?? Anything?! Nothing. FINALLY, after driving what seemed like every god damned hill in the bay area, we see a bank. Not our bank but who cares! I jump out, get cash, we put the car in drive....and it's not going...anywhere. We are officially...fucked. The transmission has left the building. Time for AAA. They only take an hour and a half to come save us....and it's only 36 degrees outside. No problem at all.
So there it is. My car is trannyless (which sounds better than it should). We are still in Napa. No car to ride home in. It's freezing ass cold. And I'm laughing. Because there's nothing else to do. One way or another, it will all work itself out and we will get home tomorrow through some Craigslist magic.
Good night everyone. I still love my Cadillac...even though it managed to leak all of it's transmission fluid all over Los Angeles.
On a side note: I saw my first real prostitute in the middle of Oakland! It wasn't as glorious as I'd thought it would be. And there was no pimp. Greatly disappointed.
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