Road Trip, Part XXIV

Saturday, June 18: This was the last full day of my four-week marathon. I had planned on leaving Bethlehem in the morning which would have allowed me to cover the four hundred miles to Strongsville, Ohio on the outskirts of Cleveland before dusk. Unfortunately I woke up very late and was not able to leave before 1.45 pm. But what began as another unremarkable drive ended up being quite the opposite in a couple of hours.

The route from Bethlehem to Cleveland passes through a couple of long tunnels en route and as I approached the first of these – the Blue Mountain Tunnel – I noticed that traffic was backed up and barely moving for several miles. The closer we got the slower the traffic moved until about half a mile from the tunnel it came to a complete standstill. With no option but to wait it out, I did what I thought was the smart thing and shut my engine off.

About half an hour later when the traffic finally began to clear I tried to start my car, but it just wouldn’t start. After five minutes of wasted effort I realised that the best thing to do would be to move the car off onto the shoulder. I duly did so with the help of a couple of people in the car behind mine and spent another ten minutes trying to start the car up before I discovered that I had left my headlights on by mistake. While I was surprised that a mere half-hour had drained the battery, there was no other explanation for my predicament. I was on the phone to the rental company trying to explain the situation and my location to an incredibly stupid customer service representative when a state trooper spotted me and pulled his patrol car up behind me. After I explained my situation to the officer, he told me that he had already radioed ahead for a tow-truck, which showed up about half an hour later and drove me and my car to the nearest repair shop, about fifteen miles away.

While the battery was being recharged, I struck a conversation with a lady whose van was being repaired. She told me one of her front wheels had just fallen off in the middle of the highway without warning, but fortunately, no-one was hurt in the accident. It was only after talking to her for a few minutes that I discovered that this had occurred in the Blue Mountain Tunnel, and had caused the traffic jam on the highway!

In any case, half an hour and $75 later I was on my way again, finally making it to Strongsville around 9 pm.