Okay so this is technically the second time for my car

I drive a 2003 Toyota Prius that has been through its fair share. The very first time something bad happened to me in it was some time in junior year. I was driving home from school one day and a large warning light came on the dash and the display along with the check engine light. I drove home a few miles and was fine but the manual said that particular combination of lights means “pull over immediately”. However the next time that I drove to school the lights didn’t come on and I thought it might have been some freak incident. We still scheduled it to be in to the dealer anyway just in case. A few days later my accelerator stopped working in the middle of a roundabout and I was able to coast to a hotel parking lot. It turns out I had a cracked spark plug after somehow making it limp to the dealer. Naturally, having not all the cylinders fire reliably particularly pissed off the hybrid system computer.

All in all it worked out pretty well. Other than getting a flat and having to drive a quarter mile home on it, it’s been pretty reliable car since then. That is until today.

Second major car troubles

So I just finished finals and my last freshman year. Yes, after being one six times now technically, I am no longer a freshman! When I moved in, my parents took my stuff in a van and a few things in the Prius. However, they were all too cool to come help me move out. This meant that Everything that arrived in both cars, along with all the clothes I had purposely left that my mom decided that I needed, had to make it home in one trip. In just my Prius. Packing the car at all was an entire other ordeal. I somehow was able to get my entire life in to a Prius and get on the road. Not before enjoying a final meal and some Starbucks for Toni #1173 on my way out of town of course. And with that, I was headed in home in a slightly heavy Prius.

Everything about the drive was going great for the first half hour or so. Then one of the immeasurable genius parents driving their kid home decided that they really wanted to slam their brakes on in the left lane. No cars hit, but the sudden deceleration royally pissed my car off. As soon as I was back to normal driving I realized that the “something is gravely bad, pull over” lights had come on again. being in the middle of a construction zone on a single lane stretch of the interstate, I quickly made peace and tried to find somewhere to turn off.

Stop Number 1

The light that went off was the warning lamp for the hybrid system. This could mean literally anything remotely involved in making the car go could be the culprit. Due to my own random curiosity, I had done research on attaching a trailer hitch for fun a few months back and remembered that people who had done so experienced similar problems. They had troubles due to the transmission overheating from the amount of weight that the car had to pull.

I figured this might be the case and let the car cool off for a half hour or so and tried to start it back up the get on my way. No luck, the lights were still on. Nonetheless, I wanted to be home sometime before 3AM so I tried to push my car through it. As it turns out, that may have not been my smartest decision of the day.

Stop Number 2

While happily cruising down I-65 South, I noticed that the lights in the car significantly dimmed. This was conveniently coupled with the accelerator no longer working. I sheepishly made my way to the shoulder and started making phone calls. Eventually I had a plan for getting my car into a dealer the next morning and a tow there. Only problem was that I would still be stranded 4 hours form home with no vehicle.

This brings us to now. Doing the most stereotypical thing I can think of in my current situation:

Sitting in a Starbucks, writing on my blog.

I mean hey, at least it isn’t a screenplay right? Luckily I have a friend who is coming to pick me up so I can get home tonight with all my stuff and she’ll crash in my hometown a few days and see some real hills. (Sorry Indiana, y’all have nothing on Appalachia.) Unfortunately, My charger is packed away and my laptop is close to dying, but pretty soon I should be, once again, on the way back to my lovely hometown.