Sunday, September 16, 2007

To Visit My Brother

At the end of June this year, my family and I visited my younger brother who lives in Los Angeles.


We rented a van. On June 28th, we started to drive at 2:00 a.m. from home and we anticipated we would arrive at brother Lai’s home before 9:00 a.m. We hoped that we could enjoy breakfast together in Los Angeles.


My youngest son drove the car. He drove along Highway 5 southbound. When we approached Pyramid Lake, it was daybreak. The highway was full of travelers. Many cars cruised beside our car. The drivers seemed to be very happy because everyone felt that they would get to the destination very soon. Suddenly my youngest son saw an unknown object in front of us in our lane. It was impossible to change lanes. He made an emergency stop, but the car couldn’t stop before hitting the unknown object. Bang! Our car jumped up.

We worried about what might have happened to the car. My son drove the car onto the shoulder of the road. We got out the car and saw that a stream of engine oil was flowing from the bottom of the car and some smoke appeared from the rear of the car. We knew that we couldn’t continue to use this van to get into Los Angeles.


Almost at the same time, three cars also stopped on the roadside and turned on their emergency lights.


My son called with the car rental company. They promised they would send another van for us within half an hour. We had to wait!


While we were waiting for the other van, a police officer drove up. He asked us what had happened and he told us that the other three cars also hit the same unknown object and had different problems.


We waited for a half hour and, then, for another half hour. Finally, after two hours, a driver brought the replacement van to us.

Originally, the clerk of the car rental company told this driver that we were near Pyramid Lake on the Highway 5 northbound. When he discovered that we were actually going southbound, he had to spend a lot of time circling to the right place.


By the time we got to my brother Lai’s home, it was nearly 11:30 a.m.


A breakfast became a lunch!

1 comment:

Richard Blum said...

Before the end of June this year, my family and I visited my younger brother who live in Los Angeles.
We rented a van. On June 28th, we started to drive at 2:00 am from home and we anticipated we would arrive to brother Lai’s home before 9:00 am. Then we could enjoy the breakfast together.
My younger son drove the car. He drove along the Highway 5 southbound. When we approached Pyramid Lake, it was daybreak. Many cars ran rapidly beside our car. The drivers seemed to be very happy because everyone felt that they would get to the destination very soon. Suddenly my younger son found an unknown object in front of our lane. It couldn’t change lane. He made an emergent stop. But the car couldn’t be stopped before hitting the unknown object. Bang! Our car jumped up. We worried what had happened about the car. My son drove the car to the shoulder of the road. We went out the car and saw that a stream of engine oil flowed from the bottom of the car and some smoke appeared from the rear of the car. We knew that we couldn’t continue to use this van to get into Los Angeles.
Almost the same time, there were three cars also stopped on the roadside and turned on their emergency lights.
In that time, my son contacted with the car rental company. They promised they would send the other van for us within half hour. We had only to wait!
When we were waiting for the other van, a police officer drove to us. He asked what happened with us and he told us that the other three cars also hit the same unknown object and had the different troubles.
We waited for half hour and other half hour. After two hours, a driver drove a van to us. Originally the clerk of the car rental company told this driver that we were near Pyramid Lake on the Highway 5 northbound. When he discovered that was the wrong way and he had to spend a lot of time to return to the right place.
When we got to my brother Lai’s home, it was near 11:30 am.
A breakfast became a lunch!