Road Trip From Hell
Last weekend my 14 y.o. son and I drove way down south to 1/2 way between Taralga and Oberon over ghastly scary roads to pick up Cudglebar Riena and her filly Hyksos Rowena from Montville Stud. The trip one way was 10 hrs 50 mins, although we called in on Les Ellery at Cudglebar on the way.
On the way back, all seemed to be well and we were making good time. I'd arranged for Les to meet us in Dunedoo as he was keen to see Rowena. We left Dunedoo, got through Gunnedah, then the car suddenly made a hideous loud sound, blew white smoke, and stopped while going up a hill on the busy highway. This was 4 pm and the weather was very hot. Eventually someone kindly stopped and phoned the NRMA (roadside assistance), and they turned up about 7 pm. Meanwhile, someone else had kindly stopped. I had a new engine and new radiator in the car only a couple of weeks earlier, and the problem!! The mechanic had put old radiator hoses on the new radiator! Consequently one had split open. The NRMA thought the head was cracked.
In a further twist, I had rung NRMA normal number despite having Premium Care cover - when they arrived I told the NRMA guy I was Premium Care several times, but he looked at me blankly. With premium care, they tow your car to wherever you want, put you up in a motel, give you a hire car, and it covers the float as well. However, the NRMA guy just towed us up to behind the petrol station at Somerton, a small town and left us there. (He was however a nice helpful person, he must just not have run across anyone Premium Care before?! I also didn't know I had to phone a different number for Premium Care, but no one from the NRMA on the phone throughout this told me.)
So I rang a neighbour to drive all the way down and tow us back, and we got home after midnight.
Meanwhile, poor Riena and Rowena had been stuck in the float since 7.40 a.m. We kept going in and feeding them and offering them buckets of water, and topping up their haynet. They seemed none the worse for wear when we finally got home, but Rowena wanted a very long drink from her mum.
It was a truly horrible experience - and what is wrong with people these days! Between 4 pm and 7 pm only 2 cars stopped to help us, - a woman, a child, a horse float with mare and foal, on the side of a very busy highway, and on the edge, with no room to get off properly, the bonnet up. You would expect more people to stop in the country, if not the city. Thankfully two very kind carloads of people did stop to help.
On the way back, all seemed to be well and we were making good time. I'd arranged for Les to meet us in Dunedoo as he was keen to see Rowena. We left Dunedoo, got through Gunnedah, then the car suddenly made a hideous loud sound, blew white smoke, and stopped while going up a hill on the busy highway. This was 4 pm and the weather was very hot. Eventually someone kindly stopped and phoned the NRMA (roadside assistance), and they turned up about 7 pm. Meanwhile, someone else had kindly stopped. I had a new engine and new radiator in the car only a couple of weeks earlier, and the problem!! The mechanic had put old radiator hoses on the new radiator! Consequently one had split open. The NRMA thought the head was cracked.
In a further twist, I had rung NRMA normal number despite having Premium Care cover - when they arrived I told the NRMA guy I was Premium Care several times, but he looked at me blankly. With premium care, they tow your car to wherever you want, put you up in a motel, give you a hire car, and it covers the float as well. However, the NRMA guy just towed us up to behind the petrol station at Somerton, a small town and left us there. (He was however a nice helpful person, he must just not have run across anyone Premium Care before?! I also didn't know I had to phone a different number for Premium Care, but no one from the NRMA on the phone throughout this told me.)
So I rang a neighbour to drive all the way down and tow us back, and we got home after midnight.
Meanwhile, poor Riena and Rowena had been stuck in the float since 7.40 a.m. We kept going in and feeding them and offering them buckets of water, and topping up their haynet. They seemed none the worse for wear when we finally got home, but Rowena wanted a very long drink from her mum.
It was a truly horrible experience - and what is wrong with people these days! Between 4 pm and 7 pm only 2 cars stopped to help us, - a woman, a child, a horse float with mare and foal, on the side of a very busy highway, and on the edge, with no room to get off properly, the bonnet up. You would expect more people to stop in the country, if not the city. Thankfully two very kind carloads of people did stop to help.
posted by Ann Nyland at 5:21 PM
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