On The Road Again, Sort Of…

The wheels started rolling about 9:20 a.m. As we pulled out of the driveway of Granite Hill, Jim looked over at me and smiled and said, “We’re late. I wanted to get out of here by 9:00 a.m” But he was smiling. It was snowing, and we were just glad to be getting out of there when we did!

We drove about 60 miles down the road, and had just passed by the exit for Business 15 off of 15 south in Leesburg, Virginia, when we decided to pull over to the side of the road and visit Mrs. Murphy. When we stopped, we heard an unusual noise that sounded like something fell off the trailer behind us, so we walked all around the rig looking for whatever it was. We didn’t find anything. We left the truck running, and went into our little trailer to do our stuff. I went first, and as I was coming out the door I heard a Slap! Slap! Bam! Coming from our truck!!!! Oh, crap!

When Jim came out the door, I told him to look under the hood because it sounded like a belt broke under there, and there were little slivers of what looked like shredded belt under the truck. When he opened the hood, it was not the belt but the pulley off the flywheel. It had broken off and slammed around under the hood.

So, there we sat on the side of the road, in Leesburg, VA, not knowing a soul to call. We just sat a minute and thought about it. Crap!

I got out my AT&T cellphone and called 411. I told them we needed a tow truck in Leesburg but I did not know the names of any. She gave me the first three numbers on her list. I called the first one and explained that we needed to be towed to the Ford dealership, but that we were towing a 34’ travel trailer, too. He said he couldn’t handle the job, but he knew someone who could and that this guy might even be able to fix the problem right there at the side of the road. Yeah, I’m thinking, we are going to get a mechanic to come out here on the side of the road on Sunday morning and fix our truck, just like that? And I believe in the Easter Bunny, too!!!

A few minutes later, my cellphone rings, and it is Jimmy Counselman, the mechanic who drives a tow truck for The Body Works Towing in Leesburg. He asked me what the problem was and where I was located. He arrived about 20 minutes later, checked under the hood to determine what to do. He said he needed to go get a part and he would be back in a few minutes.

Our Hero!

So, another 20 minutes later he is back. And in another 20 minutes, he has the truck repaired, and we were ready to go. The charge was $260 for replacing the pulley, on the side of the highway, on Sunday morning, in 39-degree weather. Not bad, if you are the one stuck there, freezing. So, yeah, I guess I do believe in the Easter Bunny now.

Thank you, Jimmy. We really appreciate your hard work, and the fact that you got us back on the road in so little time. If anyone needs any repairs done in or around Leesburg, Virginia, Jimmy is the one to call. He operates Daddy’s Garage, in affiliation with The Body Works of Virginia, Inc. Their phone number is 703-777-5727 in Leesburg, Virginia.