The silver bullet rides again

After my last success playing the mechanic, I felt confidence oozing out of my pores and decided to brave the 4 hour journey from Vancouver to Kelowna in the 'silver bullet'.
"Your car doesn't have an e-brake?" Miriam asked dubiously when we planned our trip.
"No worries," I told her, "Brakes failing only happens in the movies."
Little did I know the drama that awaited us.
Miriam and I left on friday in my old Volvo, and we took turns driving and listening to music all the way to Hope. We stopped in Hope to go pee and buy coke and then hit the road again, Miriam driving. We were chattering away in French and everything was going fine until about 20 minutes outside of Merritt while snaking up the big hill, Miriam suddenly exclaimed, "The car is smoking!"
"Pull over!"
She pulled over onto the narrow shoulder and just before she shut the engine off I saw the thermostat needle all the way up. I popped the trunk and billows of smoke came out. Great. I couldn't see where the smoke was coming from but after it cooled a bit I called my Dad on my cellphone and described the situation to him.
"You're probably out of coolant." He suggested. "Wait til the engine cools down and then put a couple of water bottles in."
I remembered filling the coolant last week (yes, with water instead of antifreeze) and seeing the liquid disappear down inside. Perhaps it was lower than I had thought.
We used up all our water in the engine and I contemplated pouring my coke in, but the coolant reservoir still wasn't full. AFter 15 minutes I started driving again, babying the car up the long slow hill. Within five minutes the needle popped up to the danger zone again and I had to pull over.
"Maybe we should flag someone down and ask for water." I suggested.
We popped the hood and stood behind the car waving our arms. Within 3 minutes a truck pulled up behind us and an older man got out.
"What's the problem?"
He fortuitously had 4 liters of windshield wiper fluid in his truck and he came around and poured it into the engine for me.
"Uh oh." I suddenly noticed a puddle beginning under the car. "It's leaking right through."
"It looks like your water pump is cracked."
Suddenly a cop car pulled up behind the truck and a police officer got out and came towards us.
"Is everything okay?"
"My water pump is gone." I said morosely. "I think we'll have to get it towed to Merritt."
A third truck pulled up in front of us and a man got out and started talking to the police officer.
"Oh, so you finally caught up with him, did you?"
The two men started arguing. "You almost killed me!"
"Get back to your cars!" The police officer was saying "Both of you! Get inside!"
Miriam and I looked at each other. Maybe we should get back in our car too. We climbed in and watched the police officer talking to the two men separately with his ticket book out and meanwhile we called BCAA, thanks to Miriam's membership card. The tow truck would be there within an hour. It would be a free tow to Merritt, or $300.00 to Kelowna. Friday night. What were the chances of getting a water pump installed at this late hour? We would have to stay over in Merritt. We had only planned a two-day weekend anyway- as soon as the car was fixed we might as well just drive home to Vancouver. I felt like crying.
I sent a text message to Robin Mercer telling him we were going to be late and then he called back.
"We're getting towed." I said, depressed. "We'll probably have to stay in Merritt overnight."
"No you won't," He said, "I'll come and get you."
Now this was turning into an adventure.
The two men had driven off and the police officer came back to the truck.
"Sorry about that." He apologized. "My bad luck to have to deal with that. Are you going to be all right?"
We assured him we were fine, even though we were a bit confused as to what had happened. We sat in the car and talked and read for the next hour.
When the tow truck showed up I jumped out and ran to meet the driver.
"Boy, are we glad you're here!"
"Don't you recognize me?" He asked. "This is the second time I've been here today."
I suddenly realized he was the second man who had stopped for us that day.
He winched the silver bullet onto the back of his truck and then while we sat in the cab on the way to Merritt he explained everything. He had been driving home when the first man had cut in front of him and nearly made him have an accident. He had called 911 to report his dangerous driving. The first man had stopped to help the two damsels in distress, as had the police officer, as had the second man, and it was just the luck of the draw that they all happened to recognize each other on the side of the highway. The tow truck driver had driven back into Merritt and then got the call to go pick up an '87 Volvo and he had laughed cause he had just been with us.
Well, he dropped our car off at an auto shop that would fix it the next day, and then he drove us across town to the Starbucks to wait for Robin. Miriam and I both had cards that had been given to us and we sat and drank tea until Robin came to get us in his Toyota Tercel.
By the time we got to Kelowna it was late (we both forgot the way back to our car) but we stayed up anyway for a few more hours.
All in all we had a wonderful weekend, although slightly dampened by the fact that Miriam had to take the greyhound home on sunday, since I was obligated to stay and wait until my car was fixed. Apparently there were no water pumps in Merritt and they had to order one in and in the end it was my most expensive trip to Kelowna ever.
But educational, yes. I learned all about leaking water pumps and why you should always make sure that when you fill the coolant reservoir, whether with water, antifreeze, or wiper fluid, you actually fill it, and don't just pour it out onto the pavement like I must have done the week before. I discovered how romantic it is to be rescued by a handsome young man in a green Tercel (who said anything about a white horse, anyway?) And I finally followed my Dad's lifelong advice, and yes, before I left Kelowna, I purchased a year's membership with BCAA.