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Friday afternoon I had just started working on the 1st gen in great hopes that I would finish it up by happy hour. Five minutes in, My neighbor pulls up with a problem. She needs someone to ride up to Chattanooga with her to retrieve her husbands truck. Her husband evidently took a road trip by himself against all advice since he has been sick and near death for past year and ended up getting taken to the hospital by ambulance up there for some reason that she was not exactly to clear on. I figured what the hey, two hours up and two hours back is the least I could do to help a friend/neighbor in distress. Four hours investment would give me plenty of time to get back, get some sleep and make an 8:00 AM four hour class and exam in Marietta, Ga to get my EPA Certification in refrigerants I was schedule for. Or so I thought. Silly me. So, we gas up and start heading to I75N which is the closest route to Chattanooga from here. About the time we get close to I75N she gets a call that he is in a hospital in Sevierville, TN not Chattanooga! Turns out he had been in Gattlinburg not Chattanooga. Factual details are pretty sketchy since evidently he isn't giving her very clear information due to his condition and she is naturally a little bit ditsy and confused anyway. Well, it's closer to go up I85N to Gattlinburg so we turn around on I285 to head toward I85N. By this time we are right in the middle of Atlanta rush hour traffic, on I285, on a Friday afternoon. If your familiar, bumper to bumper/Grid lock is an understatement. :bang head:Two hours later we get to I85N which is no better than I285. :bang head:Then she gets another phone call that he is being transferred to a hospital in Knoxville. The keys to the truck are with him and the truck is in Gattlinburg. So Knoxville is now our destination. We should have just continued up 75 had I known at the time, :doh:but at this point I85 seems to be gridlocked all the way to the horizon and there's noway I'm getting back on 285 so I turn north to head to Knoxville, due north across country. Another hour and half later we finally get out of traffic just south of Dahlonega. Now, Ga. 60N out of Dahlonega is a great motorcycle road :7_6_3[1]:as many of you know but in her ragged out 4 cylinder, straight shift, Ford Ranger after sunset, no so much. Four hours of twisty mountain back roads through rural north Georgia and Tennessee double clutching the whole way we finally reach the Knoxville area. Now I'm relying on the GPS for directions since her sense of direction and coherent information seems to be non-existent:confused24::confused24:. She also does not understand why the GPS can't process input such as a Hospital somewhere in Knoxville. :confused24: He is unaware or incapable of giving a name of the hospital or street address:confused24: and evidently calling a nurse to the phone for specific information is too much to ask. Forty five minutes later I finally get a street address to plug into the GPS. We reach the hospital, undergo interrogation and a background check with hospital security to get after hour passes to visit him in his room:doh:. It then took 30 minutes for them figure out and tell us what room he was in. Then we roam the maze of hallways and elevators in the hospital to find his room since the rest of all of the hospital staff were evidently on break and not available to give us directions to his room.:doh: We finally find the room, visit for awhile, get the keys and head off for Gattlinburg to retrieve the truck. We reach Gattlinburg to find out that she does not know, can't remember and can not make heads or tails of her scribbled unintelligible notes on the back of an crumpled envelope that she had written down the name of the motel where the truck was parked. :doh:So, after another series of phone calls back and forth with him to find out what hotel the truck is parked at we finally locate the motel and truck sometime around 2:30 am. At the motel I do a Google map search from Gattlinburg to Marietta, Ga and determine I had time for a 30 minute nap to make it to the class in time and take the exam. So now I'm on a forced drive through the Smoky Mountains in the middle of the night pinching myself, slapping my face and hanging my head out the window to stay awake. Did I mention the pea soup can't-see-the headlights fog that lasted the whole way. I did successfully make the class in time with 5 minutes to spare. The four hours of class which amounted to a very intense detailed scientific dissertation on the nature, chemistry, usage and regulatory laws concerning air conditioning and refrigeration refrigerants. Now, I'm sure that for some, like the instructor, Refrigerants is the most interesting and captivating subject matter obtainable. For me with no sleep for the past 24 hours, not so much.... in fact not at all. My biggest fear at this point is not failing the test but cracking my head open on the over head projector in front of me when I lapse into a coma from sleep deprivation and mind numbing boredom. In fact several times during the first two hours, it was everything I could do to not get up and walk out blowing off the class and the exam. Had it not been for the $130.00 I had paid in advance for the privilege of being there I would have. Instead, because of the kinda-of-guy I am, and the money, I stuck it out doing my utter best to stay awake and pay attention to the instructor:detective:...... With the help of all the strongest, blackest, most horrible burnt tasting coffee I had ever had and could swallow. I'm glad I did, because when it was time to take the exam, it was 100 multiple choice questions which all seemed incredibly easy and I'm pretty sure I aced the test. Leaving, I had an incredible sense of relief and accomplishment :dancefool:as I got into the truck, heading home via I285. I was thinking of nothing but my warm, safe comfortable bed at home that was calling me as I entered the ramp on to I285E toward home. Right into the middle of grid lock/bumper-to-bumper traffic on 285 :bang head::bang head:with no chance of avoiding due to a resurfacing project which has been never ending ever since they built that damn road. Two and a half hours later I did finally make it home and collapsed in bed safe and sound asleep. Just in time to be awoken, Several times, by my friend sobbing tears of joy and gratitude for me helping her and all that it meant to her and her husband. Which she promised she was eternally grateful and in my debt for. Of course I said, and did sincerely mean, "don't mention it, It was my pleasure, I'm glad to be able to help." Before I rolled over and went back to sleep. So, the moral of this story is what? (A) Consider all factors and possible consequences before volunteering (B) Endeavor to persevere at you weakest moment because quitters never prosper © When in Atlanta avoid I285 at all cost (D) No good deed goes unpunished but, usually is well worth the effort. (E) All of the above Since, you volunteered to read my rant and dissertation and persevered I will give you the answer. ................. the answer is (E) All of the above Thanks for letting me share
