I called
for a tow truck and while I waited a highway patrol car stopped and the officer
asked if he could help and then waited with me for the truck to arrive.
He asked where I was going and I told him that I was a consultant to non-profit organizations and that I had a meeting early the next morning at the Girl Scouts regional office in Santa Barbara. The officer told me rather shyly that he wished that he had a job that allowed him to help people. This seemed strange coming from a person who had stopped to help me along the way. But this isn't the unbelievable part.
Soon the tow truck arrived and hooked me up. The driver said he could tow me to Santa Barbara and I could get the car fixed the following day after my meeting. Or he could call a friend in Santa Maria who owned an auto repair shop to see if he had a fan belt and would be willing to come down to his shop on Sunday evening to install it in my car. I asked him to make the call and his friend said he would meet us, so we headed back to Santa Maria.
Now, I need to tell you that my car is a highly modified 1990 Mazda Miata that I drive at high speed events on race tracks in Northern California. When we pulled up to the repair shop, the first thing I saw was a top fuel dragster, a professional drag racing machine. When the shop owner reached under my car to remove the tow hook, I heard him exclaim, "This is a race car!" We immediately formed a bond of common interest. But this isn't the unbelievable part.
He searched his shop for the appropriate fan belt but soon realized that the belt we needed was not in stock. The tow truck driver left to search nearby gas stations to see if he could find the belt. He didn't succeed and so he and his friend began thinking about who among their family and friends had a car with a belt that would fit and that they could borrow. The shop owner opened a large book that told him about all manner of fan belts and what cars they fit. It was surprising to me that a belt could fit so many very different cars. Surprising, but not unbelievable.
The shop owner was excited to find that the 1990 Miata belt also could be found on a 1956 Datsun pick-up truck. Of course, he happened to have such a truck out behind his shop. Now, here's where it begins to become unbelievable.
He and I headed to the truck, but I was chagrined to discover that the engine (presumably with the fan belt attached) had been removed from under the hood, placed in the bed of the pick-up, covered with a load of sand and topped with the very heavy rear axle. Not to worry!
The shop guy rolled the axle off the truck, climbed in and began to dig through the sand. Within a few minutes he triumphantly held up a fan belt like a deep sea diver returning with his catch.
Meanwhile, the tow truck driver reappeared with his girlfriend and a bag of cheeseburgers, fries and milk shakes. After the belt was installed, we all sat around eating burgers and drinking shakes. I finally left around 11:00 pm and got to Santa Barbara at midnight, got a few hours sleep and made my early morning meeting on time.
Let me ask you. Is it more unbelievable that the exact fan belt I needed could only be found exactly when and where I needed it buried under sand in a fifty year old truck? Or that I was embraced by a group of strangers late on Sunday evening who made it their mission to get me to my destination and then celebrated with me with food and good cheer before sending me on my way?