Day 12 – Adventures in Tow-truck Limbo and Seattle Adventures
The day began just how everyone dreams their vacation days will: waiting for a tow truck! After about 20 minutes of staring at my stranded car and wondering if I should start charging it rent, I decided to call Geico.
Geico, ever the beacon of efficiency, said their entire system was down. No tow truck was coming. Not now. Not soon. Not ever. “Call back in a few hours,” they cheerfully told me—as if I was just casually ordering a pizza and not trying to un-strand my sad, wounded vehicle.
I told the guy on the phone, “Look, I’m not living in Idaho. I live in Florida. I just happen to be broken down in Idaho, which is very different. Like humidity vs. potatoes different.” I expressed (in my New York voice) that this level of customer service was not acceptable.
To his credit, he said he'd try to push through a tow request manually—kind of like magic, but with hold music. Miraculously, it worked! He got a truck scheduled, although it wouldn't arrive for another hour. So, I met Ray for breakfast. Eggs and yogurt with granola helped dull the annoyance.
The tow truck actually showed up in 40 minutes (a small miracle), and I met him over at the collision shop. The technician gave the car a long, dramatic look and said something reassuring like, “Well... it’s not completely destroyed.” Translation: the engine is still intact, so it might not be totaled.
He said they’d get all the paperwork to Geico by tomorrow, and Geico would take a couple of days to decide its fate. So no major updates until at least Friday. Vacation plans: still alive—for now. Next checkpoint: Vancouver, then on through British Columbia. If the car lives, I have to get back to Idaho to pick it up. If not… well, I get home and have to go car shopping.
With the car drama parked (literally), Ray and I grabbed our stuff and hit the road for Seattle.
The drive was gorgeous. We think we saw Mount Rainier… or at least a very fancy-looking cloud. Either way, there were some epic mountain views.
We rolled into Seattle smoothly—until about a half-mile from the hotel, when things got weird. The car in front of me moved into the right lane, so I followed, assuming we were making a turn. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. After 6 minutes, I said to Ray, “This is the world’s longest red light.” Finally, I tried to go around the car… only to discover we weren’t at a red light. We were parked behind a line of parked cars. So yeah… I just parked behind parked cars for fun.
The hotel was beautiful. We had dinner at Daniel’s Broiler in the hotel. I had a king salmon caprese. Ray had the ahi tuna. Both dishes were amazing, and our spirits were restored.
Post-dinner, we cruised around a bit and ended up at Elliott Bay, a stunning waterfront area connected to Puget Sound. There was a walking path, tons of locals out and about, and several dogs that looked more put-together than we did.
We caught the sunset, soaked up some sun, relaxed and people watched for a while, and relaxed after a Long day. Tomorrow brings more Seattle sightseeing, and then... Vancouver!
Stay tuned. Hopefully, no more parked cars fooling me again.
