Instantly, I heard my dad in my head. Pull over and turn it off! Ok, that would have been fine except I had chosen to take the "shortcut" home, which included about a 2 mile trip through a bit of Lansing's ghetto. I always joke about the fact that I don't take that shortcut at night and wouldn't want to break down in that neighborhood. Today I did.
I don't scare easily, but I admit today I was afraid. I locked my doors, as a large group of not so friendly looking teen boys approached. Large groups were clustering in the empty parking lot where I sat. I just kept hoping that this was not going to end badly. I called Joe and knew it would take him about 30 minutes to get to me. It was going to be a long, hot wait as the temperature was about 80 and I had the car sealed up. Of course, my cell phone had very little remaining battery and I began thinking about what I was going to do if things didn't go well.
We added coolant and started the car. The temperature gauge began to rise again. Darn it! As Joe and I began trying to figure out what the problem was I remembered my dad's advice again. "If the thermostat has gone bad, turn on the heat". I flipped the switch and within a few moments the gauge began to drop and quickly returned to normal! THANKS, DAD!
