So let's talk about God.
In past conversations with my mom I would sometimes say that I was lucky, or luckily it worked out. She was always quick to correct me and say that it wasn't luck, but instead God's will. Let me share with you a little story and you tell me if it was luck, or God's will.
It was the summer of 1999. I was a co-op for Centaur Technology in charge of stress testing CPUs in development. Basically I wrote test plans and executed them. At the time I thought my boss was a real hard ass. Don't get me wrong, he may have been, but I won't say that conclusively. I would write my test plan and run it past him. He would give me no feedback other than it wasn't good enough. That would happen weekly. I swear that he just wanted a clone of himself. I digress. So at the same time I was the president of the Texas chapter of Delta Upsilon. That summer was the annual leadership retreat where all the presidents from all the chapters around the world gather in one city. That city was Denver, Colorado.
Me being the poor college student I made the decision to drive from Austin to Denver by myself. I know it's 17 hours, but I had to go. I cleared it with my boss, left on Friday, and told him that I would get back in town the following Monday a week later. He was cool with it, so I was off. It took me two days to get there. The first day I got a flat. Not really a big deal. I had a spare, and it only took me 15 minutes to get it switched out. I drove till I got sleepy then got a room at a cheap motel. I woke up early the next morning and made it there with no issues.
The week was awesome. I meet a lot of cool people, saw a real western band, and swapped shirts with the Toronto chapter president. Denver was very beautiful and the mountains were awesome. I almost didn't want to leave, but I had a job to get back to. Turns out that the guys from UT Pan Am where heading my direction, so we decided to caravan down together. We left that Sunday and started our journey back to Texas. I think it was around 3 pm.
After about 10 hours or so we hit a little snag. I got another flat tire. Since I already used my spare I was screwed right? Wrong. There happen to be a 24 hour emergency tire repair place not too far from where we were. It took over an hour but I was fixed up and we got back on the road.
Side note: I was driving a 1984 Mazda B2000 pickup and AJ, the president of the UT Pan AM chapter was driving a Ford Probe. He also had a passenger and a week of clothes each. Picture that for a minute, you'll need that visual later.
About 3 hours later after the tire chances I start to have engine trouble. The max speed I can hit is 50 MPH. I could get up to 58 MPH if going downhill. I call the guys on my cell and tell them the situation. They were so cool about it and kept pace with me. In 20 minutes my speed was down to 45 MPH, then 40, then 30. I pulled into a gas station and opened the hood. I had no idea what I was looking at. There was no smoke or odor, so I got back in and tried it again. It didn't start back up. Waited 20 more minutes, still no go. We had to leave the truck behind. I told the clerk at the counter the situation, left my name and number, moved all my stuff into the Probe, and left Amarillo for Austin.
We got to Austin about 5pm. AJ dove the whole way himself. After a short nap at the frat house they continued the journey down to the valley.
This Part I, I will continue this story next week. You won't believe what I had to go through to get my truck back.
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