Everything, Everything, turned out actually not that bad all things considered... GARF as always was amazing and I will write more about that at a later date. But for now everyone look at my poor car!

VIN is Sick!!! My car being hauled onto a tow truck in Grantville GA when the wipers stopped working during a rainstorm.

The car's actually fine, it was the wipers that went wonky. In the middle of a rain shower on Interstate 85! Suddenly I was blind. I didn't realize how much of a difference wipers make! But thanks to the grace of God and all the well wishes of our GARF friends for safe travels we were able to pull to the side of the interstate. droidgirl nobly braved the weather to tug on the actual wipers but jiggling things outside or inside the car did not help. Being part toaster, disbandedtoastr was mechanically inclined enough to search through the manual but we didn't want to play with fuses on the side of the Interstate. We were able to get back on the road (blind!) and drive to the next exit (blind!) and get off and make a left turn to find a gas station. It was scary, but the three of us concentrated really hard and kept following the white lines along the side of the road since that was pretty much all we could see. And the left turn was actually easy because I could see out the side windows just not out the front. Even though the fuse looked okay, we swapped it out in the hopes it would fix it. No luck. And disbandedtoastr got so soaked she had to change clothes. All the forecasts we'd checked were for rain so even though the rain had stopped at this point we did not want to chance driving home at night without knowing when/if the rain would return and for how long. I did not want to stop every hour or so and sit out a thunderstorm in the dark with three girls crammed in a Beetle. The VW people are amazing, though. They arranged and paid for a tow truck to take us to the nearest VW dealership. Funnily enough, it was Union City!! So we were to go BACK to where we'd started. While we waited for the wrecker, the wipers started working again! then after 10 swishes, they stopped. The tow truck driver was SO NICE!! the four of us CRAMMED into the cab of his truck. it's easier to breathe in a bodice than it was to breathe in that cab. and i had to straddle his gear shift so he had to reach between my legs to change gears. eeeeeek!! When we got to the dealership the wipers were working again and since no one was there on a Sunday night he suggested we keep the car and drive to the hotel. He was going to take us because he said there's no way he'd leave us stranded, but he thought this way we'd have our suitcases and a way to get food or whatever if we needed. Our first stop was WalMart for loads of RainX. Then La Fiesta to see if anyone was still there but no luck so it was Fast Food and rechecking into the hotel we'd left that morning. I spoke to VW again and we decided if the forecast was for sunny skies we'd drive home to my dealership so I could work with people I knew. God send us lots of sunshine, we made it home around two. I drove an extra 45 minutes to the dealership to drop off VIN but the wipers are working. I ran them for 30 minutes, using up all my washerfluid. I don't know what happened, but they are checking it out. He said someone was in there recently with their wipers malfunctioning, too, so maybe they'll be old hat at this and I'll have it back tomorrow. Hope so! Because despite our reputation for being "the sunshine state" we do get our share of rain... We have this story told much more interestingly in pictures which I intend to scan and post but I left my book in my car. Toaster is an EXCELLENT stick figure theatre artist and Droidgirl draws a mean musketeer... I really want to thank my friends for being so wonderful and patient and supportive. I've never had to drive blind in a rainstorm before or deal with a broken down car. I have the best friends in the world for helping me through that. And see, reddheaded! See how things break down when you aren't around? The grape honey sticks survived the travels, though, so they are here for you! :)