Our Penske #2 was humming along great - when there appeared an issue with the passenger side mirror. We realized that the wind speed of freeway driving kept moving the mirror out of place to keep it functional. It needed to be tightened.
Of course I had tools packed in the cargo area of the truck – but who knew where. (my bad) Penske #2 had a handy dandy little red box behind the seat – however it wasn’t handy enough to have tools for tightening a loose mirror. It held those emergency road triangles and such – we didn’t want to have to look in that box ever again.
He said St Paul – which meant he obviously didn’t know where St Paul was in relation to I35W and Des Moines. But I forgave him because he got us set up to get the mirror tightened at the T/A Truck Stop in Albert Lea, MN. We just needed to ask for Kate at the service center. I also forgave him for asking me if I was calling from a landline or a cell phone…..
We found our destination at Exit 11 and pulled in – gassed up Penske #2, got some snacks for the road, and eventually located Kate. She was expecting us! What I wasn’t expecting her to say was that it would be about 1½ hours before one of the 2 mechanics on duty could help us. I told her that was longer than I could wait and asked for a screwdriver to simply tighten it myself. Her eyes literally glazed over and she gazed right through me and didn’t respond to my request for a screwdriver.
The other joker behind the counter – his name unknown except for the none-too-flattering one I gave him later – also went into shut down mode. I asked again for a screwdriver to tighten the mirror myself and this time was told that the mechanics own their own tools and don’t loan them out to anyone.
By now I was annoyed – questioning the logic of a service center not having a screwdriver just hanging around in the back room somewhere. I used to have at least 3 of them in the junk drawer in my kitchen! Finally “Butthead” realized I wasn’t going away and found a broken little screwdriver for me.
Of course – the screwdriver only managed to remove the cap and I really needed a hex wrench. Of course - they didn’t have one of those either. But miracles do happen and Kate’s husband showed up and thought he had one in his truck. Of course – it didn’t fit.
By this time – sister Kathy was working the crowd of Army guys – who were taking a break by their van - trying to get us a hex wrench. I was encouraged to see them scrambling around trying to help her out.
I went back in the service center (I use the word ‘service’ loosely here) and Butthead was on the phone talking to my friend Ken at the Penske call center. He handed me the phone and I could tell that Ken was as frustrated as I was that they wouldn’t take 2 minutes to tighten the friggin’ mirror.
Ken suggested I go into the T/A store and buy a small wrench set and Penske would reimburse me. I went outside to tell Kathy of the latest plan and Kate’s husband showed up with a small socket set (from the infamous back room no doubt) and tightened the mirror for us.
I thanked him profusely. He said that he was impressed that we were concerned about the mirror position - as it meant that we were actually using the mirrors.
I took that as a compliment...
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