My Unlucky Trip Back Home...

Last weekend, two friends of mine, Joe Ward and Brendan Namoff, who go to the University of Illinois and live in my hometown decided to visit here on Friday night and leave Saturday morning. We decided that it would be fun for them to come even if they were only going to be here for a small amount of time. After finding out that they were leaving on Saturday morning, I thought it’d be nice to go home for a night to get a few things done and then come back here on Sunday night. Saturday morning came along and it was pouring rain. I knew the ride might take a little longer than usual, especially in my friend Joe’s 1998 Saturn, but decided that it couldn’t be much longer than the usual one and a half to two hour drive back home. It was not long after we got onto the highway that the driver’s side windshield wiper started to malfunction. Eventually, while only about twenty miles out of Bloomington, the windshield wiper went completely off track and was as far right as possible. We could only see out of the passenger’s side window and ended up going about 45 mph until we got to the first exit. We went to a car dealership and a gas station, both of which told us that the nearest mechanic was 20 miles down the highway. Thinking creatively, we bought 2 rolls of duck tape and tried making a barrier so the wiper could no longer go off track. We got back onto the highway and within ten miles the duck tape started unpeeling so we got right back off into another small town. After going to another car dealership and two gas stations, both said there wasn’t much we could do but wait. We sat in McDonalds until my older brother called and I told him what had happened. He immediately said, “Why don’t you try Rain X?” I didn’t know what Rain X was but I guess it’s something you put on your windshield which deflects rain so you don’t have to use your wipers. We put it on and it worked perfectly. We ended up driving an hour and a half with no windshield wipers on the highway. I got home completely soaked and miserable after a two hour trip had turned into a five hour trip. I don’t think I will ever forget this horrible experience.