Any good vehicle breakdown stories while on vacation?

Just got back from a minication with my wife’s family. Northwest Arkansas from Wichita. Day 2 of trip their vans transmission crapped out right after we left the house. Nearest business was a former tower that now manufactured some sort of tow light. It’s Sunday so the place is obviously closed. Dudes adult daughter comes rolling up in a Saab convertible and unlocks the building for us so we can get things figured out. Wife’s brother and I end up having to drive to the NWA airport from Beaver Lake in Rogers to rent a car while her dad figured out the tow situation. Poor guy has to pay for a $600 tow to Wichita and a $400 rental the day before Memorial Day.

In the 70s we went on a family backpacking trip in Colorado. Surprise Lake was where we hiked to. Forest Rangers hike by our campsite and asked if we drove a Ford Galaxy 500 and if we had taken the wheels off and left it on blocks. Cut the trip short and dad and brother hitchhiked into town and found a place to come out and put on new wheels and tires.

Not a true breakdown story but it would have stranded us.

My first wife and I were driving back from our honeymoon, it was nighttime and we had about 200 miles left to go. Both the headlight just went out on the interstate. It wasn't a fuse (turned out to be the switch in the steering column stalk). We were in the middle of nowhere, before cellphones. I realized I had a 12v flashlight with a long cord. I cut the wire near the light then cut into the passenger headlight wiring harness wire the cord to the light, plugged it in the cigarette lighter, and viola the one headlight worked. I was worried about the small gauge wire and wondered if every exit I passed would have me kicking myself later but that ~18 gauge wire made it the last 3 hours home.

Honda Accord made funny noise from power steering pump near Gulf Shores. Had that big arse dealership near the interstate replace power steering pump and fluids for about $500, which is what Internet said I should expect.

Fast forward a couple weeks and wife is back home in Shreveport getting oil changed on said Accord. Calls me and says our local dealer says power steering fluid needs a flush for $$$. I ask why, and they say the fluid is old and dark and clogged.

Hmmm, that’s odd since it was replaced a couple weeks ago. I tell them to call the Alabama dealer and ask why they defrauded me by not replacing the fluid they charged me for.

They dropped the issue, and I dropped their arse. We now buy our cars from another dealer of another make down the road.

When I was a child my single dad was gonna take me and my two sisters on a long road trip vacation out west. We were looking forward to it for months. Around this time my dad starts getting pretty serious with his new girlfriend. Right before we go he decides to take her along. My dad has a brand new grand am. So we were going to load up her and my dad in front and three teen/ preteen kids in this car. Well guess what with her crap added to the mix we couldn’t fit in the grand am. So we had to take her grand marquee or some similar car. Still cramped but the trunk shut. My dad from the git go try to be all super disciplinarian trying to show her he was in control which just led to a bunch of miserable kids in back. Worst vacation of all time. He didn’t even keep the relationship up long after trip. And to top it all off her price of crap car broke down in middle of Kansas City. We just had to sit around at the mechanic shop for a day while they fixed the stupid thing.

I had just been discharged from the Navy in Charleston and had landed a job at the shipyard. I had a few weeks before the job started so I bought a used Camaro and headed home to Shreveport to see the family. I stopped in Alabama to pick up my 14 yr old sister who was visiting my brother. We made it to Monroe before the car broke down. Called my dad to pick us up and left the car at a shop in Monroe. This was in '88 and I can't remember everything that was wrong but I know they replaced the head gasket.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, I've got the repaired Camaro and I'm heading out of Shreveport on my way to Charleston. This time I made it about 20 miles before Meridian and it crapped out again. I walked a couple of miles to the nearest exit to a Goober's gas station, the only thing at the exit. A guy towed the Camaro in using his personal pickup and said he couldn't fix it. So I had to pay a tow truck to take it to the Chevy dealership in Meridian. They told me there was a crack in the block so I sold it to them for a song. I had to spend another night there waiting to get a new car. Barely made it to my new job in time.

My sister and brother-in-law got their car stuck in sand in Destin years ago during our family vacation. They had to pay some guy with a Ford Excursion to pull them out.

When i was a teen, we dropped the transmission in our truck while in Raton Pass, NM. We were hauling back home from a rodeo in Colorado Springs, so we had a horse trailer with two horses, tack/feed. Wound up having to stay 3 days back in Colorado bc it was the closest thing. We were lucky to find stables for the horses, but what a pain in the arse that was.

Being poor growing up and cheap as an adult, I’ve got tons.

On the way to North Carolina to visit my grandfather’s army buddy around 1981. Grand parents were in a ‘78 grand marquis which was a land yacht. My mom, dad and siblings were in another vehicle. We had stopped at stuckeys for dinner. As we were pulling out my grandparents car hit a massive pothole. I saw a bunch of sparks followed by a large section of tailpipe and muffler falling off. Drove the rest of the trip there with that behemoth car making the loudest damn noise.

1983. My single dad and I were driving to Dallas in my grandfather’s car. My dad was flat arse broke so my grandfather loaned him his shell card for gas. My dad told me to keep an eye out for shell signs on the interstate. Saw everything but shell. We ended up running out of gas on the interstate. 8 year old me had to steer the car on interstate while he pushed us to the shoulder. 8 year old me also stayed with the car while he hoofed out to the next exit for gas. He used a milk jug to put the gas in and bring it back. I vividly remember thinking, even at 8, he was an idiot.

Same trip, but not a breakdown. We had stopped at a hotel one afternoon that had a pool. I had brought a swimsuit but my dad didn’t. He ended up cutting off some jeans with his Swiss Army knife. As much as there is wrong with that already, the real tragedy is, he cut them too short and they were effectively daisy dukes. We went swimming but when I was done he told me to go watch tv and he’d be in in a little while. After I changed t looked outside to see if he was coming because I was hungry but he was macking on two gals in the pool. Ended up falling asleep that without dinner.

1985. The first vacation my mom could afford for us and it was to the metropolis of Baton Rouge but coming from New Iberia, it could have been manhattan. We were in our 1978 caprice station wagon. Of course my mom got lost trying to find the uss kidd and put us in a less than favorable area. We’re at a red light when all of a sudden we here a pop and the car starts hissing and smoking. 10 year old me had seen enough tv to know that a violent explosion was soon to follow. So I scream, “everybody run, it’s gonna blow” which I immediately did, running two blocks before turning around to see my mom crying laughing. It was just the radiator.

1979. My dads driving a box truck making seafood deliveries out of abbeville. During the summer, I’d ride with him on occasion. He and I were headed to west Texas when all of a sudden “BAM” and the arse end of the truck starts sagging. The rear axle had broke throwing the dual wheels and a part of the axle into the woods off the interstate. He left me in the truck and tried for a while to hitchhike but not a soul even slowed down. He came and got me and put me next to the road thumbing while he hid in front of the truck. Being 4, I naturally attracted the very first car that passed.