Road Trip 2010 - Day 13 - Interrupted Journey

Highs and lows, ups and downs.

Anyone know whether Johnny Cash and June Carter were referring to Jackson, MS or Jackson, TN?

There was still vibration in my car, so I stayed in Jackson, MS last night.  This morning I went to another Volvo specialist, as the dealer couldn't fit me in until a week Tuesday.  The guys at Allen Enterprises were really nice, authentic southern folk, warm and friendly.  The mechanic not only re-balanced my tires and wheels, he had a quick look under the hood, and fortunately (potentially anyway, as you'll see) noticed the serpentine drive belt was cracking and could give way.  So I had them replace that as well, again thinking that better today than on the road to Guadalajara.  That must have been the reason I went there in the first place.

So, once that was done, I thought I'd grab a bite and head down to Nawlins.  By then it was raining pretty hard, and I couldn't get across the lanes to a restaurant, so I decided to drive up the road a bit and turn around. 

As I approached a train trestle, I saw the cars driving underneath kicking up serious rooster tails of water.  There were no cones or barriers visible, because they were all shoved over to the one side and lying flat, and only there in the pictures because I moved them back.

As I got closer, I could see that the water was easily more than a foot deep, and with my air intake down low, behind the bumper under the headlights, I thought it might not be such a good idea.  You don't want water sucked into a turbocharger that runs at well over 500 degrees.  So I stopped and waited for an opportunity to turn off to the right and go around.

I was only stopped for a few seconds before I heard a screeching noise.  I looked in my mirror and noticed this car coming up on me from behind, and though I tried to drive ahead to the right to get out of the way, he was going way too fast and BAM!

His car is a mess, but the damage to my car appears to be relatively minor. 

That is, if you consider a bumper, tail light, tailgate (fibreglass - who knew?), a brand new tire (less than 2,000km) and a hard-to-find wheel, and possibly some mechanical damage to be minor.  I just hope the structural integrity of the car isn't affected (and that the subwoofer still woofs).  I don't see any sheet metal distortion anywhere beyond the "crash zone", but the wheel looks to be on a weird angle, now that I look at the pictures. 

The good news is that I'm OK, and so is the fellow who hit me.  No airbags deployed, so nobody's car will be written off (I hope).

The bad news, other than the car is that I am in Jackson, MS for a week, possibly more.  I was supposed to be in Mexico by Monday, so unless I just leave my car here and fly to Guadalajara, I'll miss the bus trip.  I don't think my insurance will cover plane fare or an extended car rental. 

Then again, that might be better there than hanging around here.  If I do fly, I will have to carefully sort out my luggage situation, as I have too much crap to carry on a plane.

C'est la vie, eh?