Our Heroes in Reno
When my husband and I were college students with very little income, I decided we needed to go on a trip to San Francisco because neither of us had ever been and we weren't sure how long we'd be living in the west. We drove the eight hours across the Nevada desert and had an amazing week exploring the city on the cheap. On our way back, we spent a day at Lake Tahoe and then the plan was to stay the night in Reno and drive home the following day.
As we were driving the windy road down from Lake Tahoe into Reno, our 11-year-old car started making a funny noise and the engine light came on. It was 4:30pm on a Friday. We managed to find a Pep Boys and they wanted $800 to replace the radiator because they said it was cracked. However, they weren't going to be able to do it until Tuesday. Considering we had no extra money for more days at the motel, plus food, plus we had school and work to return to on Monday, this was not going to work. I went into full panic mode but luckily my husband kept a more level head. We went to our motel and he started calling every mechanic in the phone book with no success. We got old deli sandwiches from a vending machine and went to bed completely stressed.
Saturday morning we were up early and my husband was already making phone calls. The first place he called that was open on Saturdays were A-1 Mechanics. Off he went as soon as they opened at 7am to see if they could help us out. He was back an hour later and I was starting to feel like we were never going to get out of that town. Thankfully, these were some capable and kind mechanics. They looked at the car and decided it was not necessary to replace the radiator, just a different small part, that unfortunately they didn't have. But they told us if we stopped every hour and filled up the radiator with water and didn't run our air conditioning, we would make it home to Utah. They gave Josh a huge glove to protect himself when putting in the water and jugs full of water, enough for us to make it home. The kicker? They didn't charge Josh a penny for their time or the materials they gave him.
We ended up being able to make the drive and even though it took us awhile longer with all of the stopping and it was hot driving without the air in the middle of August across the Nevada desert, we made it. We took the car to our local mechanic the next day and had the problem fixed for a quarter of what the Pep Boys people wanted to charge us and they wouldn't have even fixed the real problem. The guys at A-1 Mechanics were an answer to prayer and an incredible blessing to us.
As we were driving the windy road down from Lake Tahoe into Reno, our 11-year-old car started making a funny noise and the engine light came on. It was 4:30pm on a Friday. We managed to find a Pep Boys and they wanted $800 to replace the radiator because they said it was cracked. However, they weren't going to be able to do it until Tuesday. Considering we had no extra money for more days at the motel, plus food, plus we had school and work to return to on Monday, this was not going to work. I went into full panic mode but luckily my husband kept a more level head. We went to our motel and he started calling every mechanic in the phone book with no success. We got old deli sandwiches from a vending machine and went to bed completely stressed.
Saturday morning we were up early and my husband was already making phone calls. The first place he called that was open on Saturdays were A-1 Mechanics. Off he went as soon as they opened at 7am to see if they could help us out. He was back an hour later and I was starting to feel like we were never going to get out of that town. Thankfully, these were some capable and kind mechanics. They looked at the car and decided it was not necessary to replace the radiator, just a different small part, that unfortunately they didn't have. But they told us if we stopped every hour and filled up the radiator with water and didn't run our air conditioning, we would make it home to Utah. They gave Josh a huge glove to protect himself when putting in the water and jugs full of water, enough for us to make it home. The kicker? They didn't charge Josh a penny for their time or the materials they gave him.
We ended up being able to make the drive and even though it took us awhile longer with all of the stopping and it was hot driving without the air in the middle of August across the Nevada desert, we made it. We took the car to our local mechanic the next day and had the problem fixed for a quarter of what the Pep Boys people wanted to charge us and they wouldn't have even fixed the real problem. The guys at A-1 Mechanics were an answer to prayer and an incredible blessing to us.
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