The nice thing about living in a small town...

After picking up the oldest two kids at school yesterday afternoon, my van suddenly started smoking badly while sitting at a traffic light. I was alarmed - and the person behind me began flashing the lights on his pick-up truck, indicating I should pull over. He was alarmed too. (Note - that's a random web photo, not actually our van!)

When he got out of his pick-up and came to my passenger side window, Carl told me he'd seen the smoke and the kids in the car and was concerned. We popped the hood and found that one of the hoses had a hole in it, and antifreeze had sloshed out around the engine. The car was overheating because of it. We talked through my options - I was only about three miles from home but didn't want to get into a precarious situation trying to get us there. HF was more than an hour away for the day and without his phone. I put my hazards on and continued driving, with Carl behind me as a kind of escort.

I drove as far as a gas station a mile up the road with the car still overheating. There Carl drove on and another kind gentlemen, Danny, helped me pour the antifreeze I purchased into my engine and made sure the engine ran ok. Then he followed my the remaining two miles home to make sure I made it. When I expressed concern for his time (upon his offering to do this), he said he was just "going to be working on junk at home," nothing pressing.

Carl was thirty-something and Danny probably fifty-something. They were both so kind and helpful. They sure scored some big points for the kindness and friendliness of our town!