This morning: 7am, wake up, shower, get on the road for the beginning of awesome spring break!! Driving 10 hours to toronto and gonna kick ass!

1.5 hours in, approaching Manteno, IL. I decelerate the veritable Chevy Blazer (of 2004 glory) and discover a nice deafening roar coming from my engine. Hmm. I hit the gas again, noise goes away. I look at my speedometer: 70 mph. Hmmm.

I slow down by letting off the gas. Noise gets LOUDER, but slower, differentiating into a steady rhythmic clicking/whirring/clacking noise. Hooray!

We exit the highway and stop at a gas station. I jump out of the car to hear what it sounds like from the outside. Still sounds bad.

It's 10:30am and we decide to call AAA. Hooray, they can get someone to tow us. After more talking, it's discovered they can only tow us to somewhere within 5 miles. There's a cheap hotel we can stay for the night until tomorrow morning when the auto shops open. That's the plan.

But wait, my parents thought they were paying for the nice plan that tows you 100 miles! Nope, according to AAA they were only paying for the basic plan. Luckily, Mo's parents paid for the super-premium-galactic plan and we call AGAIN (after cancelling the original tow) to get us to Champaign. Lunchtime has now passed, it's 2pm. I've taken video, stolen local business internet, and posted video and troubleshooting info to automotive forums on the internet. The plan now: tow to champaign, take rental car to Canton, OH (6 hours away), and stay there for the night. Then, take my sister's car (she's currently in Europe) the rest of the way to Toronto. Proceed to have fun.

Except the tow truck driver decided to drive 5 under the speed limit, so we arrived in Champaign around 4:30pm, approximately 8.5 hours after leaving. New plan: we're leaving tomorrow morning to get a rental car and drive to Canton, OH to proceed with the rest of the plan.

Notable figures:
Mary, the nice southern lady I talked to several times at AAA who did everything she could (well, almost).

Bruce, the AAA employee who first informed me of AAA's double-discount plan, which means I can get an AAA discount on a rental car AND an additional discount if my car was just towed.

Jack, Don, Dustin, and Lou, the misc. folks in the various exchanges with AAA and Hertz trying to connect the idea of this double discount at AAA with the knuckle-headed people at Hertz (one of the people I talked to had a clear lack of teeth. Try explaining double discounts to him).

BUT WE WILL WIN. The universe cannot keep us from our Spring Break and it cannot keep us from kicking ass in Toronto. Bring it on!!!