Miricles do happen, sometimes twice in one day!
Last weekend the wife and I took off on Sunday to head 3 hrs. east across the state to see my sister and BIL, and then on Monday we had an appointment and hour north of them to pick up an fifth wheel camper. On the way over I we noticed a definite vibration that was especially pronounced at lower speeds. I wasn't about to go pick up the trailer and haul it with something amiss with the truck, so on Monday morn I called around to see who could look at it short notice. Of course, all dealerships (not my first choice of where to take it) wouldn't commit to when they could look at it, so I finally called another BIL who lives in the area and is a motor head type to see if he could give me a lead. He told me without hesitation to take it to a place called Carr's Finishing Touch in Howell which happened to be like 5 miles from where we were staying.
So it's 9:30 in the morning now and our appointment an hour away is at 4:00. I'm starting to think that we may have to call and make arrangements, but without calling ahead I drive the truck over with my wife following in my sisters car. When we walk in, there's one guy in the back that I see already working on a car, who say's "I'll be right with you." "Sure", I think to myself. May as well have a seat and try to be patient. A few minutes later he comes out and I explain what's going on, and that I have this appointment at 4. He sits down at the computer and starts pecking away filling in all my info, and then flips on a TV in the waiting area and asks my wife what type of show she would like to watch while he checks out our truck. 20 minutes later he comes back in and says, "You were right about what you thought was wrong, it's the front U-joint on the rear drive shaft. I don't have one in stock but will have one here in an hour and your truck should be ready by noon." Well, I'm already in disbelief because he dropped what he was doing and looked at my truck to start with, but now this? Ready by noon!
We drive back to my sister and BIL's house and at 11:50 we get the call that the truck is ready to be picked up. We go back and pick it up and thank Peggy (the guys wife that's runs the office who's now in) profusely for being so responsive to our needs and head back to have lunch before we think about going to our appointment. Around 2:30, we leave and head out, and almost immediately, we both smell a "burnt rubber" odor. My wife says, "You smell that?" I say, "Yup". She says, "Do you think that's something from the work they just did?" I say, "I don't think so." Just by coincidence, our route is taking us back by Carr's, so I pull in and pop the hood. The serpentine belt that is supposed to be nice and smooth on top and ribbed on the bottom, is just the opposite and there's a nice peppering of rubber all over the underside of my hood. As I survey the situation I notice that the idler pulley that they make from plastic is no longer present...thus the funny looking belt. What next I think. I take pretty good care of my stuff, why all the issues at once. Murphy's Law!
Well, I'm thinking that we are screwed for sure now, and as I walk into Carr's I see several guys including Mike (the owner who took care of us earlier) sitting around the break table having lunch....now I know there's going to be a wait. Peggy is at the computer and looks up and says, "Oh, you loved us so much you came back already?" I forced a chuckle, and explained my new issue. Mike was out of the chair and out the door before I could finish what I was saying. He came back in talking to somebody on his bluetooth. "Have a seat", he said. I got the parts on the way, I'll start taking the old stuff off." Carol and I look at each other in utter disbelief. We have to be dreaming, this can't be true.
45 minutes later, most of which was eaten up by the parts delivery, we were on the road to our appointment. I called ahead and informed them that we were running late and why. "No problem" they said. So the story ends with us making our appointment, pulling a new trailer home, and wondering why you just don't find places like Carr's more often now days. If you are ever traveling in Michigan near Howell and need some auto service, you now know the place to go. Kudo's to Mike and Peggy and the staff at Carrr's Finishing Touch! You da best hands down!
http://www.carrsfinishingtouch.com/
