It is not every day that I go to work and end up in the back of a police cruiser.
It went down like this. On Friday a bunch of us fine folks from the office went on an offsite for team building and merriment making. Our mission was to go to Cinebarre in Charlotte to enjoy the cinema.
If you have never been, Cinebarre is a movie theatre that has table service. They have a full bar and pub food that they bring to you in your seat while you watch a movie. It is a pretty dang awesome way to watch a movie.
The start of the journey went off without a hitch. We all piled into the 14 passenger bus that we use as a shuttle between our two office buildings at work and headed south towards the big city. We got to Charlotte (a 90 minute drive) on time, drank free beer, ate free chicken wings (and free popcorn, natch), and watched a free movie (Identity Thief, if you must know), during standard work hours. I even found a geocache in the parking lot. So far so good.
The trouble started when we started on our return journey. We had developed a coolant leak along the way in, so we stopped to fill up just a a few miles from the theatre. Then we hit the highway. A few minutes after that the radiator melted. Coolant sprayed everywhere. There was much concern, drama, and email sending as we took stock of the situation.
We took the next exit off the highway, pulled over on the side of a random road, and bailed from the rather steamy van.
There we stood. Stranded 80 minutes from home, on the side of a road, with no way to get home. Naturally we made the most of it. We had a merry old time (aka merriment mission accomplished) discussing our predicament, talking about the movie, and making hobo signs.
A few minutes later an Officer Of The Law pulled in behind the van and offered assistance.
We weighed our various options, and concluded that the best thing was to go rent a couple mini vans from the local mini van rental establishment (in our case, Hertz). So two of us piled into the police cruiser (I got in the back), and we headed off to fetch the rescue vehicles.20 minutes later we returned, piled everyone into the rescue vans, and drove everyone home. I walked through my front door only an hour later than I normally do.
Not the most awesome story, I will admit, but it allowed me to use the opening line, so I consider this blog worthy.
I'll leave you with some more pics, starting with our fearless site manager checking out the smoke machine that was our shuttle bus:
Well, there's your problem!
The rescue vehicles.
