Sunday began with waking up at a friends house in Tahoe because we had been snowed in there the night before. 8 people from my house went to a dinner party at 7 pm, and when we tried to leave (in a 4WD Jeep Grand Cherokee) at 10:30 pm, the snow in the driveway way too deep for us to get out. It ended up being a really fun slumber party, obvs, but I just wanted to paint the picture.
Apparently, one of the drunk people at the friend's house with me on Saturday night had called one of the people still at our house to come "rescue" us that night on our house's brand new snowmobile. Well, the snowmobile was blocked in by my rental car (I needed 4WD and it was all they had. Don't judge)...an H3 Hummer (yes, ridiculous)...so a few people with no discernible decision-making skills decided to move my car to unblock the snowmobile (without telling me, obvs). They got the H3 out of the driveway so easily that they decided to come "rescue" us in that car instead of on the snowmobile, but after traveling about 100 yards to the end of our street, the 4WD on the Hummer seemed to crap out, and it got stuck. In the middle of the night in the middle of the road in a blizzard. The two guys driving it spent 2 hours pushing it into the entrance of a school so that it was out of the way for the night (they also called me 8 times, but I was asleep). That is where it slept.
Once we finally escaped out friend's house the next morning (3 ft of snow to dig out of and we had to wait for the plows), we came home to the Hummer looking like it does in picture 1. At this point, I really don't think there's much to worry about, hence the smile in the pic. I mean, it's a Hummer, of course it can handle the snow, right? Wrong. We dig and push and curse for about 2 hours to get that car out of there...the whole time the 4WD won't engage. Basically, the front wheels just wouldn't spin. When we finally got the car out, we thought that the 4WD was just messed up because we had been pushing buttons and messing with it and stuff all night/morning, so the car just needed a little drive to reset and right itself. My friend Aaron was driving, and I was in the passenger's seat. We get about 2 miles from our house and the car seems to be doing ok. We turn around to head back home, and about 3 minutes after doing this - BOOM! My side of the car DROPS to the ground as if we'd had a blowout or the wheel had fallen off. The entire car immediately locks up, and Aaron can't drive or steer it. We screech to a halt in the middle of the main road (2 lanes...and 6 feet of snow piled to either side of the road) running along the lake. I immediately get out of the car to see what has happened. Turns out that the FRONT AXLE HAS BROKEN OFF THE FRONT RIGHT WHEEL OF THE CAR...ON A H3...RENTAL CAR...IN TAHOE.
Apparently, one of the drunk people at the friend's house with me on Saturday night had called one of the people still at our house to come "rescue" us that night on our house's brand new snowmobile. Well, the snowmobile was blocked in by my rental car (I needed 4WD and it was all they had. Don't judge)...an H3 Hummer (yes, ridiculous)...so a few people with no discernible decision-making skills decided to move my car to unblock the snowmobile (without telling me, obvs). They got the H3 out of the driveway so easily that they decided to come "rescue" us in that car instead of on the snowmobile, but after traveling about 100 yards to the end of our street, the 4WD on the Hummer seemed to crap out, and it got stuck. In the middle of the night in the middle of the road in a blizzard. The two guys driving it spent 2 hours pushing it into the entrance of a school so that it was out of the way for the night (they also called me 8 times, but I was asleep). That is where it slept.
Once we finally escaped out friend's house the next morning (3 ft of snow to dig out of and we had to wait for the plows), we came home to the Hummer looking like it does in picture 1. At this point, I really don't think there's much to worry about, hence the smile in the pic. I mean, it's a Hummer, of course it can handle the snow, right? Wrong. We dig and push and curse for about 2 hours to get that car out of there...the whole time the 4WD won't engage. Basically, the front wheels just wouldn't spin. When we finally got the car out, we thought that the 4WD was just messed up because we had been pushing buttons and messing with it and stuff all night/morning, so the car just needed a little drive to reset and right itself. My friend Aaron was driving, and I was in the passenger's seat. We get about 2 miles from our house and the car seems to be doing ok. We turn around to head back home, and about 3 minutes after doing this - BOOM! My side of the car DROPS to the ground as if we'd had a blowout or the wheel had fallen off. The entire car immediately locks up, and Aaron can't drive or steer it. We screech to a halt in the middle of the main road (2 lanes...and 6 feet of snow piled to either side of the road) running along the lake. I immediately get out of the car to see what has happened. Turns out that the FRONT AXLE HAS BROKEN OFF THE FRONT RIGHT WHEEL OF THE CAR...ON A H3...RENTAL CAR...IN TAHOE.
To add insult to injury, neither of us has a cell phone. Aaron gets in the car with some nice strangers to head back to our house to get help, and I sit in the car thinking "What the crap?" After a few minutes I realize the car has OnStar, so I call it. 7 minutes of waiting later, I am connected to the least helpful emergency responder in the history of life. She and I spend another hour on the phone trying to work out a) what happened to the car, b) what to do with the car, c) how I'm supposed to get anywhere, and d) when/where I can get another rental. In the meantime, the fat snowplow man has put flares all around the vehicle, traffic is backing up in both directions (it's down to 1 lane), and all of my friends have passed Aaron and I to go ski the 3 ft of powder (what else could they do after checking to see that we were ok?). After 30 more minutes of waiting for the tow truck, the Hertz lady calls back to say that a tow truck isn't coming because the weather was so bad the night before. We are to abandon the H3 (unlocked) on the side of the road. They will tow it when they can. So this is what we do. We go home. Aaron goes to ski, and I find a ride back to SF. Except for 30 minutes into this ride, we hear that there's been an avalanche and the only highway back to SF is closed...again...for the 2nd or 3rd time that day. So I go back to my house (having missed the Superbowl) and change my Hertz reservation again, deciding that the-powers-that-be don't want me back in SF for Monday, and I stay in Tahoe and snowboard on Monday (the silver lining of this situation). Thankfully, it was awesome.
I go to work on Tuesday thinking I'm going to get fired, but somehow no one is any the wiser and they don't ask me any questions about Monday. Then Thursday rolls around, and I finally got a call at work from Bruce at Hertz.
Bruce: Is there a Melissa Maffett available?
Dale: Yes, this is she.
Bruce: Hi, Miss Maffett, this is Bruce from Hertz rental car. I'm so sorry to bother you, but you recently had a Hummer, correct? And the axle...(pause)...broke?
Dale: (laughing sarcastically) Yes
Bruce: Um, Miss Maffett, you wouldn't by chance know where that Hummer is now, would you?
Dale: You mean Hertz doesn't know where the vehicle is?
Bruce: No, not at the moment...
And the conversation continues with me explaining how we abandoned the car (unlocked) on the side of the road, and I have no idea where it is. Bruce then tells me me that it's ok and that they'll find it...and that this happens all the time. What?!?!
I got a call this morning that the car has been found and was in Reno (obvs). Hallelujah! Thus ends the story of the broken axle.
Pic 1 - Still smiling
Pic 2 - Things don't look SO bad.
Pic 3 - On second thought...
Pic 4 - Is that the axle sitting on the ground next to the tire? Yes! It is!
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