As an INTJ, one of my unavoidable traits is having a plan b, and for that matter, a plan c, d, e, f and g. There’s nothing I can do about it, whenever I’m planning something, my mind immediately forms back-up plans, just in case things don’t go according to plan. Now, in most cases, it’s things like, ‘what if my flight is delayed?’ or ‘what if it’s raining when I get to where I’m going?’ These plans may not be fully articulated or written down, but they are there, ready to spring into action when something goes wrong. I once had a conversation with one of my work colleagues and he asked me if I ever went into a situation without a back-up plan. The implication was that it was a negative reflection on me and that I should actively seek to formulate a plan based on input from others. I explained that no, that wasn’t possible for me, and even if I pretended that I didn’t, my brain automatically goes there. He clearly had no experience with the INTJ mind, because he insisted that I should ‘force’ myself not to have a plan b. I smiled and thanked him for his input, while thinking, that there was no way I would ever find myself without a back-up plan. Even if the situation were surprising, my mind automatically cycles through the possible responses and strategies to deal with the ‘unexpected.’
A month or two ago, my solo women’s hiking Facebook group announced a winter hiking clinic in the Poconos. Now, my hiking traditionally tends towards summer and autumn, so I thought it would be good to have an opportunity to get tips from someone more experienced than I at hiking in snow and cold. The fact it was within driving distance was also a plus, since it meant I wasn’t going to need to take time off work, or add in significant travel time or flights to the equation. I signed up to go and jotted a few notes about what I’d need to bring. I figured I’d make a weekend of it and stay in Wilkes Barre. Maybe there would be something going on, but at minimum, it would give me a bit more time to do some hiking in a very beautiful area of Pennsylvania.
As the day drew closer, I debated renting a car. In the past, if I was concerned about long distances or rough roads, I’d book myself a mini-SUV and let Ava spend her time comfortably at home. As it turned out, I had a planned hiking weekend a couple weeks before the clinic, and when stopping to pick up groceries midway to my lodging for the weekend, I spied a fast-charging station. That did it, no need to rent a car since the distance wouldn’t impact me and after living in Chicago, Ava is more than capable of dealing with cold and snow. So, the plan just needed to include an hour-long pit-stop on the way to Wilkes Barre at both ends of the weekend. That trip also taught me that I needed to invest in an insulated Camelbak so that I wouldn’t have to deal with frozen water tubes again. I quickly ordered one and consulted the winter hiking packing list I created during the lead-up to my mid-January trip.
As January progressed, my work picked up and somehow, an offsite meeting got scheduled the Monday and Tuesday after the clinic, including a prep session on Sunday afternoon. Oh well, it just meant I’d have to pack up and head home Sunday morning instead of doing some more hiking. No problem. The fact I was driving meant I didn’t have to factor in time for dropping off a rental car and getting home in time to leave for the work meeting. It’s all good, no need to change the plan. While the weekend would be shorter than the original plan, it was still possible to do the clinic and make my work event Sunday afternoon, as well as possibly finding something else to do there.
Naturally, having an offsite and other things picking up at work meant Friday was more busy than a normal Friday, where cutting out early isn’t an issue. I revised my plan to be – get to Wilkes Barre in time for dinner and carried on with my work. I finally finished my day, loaded Ava up and headed out. All systems go, traffic wasn’t bad and even though the weather was going to be unseasonably warm, I’d still get some good tips and tricks out of the time with an experienced guide. I wound my way towards Allentown, my pit-stop location and listened to one of my recent books as I located my destination. The fast chargers happened to be located conveniently near a grocery store, so I hooked Ava up and wandered over to stroll through the store. While it wasn’t frigid, it was a bit cold to just sit and wait for her to finish. I ambled over and wandered around, picking up a few things that while they weren’t entirely necessary, they would be good to have on hand for snacking or possibly having breakfast in the hotel instead of going out.
Ava finished in due course, and I prepared to set off. Still on time for dinner and looking forward to the next leg of the journey to Wilkes Barre. I pressed on the brake, hit the start button and. . . . Suddenly, a message sprang up, there’s an issue with the brakes, slow down and stop. This surprised me since I wasn’t even driving, much less needing to brake at this point. Next, a message came up, there’s an issue with the steering, pull over. Ok, now I was beginning to wonder what Ava was smoking. Then, the red warning of death, there’s something wrong with the drivetrain and the car will not start. These kinds of messages had never happened before. While I have had the ominous ! symbol in the past, and even the check-engine light, these warnings were new to me. I pressed the button to turn her off, forgetting that she wasn’t actually on and waited several minutes. Surely, she was fine and I could just reset, and carry on with my journey. I tried again, and no dice. She cycled through the warnings and resolutely stayed off.
Ok, so she’s not going to start. Let’s think this through. First step, find out if there’s a BMW anywhere near here and what time they close. Thankfully, there was one 3 miles away, but unfortunately, they were closing in 15 minutes. I tried to call, and of course there was no answer. I left a rambling message, my car isn’t starting, I’m at a ChargePoint and I don’t know what to do, please call me. . . I highly doubted anyone would check messages before they left, much less actually call me back once they were on their way home. So, I pulled up the BMW app. The sun had set, and it was getting colder, and I wasn’t going anywhere. I tried to get the climate system to turn on, a nice feature that lets you warm up the interior or cool it down from the app, before going to the car. The app sent back a warning, we don’t know what’s happening with your car, but you’re out of luck (not in those words exactly, but close enough). I thought about checking whether Ava was communicating with anyone and went to press the ‘lock the doors’ button, but reconsidered. What if it worked, but then I couldn’t unlock the car. Deciding that it was best not to test her too much, I turned back to considering my options.
I calmly pressed the ’call for help’ button on the app, and the nice BMW person who answered told me my car was past the roadside assistance benefit, she couldn’t actually connect to her remotely, and suggested I try my auto-insurance company for towing recommendations. She said I’d need to have Ava taken to the nearest dealership and they could maybe, possibly help me. Deep breaths. Now, I knew I wasn’t going to make it to Wilkes Barre that night, so I called the hotel. The woman apologized and said that since I’d already checked in, they couldn’t refund me the room. Mentally thanking my frequent travels, I asked whether the fact I have platinum status would make a difference. I smiled as she hesitated and said she’d check. Sure enough, they would gladly refund me, though it would take a few days. I thanked her and went back to the hotel app to check if there was anything near me. Having booked a room, I returned to the issue at hand. As expected, the insurance company wasn’t all that helpful. They sent me a list of towing companies in the area, which I could have found by Googling it myself. I called one, and no answer. Leaving a message, I hung up and dug through the trunk, pulling out my Chicago parka that I had packed for just in case it was cold (plan b for the weather forecast of 40F being wrong). I waited 15 minutes, and thought that was surely long enough to be persistent but not unreasonably nagging. This time, the call went through. Yes, they could tow me, and yes, it was fine for them to just drop her and the key even though the dealership was closed. They couldn’t take me in the truck, but I assured them I was fine with an Uber, I just needed someone to come. They gave me the price, which I figured was irrelevant. At this stage in the evening, when it was dark and cold, and I wasn’t interested in calling multiple companies for getting quotes, it would have taken a lot to make me say ‘no’. The price fell within my reasonableness parameter (not that I had any prior experience with towing a car, but it seemed to make sense), so I agreed and snuggled into my parka for the wait. I took the final step in cancelling my plans, and sent a message to the hiking group to let them know that I wouldn’t be there. Even if I ended up renting a car, I had no desire to drive another hour to hike when I didn’t know what would happen on Saturday.
Almost an hour later, the truck showed up. It was difficult to be annoyed with the wait, when the driver was so kind and reassuring about taking her over and ensuring that they knew how to reach me on Saturday. Booking an Uber, I unloaded the essentials and watched as he loaded poor Ava onto the truck and headed away with her. The Uber dropped me at a lower end Marriott and I headed in for the night. The clerk pointed out their on-site restaurant, complete with Friday karaoke, and I seriously considered whether I’d want to Uber elsewhere. Given the lateness of the hour, I dumped my things in the room and wandered back to the restaurant. Passing the fitness center on the way, I smiled. At least I had thrown in my gym kit for the possibility of working out at my original hotel gym.
Dinner and the Karaoke were as expected, not great. The entrée I selected seemed like it was a frozen meal heated up to a very hot temperature in the microwave and dumped on the plate. I seriously considered ordering alcohol, but the thought crossed my mind that if the food wasn’t great, the wine probably wasn’t either. And, I only have a handful more days of dry January, so why not see if they had non-alcohol beer. The waitress proudly said they had Heineken’s version, and while I don’t drink their regular beer, I thought it sounded better than just sparkling water. She explained that she had never served this before, but tonight there were two orders. I smiled, maybe someone else was doing dry January. This one turned out to be a ‘don’t order again’ NA beer, though I had no way of knowing whether it tasted like the ‘real’ beer since I’ve never actually drank Heineken’s before. In any event, I shoveled the meal in, finished the beer and headed upstairs to my rom.
Saturday morning, I woke before the dealership opened, so made my way to the gym to do a hike on a treadmill. It wasn’t what I’d planned by any means, but at least I got a workout in before a potentially frustrating day. I waited a bit after they opened to call, and once again got the answering machine. This time, I left a more coherent message and asked for a call back. It was a good thing I didn’t hold my breath, since I didn’t hear from them for almost an hour. I was considering just renting a car and driving over, but the sole service person called to say that their i3 certified mechanic didn’t work weekends. Fortunately for him, this isn’t my first time with needing service, and I knew that was often the case. BMW doesn’t make enough of these cars for dealerships to train more than one mechanic on them. Now it was confirmed that Ava wasn’t going home anytime soon, I booked a rental car and carried on packing up. While the night before had shown the restaurant wasn’t great, I headed down for some real food.
I shook my head as I went to book a rental car. How long would I need it? Well, given the offsite meeting and my UK boss being in town through Thursday, there was no way I could go back up much before Friday. So, I entered in Friday and reluctantly made my way over to pick up an ICE car for the week. Dealing with gas and making sure I filled up appropriately is usually a vacation time activity, it’s not my normal workweek practice. Now, I’d have to watch the prices, to see which station had the best rates, in addition to the gas tank level indicator. Such a pain. I stopped by the BMW on my way, grabbing the rest of my gear – just in case she’s here a while and I want to go hiking; the garage door opener so that if it snows, I can park the rental in my garage and headed out. So many back-up plans!
Driving home, what was I thinking about? Well, of course, it’s ‘what if Ava died?’ I don’t want to buy a new car just now, especially since BMW discontinued these cars. However, having a back-up plan should the repair costs be unreasonable, or she can’t be revived is necessary. While I’m hoping for the best, I know better than to assume everything is going to be ok. I’ll put up with gas-powered cars this week, but then it’s back to my PHEV – whether it’s Ava or a new baby. And, in the next few days, I will resist mightily going car shopping. I will wait until I hear from the mechanic – that’s my mantra. Do not Google BMW i3’s near me. . . don’t do it!
