Stuck overnight heading to NYC for Basketball Coverage

On Friday evening  Oct.11, I drove  from Lawrence, MA to Corona Queens, NY, to stay at my relative’s  house to cover the Knights basketball game on Saturday at noon in Long Island against Suffolk and on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Essex County.

There is a twist on this story, let me explain all of you what happened. I was driving perfectly fine, my car was working good, we passed Massachusetts.  I left from my house at around five pm since I had to wait until my dad came home. It was not just me, it was my parents, my grandma and my brother came with me to NY. 

Alright so we left around five and they were traffic like crazy on Friday evening, accident left and right it was brutal. Anyways fast forward  they was a weird smell that it didn’t  smell to good the smell was like Gasol. My mom open the window of my car because she thought it was my car but my dad said no because two trucks on the left lane was passing by so we thought it was the truck.

Everything was fine all of a sudden out of nowhere the car stop in the middle of the highway. I put the both blinkers on I turned off my car, then I turned back on after two minutes. My mom was panicking in the back seat my brother didn’t know what was going on since he was sleeping and my dad and my grandma was trying to calm down my mom.

I was starting to getting frustrated a little so we took the nearest exit and it was Rocky Hill, Connecticut, it was an hour and thirty minutes from where I was staying at in New York.

I took the nearest exit which I had what I need to do then the car started shooting off by it self every two minutes then the car stopped completely.

Rocky Hill cops ask what was happening when were stopped on the side of the street next to a Mobil gas station that it was no longer in service. I told the cop, I explained to him the situation that was happen to me. I told him I need someone to boast up my car that my car doesn’t want to run. He said he was coming right back. Meanwhile I ask someone to boast up my car that I have the cable so a person was trying to help me out  keep on mind this was around 9:35 p.m. Friday night where I got stuck. I tried to ask someone for booster to boast up my car that it didn’t work the same cop came right back. We then figure it out the air compressor it doesn’t work.

Mechanic try's to fixed my car on Saturday morning at Rocky Hill, Connetict.
Mechanic try’s to fixed my car on Saturday morning at Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Photo by Editor-in-Chief / Sports Editor Jose Rodriguez

No mechanic  was working since it was already late at night it was getting closer to 10 p.m. So the cop and the other person was pushing my car until I parked in the mobile gas station that doesn’t work anymore.   We had three different options: number one stayed overnight in a near by hotel or number two to try to sleep in the car until next morning the mechanic was open or number three so my car will be towed an hour and thirty minutes away were my relative house in NY.  I called different companies and see the price range they gave me was in between $600 to $850 range — no way. So my parents, my grandma, my brother and my self we slept over night in my car until the next morning. Forget about sleeping, I barley got enough sleep on top of that it was raining as well.

The next morning came we saw online a mechanic  open at 6 in the morning so we order an uber 2.4 miles where my car is. I went with my dad, my mom stayed in my car with my grandma and my brother.

So me and my dad went to the mechanic and when I got there it says open 8 to 4. So now I’m frustrated and upset because know is Saturday morning game starts at noon I’m usually in the arena an hour before tip off start to do interviews.  I’m thinking to myself for me to go to the game today there needs to be a miracle.

We called different mechanic   and stuff and one of the mechanic  recognized our voice and told us if we were the people that was heading to last night in  New York who got stuck and we said yeah we still here we slept overnight in the car, etc.

So he came to us and when he came to us he realized the belt of the car is no good it doesn’t work, it broke.

So I went to O’Reilly to get a new belt meanwhile the uber driver stayed with us the whole time and he was nice God bless him. He said he was going to stay until the car is fixed just in case if we need anything else.

We put the belt in my car and it was around 10 in the morning so I started to calculate on my head and I was like okay I might be there for the beginning off tip off if not early in the first period.

We put the belt and I saw the wheel is know turning and stuff like that so I said okay were making progress. Which it was a good sign.

Then I press the gas for a  minute or two and we realized the compressor of the air was no longer functioning smoke was coming out.  

So we left it there we put a sign coming back tomorrow with the mechanic meanwhile this is Saturday morning know.

I left my car in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. I got in New York because of traffic and everything almost 2:30 pm it was a disaster.

The next day while I was at the basketball game in New Jersey my dad and two mechanics from across the street  they buy the piece that were missing to go to Rocky Hill Connecticut and to fix up my car they got home almost at 7:15 p.m. and close to 8 p.m. we left back to Lawrence on Sunday night.