Support Crew

Oh what a day! At 6:30am Fred knocked on my door, sharply awakening my slumbering bliss. "um...so we have a bit of a situation...Is there any way that you could do a bit of driving for my multisport thingy today?" I'm pretty sure I was still sleeping when I said something along the lines of, "huh? uh okay...*wipe the crust from my eyes*..sure. whatever you need." So I jump out of bed, shovel in some toast, and hop in the passenger side of Fred's car.

So Fred apparantely is part of this gang of hard core dudes who find it fun to plan multisport adventure treks on the weekend. These things consist of kayaking, mountain biking, running, kayaking again, maybe another bike again, etc...they are not official races or anything, just "fun". These races necesitate a "support crew" that drives to each transition point with the appropriate gear and snacks for the next leg. Well, today I needed to be part of this crew which consisted of me and the 2 wives (Claire, a Scottish woman who ended up saying "blimey" a lot during the day, and Sally, an Australian lady who had just about had enough of the support crew business) of the other dudes. The deal was, I needed to drive Fred's car and I would just follow the other 2 ladies around from point to point. There were 3 kayaks and not all of them plus gear would fit on their car, so I got to drive with 2 HUGE kayaks on the roof. cool. oh wait, definitely not cool! Fred's car, like every other car in Australia, has its steering wheel on the right. Did I also mention that they drive on the left side of the road here? Did I also mention that his car has a manual transmission?? Oh yeah, and I should forget to tell you that most of the driving involved dodging a bloody CYCLING RACE in the middle of a winding national park road??! Well I actually got through that part just fine. I put on the Alaskan woman tough exterior and made it up until a lovely lunch in a charming little cafe with the other ladies.

We then set out on what we all thought was the correct direction towards the next transition point. I began to get a little nervous when the area quickly became urbanized...then we were on a freeway....then i started seeing signs "Sydney Olympic Stadium 3k", "Sydney Olympic Stadium 1k"...And then there was a bunch of traffic and I was stuck in the middle lane, desperately trying to stay right behind the ladies as cars randomly darted in front of me with reckless abandon. fuck. At least the horn worked on the vehicle, because the air conditioning most certaintly did not. The temperature kept on getting warmer (because we were headed west, towards the outback, as I later learned), but i'm honestly not sure if I was sweating on account of the weather or stress. probably both. anyways, it became apparent that we were going the wrong way, so we all pulled a u-turn. Pulling a U turn is not easy with large kayaks on your car. Then I heard a rumble and grumble from beneath my feet. The engine started sputtering. the car stalled. The ladies kept on driving in front of me, turning right into the distance, while I calmly reassured myself that it was just the clutch, I just needed to take a breath and start the car again. So I did just that, but something didn't feel right. I decided to turn left down the quiet street instead of trying to turn right onto the freeway. I managed to get the car a few meters to the side of the quiet road when it completely died. Thank God I didn't turn right.

So here I was, no cell phone, no way to get ahold of ANYONE, in the middle of flippin ghetto western Sydney and the weather was approaching 90 degrees. I did the only thing I knew to do. I prayed. Prayed for a cute Aussie automechanic to randomly cruise by on his day off, prayed for the girls to return to my exact spot, prayed for a cold beer, anything but THIS. Prayers were answered when the girls came back, rushing to my aid. Surprisingly I wasn't even crying (think i was too dehydrated for tears to form). Claire, the car-savvy Scottswoman, took a look at my engine temperature gauge. All the way past "H", We popped the hood and cautiously unscrewed the cap for engine coolant. yup. Tank was so dry it was brown and crusty. I had been driving for god knows how long with little to no engine coolant. It was by the grace of God the thing didn't blow up on the Freeway!

So...to end the saga, we ended up leaving the car and the boys eventually came back and diagnosed the problem. Large hole in the radiator, which apparently started off as a small hole weeks ago, according to Fred. It's amazing how people can pull together in a stressful situation like the girls and I did. If it weren't for the "support crew drama" I wouldn't have found out the Claire was a Christian and goes to Hillsong---so now I have a church date for their Thursday morning women's service.

God is good....but sometimes in the most random ways! Ocean water has never felt as refreshing as it did that evening during my swim. And the Holly lives on!