YES THEY DO!
On a beautiful sunny afternoon, i drove home from work. I worked at a dairy about 45 minutes from where we were building our own dairy and because i wanted some experience i worked there with the cows as a herdsman (well, herds woman in my case)...
As i said the weather was beautiful, i had my window rolled down because my fancy smansy car didn't have air conditioning and i was puffing (yes, as in smoking) along and enjoying every single bit of the American landscape and my Dutch techno music.
All of a sudden i see this smoke stuff coming out from between my two front seats.... "Hmmm, that is not like it supposed to be..."
Ok, so here we have to do a little track back into the past to understand this whole thing a little bit better.
The car wasn't in it's best shape anymore. Me and my sweet aunt Wendy bought it 4 years before for a good price (as in cheap). It was a decent car and i only needed it for whenever me or my brother would be in the United States, so we could drive around and go and see things or work at places without being depended on somebody all the time. If we were not here, the car would be parked at my aunt's house. When in 2006 we finally moved to the United States, this car was running non stop, and really maybe that was a little to much for it.
Anyway, my sweet friend Johan came over to bring us a little visit, he had been in Wisconsin to study and had some time left and he didn't mind looking at my car. The last couple of weeks i had trouble starting the thing and i thought if Johan looks at it and maybe fixes it up a bit, we can run it another 4 years until i get my BMW!
Johan did "look" at it, he also "fixed" it. By building a little switch in between the two front seats. It was a little choke, so if i started my car it would get a little extra gas so instead of dying on me every time it would start up good. In theory this was a fine solution...
Now we go back to that sunny afternoon about a mile and a half from home.
I see all this smoke and i think, "This is not good!" I toss my cigarette out of the window (Yes, very bad behavior i know but i was in little bit of a pickle here), turn the music down and STARE at the smoke! "This is not good at all!" I stop the car grab my bag, my car papers, my drivers licence (Dutch drivers license....) And throw everything outside!
Of course we live in RURAL Indiana so there are not so many houses and while I'm standing besides my car i call our crop farmer. "Hi, euhhmm, i think my car is on fire...". "Oh, what does it do?" "Well there is smoke coming out." "You sure it is on fire???" "Well, yes I'm pretty sure...." Our crop farmer did not really believe me. He kept telling me that it was just overheating and that i should stay calm. I was besides the point of staying calm so i pretty much yelled at him (so much for being nice to somebody who is supposedly coming to save you) to come get me AND bring a fire extinguisher!
Because i needed to do something, i run over to the "closest" house to see if they had any water, and maybe a bucket so i could dump some of that water in my car. And in the meantime i was speed dialing my mom, dad and brother and of course NOBODY would answer the phone (happens all the time when your really, really need somebody quick)! What i didn't know was that they were busy in the yard and didn't hear the phone...
So i called the crop farmers mother instead. She said she was watching the grand kids but would come over with a fire extinguisher and see if she could help...
I RUN back to my car WITHOUT any water. Of course my luck to find a house with NO WATER OR A BUCKET what so ever on the outside of the house.... Actually maybe it did have a hydrant or such but i was just to much in 'panic mode' to see, let alone find it! When i got back to my car, the car was filled with black smoke. You could not see true one window and out the other one. The black smoke was everywhere.
The crop farmer arrives, jumps out of his car and yells at me (while laughing!) "JEHZZZ Leo, your car REALLY is on fire!?!" "Yep, i told you so....."
And no, the little itty bitty fire extinguisher that he brought didn't do the trick, nor did the little bigger fire extinguisher that his mom brought. She also brought the kids, who thought this was AWESOME and she flagged down my mom, brother and dad from the garden and took them too.
We called 911...
The police, the fire department, the sheriff and the ambulance came out. But we just let it burn, because by the time they arrived all four tires had popped, and there was just not much left anymore of my decent ugly brown car.
A week later my sweet friend John got me his red cabriolet for me to use while i was looking for a new car. It was a spunky little car and i had lot's of fun driving it! What was even more fun was that not much later i spotted my little red BMW. I had told everybody, first the cows and then the car, but well.... Let's just say there was a change of plans!
We never found out if it was the little choke thingy that did it, but something went wrong...
For Sure...
I did take pictures with my old Dutch phone, but i can't get them onto a computer. They really are 'awesome' pics though! And next time i ever have to call our crop farmer and tell him my car is on fire, i really think he's gonna bring the biggest fire extinguisher he's got...
...
