Stories

I travel a lot on business. The company I work for has many different branches throughout the US. Although I would rather not mention the company or my title, I will say that I am pretty far up the corporate ladder. With my job comes the dreaded travel from one branch to the next. Sometimes I am able to drive, but other times I have to fly. I never pay much attention to my vehicle. I get the general maintenance done at a nearby garage, but I’m not much of a handyman myself. I can pretty much fill the gas tank and turn the thing on. Any more than that and I’m in way over my head. When I travel by car for work I will generally have the car looked at if I haven’t had it in the shop in awhile. When I fly I park my car at the airport; that way I know I have a ride home regardless of the time my flight lands. I don't care to use taxi cabs or busses because I'm normally on some confrence call.

One particular trip I recently took was the kind that couldn’t end soon enough. I had to fly to an emergency meeting on a Saturday for important upcoming events. I pretty much received the phone call and jumped in the car to head for the airport. I was happy the company allotted me enough time between the phone call and my flight to pack. I caught my flight, headed to the office, and sat through endless meeting upon meeting about company nonsense. I was so happy when it were finally over and I could sneak off to my hotel room for the night.

The next day I flew back home for some much needed R&R before the work week started again. I got to my car in the parking lot, and to top off a “wonderful” weekend, my tire was flat. I called Triple A only to find out that I would have a 2-3 hour wait before anyone could come to help me. Fortunately for me another person from my flight was parked two cars down from me. I would imagine he heard my ranting and offered helped. I explained what was going on and he said he had a quick fix. He ran to his car and brought back this hand held contraption. To my amazement, the contraption he was holding was a 12Volt portable air compressor. He inflated my tire, gave me a friendly hand shake, and I was on my way.

Absolutely amazed, and eternally grateful, I drove home and looked up the machine he used. I had purchased a cell phone charger from 12volt travel before and I remembered that they had a lot of 12Volt devices. I logged on, and sure enough, there was the air compressor. I went one step further and purchased the portable emergency jumpstart system with built-in portable air compressor. I try to pay better attention to my vehicle now, but my job can be fast paced. I feel better knowing I have something with me; just in case. Plus, even with my limited mechanical ability, I am able to operate this machine with ease. It has a battery built-into it and recharges from the lighter socket or the house power outlets. I've heard those called 110volt and 120volt, I'm not sure. Either way; I make sure to recharge it once every two months and just keep it in the trunk.

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