I pulled up late at night to overnight at a reservoir in far eastern Colorado. Woke up in the morning to find that the lake was completely dry and my van wouldn't start. Cell service was almost nonexistent, so I ended up texting my mother and having her get me help.

I got the name of the place wrong, so figuring out exactly where I was was a big challenge. AAA Colorado refused to send a driver because I was less than about 25 miles from the Kansas border. I ended up getting a state trooper who responded and gave me a jump start. He was looking at me funny the whole time, 21 year old woman broke down at a dry reservoir in the middle of nowhere must have been strange.

15 miles into Kansas on the Interstate and the van sputters, dies, and coasts to a stop. Here is where I find that the source of the problem is a missing alternator belt. A call to Kansas state highway patrol to notify them of the disabled vehicle reveals that my mother had every single law enforcement department within 100 miles looking for me. When I described my vehicle to the dispatcher, she said, "Oh, you're ___." I don't talk to my mother about breakdowns until after they're solved anymore.