CARS! Don't you just love them?

I'm not a car fanatic and I don't know much about what makes them tick (apart from petrol, oil, water and air), but I do know when something doesn't sound right and it would be unwise to continue. That was my situation this afternoon whilst midway between the Recycling Centre on the other side of town (where I had been collecting empty flower pots) and a garden centre a few klms away (where I wanted to buy more pea straw). Loud, rotating, scraping sounds from the vicinity of a rear wheel are not the usual sounds that I like to travel with. After my first thought of "Oh blast, is that the transmission up the creek, or what?" I discovered a lot of positives about my situation in the next hour or so.

1. The side lane on this busy road (Hindmarsh Drive) was wide enough for me to pull off the road.
2. I had charged my phone and actually had it with me.
3. The NRMA operator said someone would be there within the hour (they came in less than half).
4. The mechanic could actually HEAR the noise when I moved the car.
5. There was a very wide flat area of ground only about 100metres down the road where I could pull right off the road and mechanic had room to work.
6. After removing the wheel the mechanic could actually see the problem ( a pin had come out of the handbrake and it was moving on the wheel hub - or something to that effect).
7. He arranged for a tow truck to take the car to the dealer where we usually get it serviced (although I'm not exactly happy with their service as I've been telling them for 2 years that something was not 'quite right' in that area but they could never identify it. Today's episode was obviously the result of an untreated problem of many months.)
8. The tow truck arrived in about 15 minutes, and I got to ride in the truck, too.
9. Richard was able to meet me at the dealers with the other car.
10. Now they HAVE to fix it because I can't drive it away until they do.
11. And luckiest of all, it was a beautifully fine sunny day, whereas 24 hours earlier it was absolutely bucketing with rain.

So, taken all round, about the only negative was that I didn't get the pea straw. But gosh, there's always another day.