Night train (sadly sober)
This is a 13-second exposure taken on a dark night looking over the Algodones Dunes east of El Centro. It is of a freight train heading east from Los Angeles, and of several airplanes heading towards Los Angeles. I could not see the sand or any of the foreground detail, or for that matter even the airplanes, as it was a very dark night, there were no lights, and the airplanes were very far away. That information was brought out by the camera.
I had not planned to make this image. In fact, we—my photo friend Catie and I—had planned to be well on our way home by this time. The idea was to drive out to the dunes in the mid-afternoon, get some photos as the sun got lower in the sky, then head home right after sunset. But halfway down the driveway from the scenic overlook parking lot to the highway, the Tesla notified me that my tire pressure was “dangerously low.” I checked with my tire gauge, and sure enough, my right rear was at about half pressure.
Teslas have no spare tires. That meant that for me to move from where I was, I would need either to be towed or to have someone replace the tire on the spot.
A Tesla-owning friend of mine reported that when he had had a flat on a road trip, Tesla service had come right out and swapped out his wheel and tire for another wheel and tire. They had sent him on his way, then shipped his wheel and tire back to San Diego for him to swap back onto his car when he got home.
That sounded good to me. I got out my phone. I didn’t have much reception, but after a few false starts, I got the Tesla app up. I dug through the menu items to the service request, and with various clicks reported that I had a flat tire and needed service. The app cheerily told me that my request would be reviewed by the next available agent.
We then sat in the car for around half an hour, waiting. The sun was now truly down. When it was really dark, I got a text. It was the promised agent. He wanted to know if my wheels were Tesla issued (they were) and whether the tire was Tesla issued (it wasn’t, though it was the same make and model the car came with, just newer). This involved a fair amount of clumsy thumb typing on my iPhone SE (think tiny screen), because for some reason, the dictation function doesn’t work when the phone is paired to the car, which it has to be, because it serves as the car’s key.
The agent texted that he could offer me a tow to a tire store of my choice up to 50 miles away, or to a Tesla service center, which would be over 50 miles away. He advised me that I would have to choose the tire store carefully, as it would have to be one that could work on Teslas, and they would only tow me to one store. By this time, all tire stores were closed.
Not a word about coming out with a replacement wheel.
I opted for the Tesla service center option.
We sat in the car for another half hour or so, watching trucks roar by on the highway. At one point, the agent texted me, advising he was on hold with a towing service.
Eventually, he texted me that he had found a service; that the tow would be from the Algodones Dunes to Cathedral City, a distance of 104 miles, in a direction away from San Diego, with a charge to me of $540. Oh, and the driver would arrive at my location in about four hours. And of course, it would then be up to me to find a place (two rooms) to stay. At 3:00 in the morning.
I decided to check my alternatives. First up, my AAA plan. I got out my membership card and called the number. Naturally, I got an automated menu. That’s when I discovered that the number pad of a Tesla-paired phone doesn’t work. Nor does speaking into the phone. Nor does swearing at it. The AAA bot eventually hung up on me.
It was getting close to 8:00. We decided to use Catie’s phone, as it was not paired to the car. Success! Sort of. She could communicate with the bot by pressing numbers, but couldn’t make the bot understand what we needed. After several calls, though, we figured out how to get to a person. We explained the problem, provided my AAA membership number, and were told that AAA would contact a driver. There followed a number of questions indicating a lack of understanding of exactly where we were, despite our naming the intersection, and despite the overlook being clearly marked on the maps.
We got that cleared up. We then got a call from the tow truck driver, saying that he had noticed I just had a regular AAA membership, which was good for a 7-mile tow, and El Centro was 27 miles away, which would cost an extra $200. At that point, Catie remembered that she had brought her AAA card, and had a “Plus” membership, which is good for a 100-mile tow. We told the driver. He told us to call AAA back.
We did. Except that the previous trick for getting to an actual person didn’t work. And the phone menu has nothing about changing your order from one from a normal account to one from a “Plus” account.
Until we tried a few more times, and the magic happened again. We got a person. We made the switch. We were in business.
We looked out at the darkness awhile longer. Then the driver called. He said he needed the “order number.” We would need to call AAA and get it for him. He didn’t say why he couldn’t get it from his dispatcher himself. We called. Automatic phone tree. We called again. Eventually we got a person again. We got two order numbers. We called the driver back with the numbers. He seemed satisfied.
We looked at the darkness. And waited. Eventually, Catie got the idea that as long as we were out there with cameras, we might have a look at the night sky. We got out of the car, and indeed, the sky was blazing with stars. We took a few photos, including of the distantly rumbling freight train.
And, miracle of miracles, the driver arrived. He had a question, though: why were we using a regular AAA account? He thought we had said we had a “Plus” account.
Back on the phone with AAA. First call: phone tree. Second call: person. But then a real miracle: the driver reported that the correct information had just come it, and it was to be a Plus tow after all.
He proved to be the best experience of the night. He told us there were basically only two motels in El Centro worth bothering with, and that they were very near Discount Tire where I, during one of the waiting periods, and decided to have the car towed.
He put some air in the tire. Noting that it was a slow leak, he suggested that we could just drive the car to El Centro. Having now waited over three hours for help, we declined. I drove the car up on the truck bed.
Meanwhile, Catie was checking hotel rates. $350 per room at the Fairfield Suites. $300 each at the Hampton Inn. $285 with a AAA discount. No senior discount. Catie handed me the phone and I gave the clerk my payment information.
We arrived at the hotel in the tow truck right about 9:00. I drove the car back off the truck, and the car again warned me of dangerously low tire pressure. Good call, insisting on the tow.
The rest was gravy: Catie wasn’t hungry, so I walked around the nearby malls (plural) looking for food. Ross Dress for Less was open, as was the 99-cent store. No grocery stores. The nearest open restaurant was a Jack-in-the-Box around half a mile away.
And so I ate my first double cheeseburger in a long time. Soft, bland, textureless, and easy to chew it was.
The next morning, the rear tire was flat. I called AAA, correctly figuring they could send someone with some air. This time, I used the web app. People needing air in their tires must be fairly common, as I was able to communicate that with a few clicks. The web app handily knew where I was, based on my phone’s GPS information. And 35 minutes later, as I was still awaiting the text informing me help was on its way, a tow truck arrived and pumped up my tire. I dashed to the tire store, where they informed me that things were pretty busy, so it might take as long as 35 minutes to fix the tire. I relayed this information to Catie. We both laughed loudly.
It turns out we’d run over a nail. And a second miracle: Discount Tire fixed the tire for free.
Two and a half hours of driving later, we got back to my house just before noon, exactly 24 hours and around $600 after Catie had arrived for our afternoon outing.
Night train (sadly sober)
This is a 13-second exposure taken on a dark night looking over the Algodones Dunes east of El Centro. It is of a freight train heading east from Los Angeles, and of several airplanes heading towards Los Angeles. I could not see the sand or any of the foreground detail, or for that matter even the airplanes, as it was a very dark night, there were no lights, and the airplanes were very far away. That information was brought out by the camera.
I had not planned to make this image. In fact, we—my photo friend Catie and I—had planned to be well on our way home by this time. The idea was to drive out to the dunes in the mid-afternoon, get some photos as the sun got lower in the sky, then head home right after sunset. But halfway down the driveway from the scenic overlook parking lot to the highway, the Tesla notified me that my tire pressure was “dangerously low.” I checked with my tire gauge, and sure enough, my right rear was at about half pressure.
Teslas have no spare tires. That meant that for me to move from where I was, I would need either to be towed or to have someone replace the tire on the spot.
A Tesla-owning friend of mine reported that when he had had a flat on a road trip, Tesla service had come right out and swapped out his wheel and tire for another wheel and tire. They had sent him on his way, then shipped his wheel and tire back to San Diego for him to swap back onto his car when he got home.
That sounded good to me. I got out my phone. I didn’t have much reception, but after a few false starts, I got the Tesla app up. I dug through the menu items to the service request, and with various clicks reported that I had a flat tire and needed service. The app cheerily told me that my request would be reviewed by the next available agent.
We then sat in the car for around half an hour, waiting. The sun was now truly down. When it was really dark, I got a text. It was the promised agent. He wanted to know if my wheels were Tesla issued (they were) and whether the tire was Tesla issued (it wasn’t, though it was the same make and model the car came with, just newer). This involved a fair amount of clumsy thumb typing on my iPhone SE (think tiny screen), because for some reason, the dictation function doesn’t work when the phone is paired to the car, which it has to be, because it serves as the car’s key.
The agent texted that he could offer me a tow to a tire store of my choice up to 50 miles away, or to a Tesla service center, which would be over 50 miles away. He advised me that I would have to choose the tire store carefully, as it would have to be one that could work on Teslas, and they would only tow me to one store. By this time, all tire stores were closed.
Not a word about coming out with a replacement wheel.
I opted for the Tesla service center option.
We sat in the car for another half hour or so, watching trucks roar by on the highway. At one point, the agent texted me, advising he was on hold with a towing service.
Eventually, he texted me that he had found a service; that the tow would be from the Algodones Dunes to Cathedral City, a distance of 104 miles, in a direction away from San Diego, with a charge to me of $540. Oh, and the driver would arrive at my location in about four hours. And of course, it would then be up to me to find a place (two rooms) to stay. At 3:00 in the morning.
I decided to check my alternatives. First up, my AAA plan. I got out my membership card and called the number. Naturally, I got an automated menu. That’s when I discovered that the number pad of a Tesla-paired phone doesn’t work. Nor does speaking into the phone. Nor does swearing at it. The AAA bot eventually hung up on me.
It was getting close to 8:00. We decided to use Catie’s phone, as it was not paired to the car. Success! Sort of. She could communicate with the bot by pressing numbers, but couldn’t make the bot understand what we needed. After several calls, though, we figured out how to get to a person. We explained the problem, provided my AAA membership number, and were told that AAA would contact a driver. There followed a number of questions indicating a lack of understanding of exactly where we were, despite our naming the intersection, and despite the overlook being clearly marked on the maps.
We got that cleared up. We then got a call from the tow truck driver, saying that he had noticed I just had a regular AAA membership, which was good for a 7-mile tow, and El Centro was 27 miles away, which would cost an extra $200. At that point, Catie remembered that she had brought her AAA card, and had a “Plus” membership, which is good for a 100-mile tow. We told the driver. He told us to call AAA back.
We did. Except that the previous trick for getting to an actual person didn’t work. And the phone menu has nothing about changing your order from one from a normal account to one from a “Plus” account.
Until we tried a few more times, and the magic happened again. We got a person. We made the switch. We were in business.
We looked out at the darkness awhile longer. Then the driver called. He said he needed the “order number.” We would need to call AAA and get it for him. He didn’t say why he couldn’t get it from his dispatcher himself. We called. Automatic phone tree. We called again. Eventually we got a person again. We got two order numbers. We called the driver back with the numbers. He seemed satisfied.
We looked at the darkness. And waited. Eventually, Catie got the idea that as long as we were out there with cameras, we might have a look at the night sky. We got out of the car, and indeed, the sky was blazing with stars. We took a few photos, including of the distantly rumbling freight train.
And, miracle of miracles, the driver arrived. He had a question, though: why were we using a regular AAA account? He thought we had said we had a “Plus” account.
Back on the phone with AAA. First call: phone tree. Second call: person. But then a real miracle: the driver reported that the correct information had just come it, and it was to be a Plus tow after all.
He proved to be the best experience of the night. He told us there were basically only two motels in El Centro worth bothering with, and that they were very near Discount Tire where I, during one of the waiting periods, and decided to have the car towed.
He put some air in the tire. Noting that it was a slow leak, he suggested that we could just drive the car to El Centro. Having now waited over three hours for help, we declined. I drove the car up on the truck bed.
Meanwhile, Catie was checking hotel rates. $350 per room at the Fairfield Suites. $300 each at the Hampton Inn. $285 with a AAA discount. No senior discount. Catie handed me the phone and I gave the clerk my payment information.
We arrived at the hotel in the tow truck right about 9:00. I drove the car back off the truck, and the car again warned me of dangerously low tire pressure. Good call, insisting on the tow.
The rest was gravy: Catie wasn’t hungry, so I walked around the nearby malls (plural) looking for food. Ross Dress for Less was open, as was the 99-cent store. No grocery stores. The nearest open restaurant was a Jack-in-the-Box around half a mile away.
And so I ate my first double cheeseburger in a long time. Soft, bland, textureless, and easy to chew it was.
The next morning, the rear tire was flat. I called AAA, correctly figuring they could send someone with some air. This time, I used the web app. People needing air in their tires must be fairly common, as I was able to communicate that with a few clicks. The web app handily knew where I was, based on my phone’s GPS information. And 35 minutes later, as I was still awaiting the text informing me help was on its way, a tow truck arrived and pumped up my tire. I dashed to the tire store, where they informed me that things were pretty busy, so it might take as long as 35 minutes to fix the tire. I relayed this information to Catie. We both laughed loudly.
It turns out we’d run over a nail. And a second miracle: Discount Tire fixed the tire for free.
Two and a half hours of driving later, we got back to my house just before noon, exactly 24 hours and around $600 after Catie had arrived for our afternoon outing.