– Andy Lindberg –
On July 12 I picked up my new 1969 Saab 96 and drove it 500 miles home. On August 12 Linda and I were driving Sobby the 300+ miles home from my brother’s new home in Rockford, Illinois. We’d taken the freeway down and had run into horrendous traffic jams in southern Wisconsin. So a different route back seemed like a good idea.
As the man who jumped off the top of the building passed the tenth floor, they asked him why he did it. He answered, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
We took Hwy. 20 west from Rockford, through Galena and into Dubuque, Iowa. There we bumped into Hwy. 52 and took it north for about ten miles to the ROAD CLOSED TO THRU TRAFFIC sign and found ourselves back on Hwy. 20 for the detour. Finally we were headed north again and stopped for lunch in Decorah. The rain eased off long enough for us to walk three blocks to the highly over-rated Swedish café. We ate instead at the local co-op where we heard other diners swapping lies about how they had bought a Saab like ours for $400 and it took them through four years of college. Raindrops appeared again as we left town.
Hwy. 52 is two-lane blacktop here and we passed through Harmony and Fountain. We didn’t make Chatfield. The light rain became a deluge and Sobby lost his footing on a downhill curve. I froze and traction never returned. We slid across the southbound lane (thank goodness nothing was coming) and onto the shoulder. The shoulder was not gravel, however; it was newly mowed slippery wet grass. Since it had a downhill slope away from the road, we kept going.
And going and going. When Sobby was maybe 30 feet off Hwy 52 and eight feet below it, we entered the taller brush. In addition to providing horrifying sound effects and slowing us down a bit, the tall brush hid the increasing angle of the hill that Sobby was descending. As we moved sideways, the left door murdered a one-inch diameter tree. Finally we stopped.
The view was not good. There was brush all around. We couldn’t see the road to the right of us. Since Sobby was leaning to the left, I got a good view out the driver-side window. Beyond the bent-over brush that seemed to have stopped us, I could look straight down to an eight-foot drop. I didn’t open my door. Could we have climbed out Linda’s door? Maybe, but it didn’t seem time to push our luck.
It was cell phone time. I called 911 and they said they’d send out a trooper. Linda called AAA and they said they’d send a tow truck. We never saw the trooper and the tow truck driver went past us three times before he spotted us buried down the hill. It was a long drive towing Sobby home to his garage.
Where he sits today. Hagerty says he’s totaled and they’ll give me the guaranteed value and take the title and the car. Or they’ll let me keep Sobby and give me the guaranteed value less $800 salvage value.
What am I going to do? Kenny Rogers once sang, “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, and know when to fold ‘em.” So is Sobby a winner to rebuild or a parts car loser? I don’t know. But today I’m leaning towards trying to fill the inside straight.
UPDATE!
October 9: Sobby is back and feeling good. His right front suspension has been rebuilt and the damage to the driver’s side looks like new. Couple trim pieces and the outside mirror are still missing but that’s minor compared to two months ago.
