We (me, wife, 2 kids) spent the long weekend at our house at Edisto. It was great weather, caught some fish and a big bonnethead shark, yada yada yada. Great weekend…you get the idea.
Well, we get ready to leave this morning, and nobody can find the car keys. We look and look and look. I retraced my steps from this morning (we had the keys last night when we went out to dinner), hoping to find the keys. I thought maybe I had accidentally taken them to the beach with me to go fishing. Well, we looked for several hours and find NOTHING. No keys, no way to get home to Greenville.
We finally go to plan B, and I get a tow truck on the phone. He agrees to come get the car at Edisto and tow it to the dealership in Charleston so I can get a new key made. This is obviously not going to be cheap. (Sidenote: the really bad part is that the same thing happened to us at Pawleys Island earlier this summer…yes, this is the second time within a few months to get stranded at the beach without car keys. Note to self: take extra set of keys!).
As soon as the tow truck arrives, we pick up the computer carrying case on the table. Guess what was right there…yes…the car keys. All that looking, and nobody picked up the computer case. Holy crap. Well, I pay the tow truck guy anyway, since he drove all the way from Charleston. However, we were just thankful that we didn’t have to go through the trouble of actually going to Charleston to get a key made. So, we are on the road…FINALLY.
Well, that’s not the end of the story.
We get to Columbia and stop to get something to eat. Then we get back in the car and continue on toward Greenville. We got about 10 miles up the road past Columbia, and the car starts to lose power. I’m like “what the heck??” Then I realize that I forgot to fill the gas tank. We ran out of freaking gas on the side of interstate 26. LUCKILY, we have our boat in tow behind us, and it’s got gas in the little external gas tank. I manage to transfer (using a Wendy’s cup!)
I feel for you brother, we have all been there. I was in Edisto this weekend with the wife and two kids on the long weekend from Greenville.
Two years ago during the July 4th weekend a saw a poor soul in the Edisto Marina parking lot, sweltering hot, getting worn out by his wife while a locksmith opened his locked car. She was throwing everything she had at him for being stupid enough to lock the keys up on such a hot day. “All but for the Grace of God” I thought to myself was that me standing there with the same thing happening. I went home, got an extra key made for the truck and hid it in one of those velcro key holders. I have used it twice in two years to rescue myself, from myself.
Captain
Jerni-A-Gan
40’ Ocean Yachts Super Sport
Edisto Beach, SC
Call 864-982-2122 for info
All vehicles have key codes, available from the dealer at the tine of purchase, that is what the little white tag is, or by serial number. Nearly any dealer can cut a key if you know the code. If you have an incripted code beyond the key code, they can get that by serial number and recode the key. Tape your key code on the inside of your glove box, with a spare key. It will help in the future.
The Lord said “follow me and I will make you a fisher of men”
AWT is right. All you need is the code and proof of ownership and the dealer can cut you a key and hopefully they will bring it to you for a much smaller fee than a tow truck. The spare key thing works best. Also, if your vehicle has power locks you can add a keypad remote to the drivers door. I’ve owned a couple of vehicle that had the keypad on the drivers door and I may never own another one that doesn’t have that feature. Sounds like you had a weekend like mine, Musta been something about Edisto this weekend.
OMG - I knew I had a brother out there somewhere! I have the worst luck with keys. I lost my boat keys and realized just before I was going fishing early one morning. Man that sucked. I did end up finding it on the side of the road near the gas station (key ring has the thingy that unscrews the gas tank on boat). But not before having 2 extras made by a local locksmith which cost me $20.