The day started out like this... Stef had to be in Brunswick for some envirohugatree conference at 8am today, so I figured that it would be a good opourtunity for me to grab some caches down that way. So I drop stef off and head out on my way. By about noon I had 5 finds and was just heading out from "The Brunswick Commons" cache, I got in the Jeep and started down the road... which was soon followed by a crunch chunk grumble grind rumble sensation... I pulled over and popped the hood to find that my idler pulley was now laying idle, and pulled apart... being in unfamiliar territory I decided to make the most of the situation and rig up what was left of the pulley hub to apply enough tension to my belt so that I could limp it to an auto parts store. After making the repairs and giving it a lil startup test I started packing up my things to head off (the nearest auto parts store I knew of was in topsham) But lo and behold a kind stranger stopped by to lend a hand. He (His name's Joe) explained that he never went this way to the airbase (he's retired navy) and that he just felt he should take the back way. (dont'ya love the way things work out) Joe said he would lead me to the nearest autoparts store about 2 miles away (which was great because I was doubtful that I would make it 10) So Joe leads me to VIP and we're standing in line chatting and who decides to jump into the story... RobT!! He was at VIP getting an oil change. And just when you think the story couldn't get any more coinceidental, Rob knew Joe and Joe knew Rob! (small world) So they both assisted in putting things back together and while we were doin so Rob and I were filling Joe's head full of knowledge about geocaching, and he was so intrigued by geocaching that we took him to Rob's "Almond Joy" cache (which was missing in action but still a nice little adventure)

So the way I look at it is this... Joe needed geocaching to be brought into his life so my Jeep took one for the team and broke down so that Joe would stop to help take me to VIP where we run into Rob and give Joe a crash course in geocaching to get him hooked into caching!!!

Soooo, It's days like this that I'm thankful for kind strangers, caching friends, and well stocked auto parts stores.