Long story short: our gold-colored Volvo died on the approach to the George Washington Bridge in bumper-to-bumper Sunday night traffic.

In a five-hour-trip in unbelievably bad traffice from Kingston, NY, the car kept overheating. We had to stop often so that Hepcat could put water in the engine (or whatever he was doing). The stop-and-go traffic exacerbated the overheated situation.

Accoriding to Hepcat, Goldie blew a gasket.

This was the second time in two weeks that the car has had to be towed on the New York Thruway. The 20-year-old car has 140,000 miles on it. That’s not considered a lot for a Volvo.

We called AAA and they referred us to the GW Bridge Authority. A tow druck driver showed up quickly and told us that he was going to push us toward the bridge and then off the bridge on the New Jersey side.

Fortunately, we landed across the street of a motel and we able to use their bathroom. The woman at the front desk gave me the phone number of GW Taxi.

A driver in blue van with black and white checks arrived and good-naturedly transported us and all our stuff to Brooklyn. Recently, he said, he drove a film production assistant from New Jersey to Park Slope. “The guy was really smart but kinda crazy. He gave me 1 $25 tip and a $25 bottle of wine.”

The driver talked about Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” and other books he’s enjoyed recently. Hepcat reccomended “V” and “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon.

The fate of Goldie is undetermined.

Will we spend more money to save our 20-year old car?
Will we sell the car or give it an organization that takes cars?
What would you do?