this one time several years ago my band was on tour, enroute from Boston to NYC/Brooklyn in my 1990 Dodge van. It was raining cats and dogs like I had never seen before. Went through one huge puddle and felt some serious hydroplaning. The next big puddle there was a huge bang, the rearend dropped, and started drifting all over the place. I figured it was a tire blowout and aimed for a conveniently placed exit but didn't quite make it as I noticed the engine revving freely and no forward momentum. We grinded to halt on the sholder. Trying to stay as dry as possible, I cracked the door and peeked towards the back. I saw the back wheel sitting all askew in the wheel well with the back end of the van basically sitting on the road. My first thought was that the axle had somehow broken. I took the plunge out into the rain to check it out. Somehow, all five lugnuts had split the scene along with the brake drum and most of the springs and levers, linkages, etc. inside. Got towed to a Firestone tire/repair shop 'cuz it would be open on Sunday. (This occurence was Saturday night, of course) Spent the next three days in Stamford Connecticut cooling our heels, staying in the closest motel(totally sleazy complete with a bar full of Puerto Rican hookers)and searching down the missing brake parts. All the firestone shop would do is try to get stuff from the local Dodge dealership which, of course, had nothing for a 1990 model in 2006. I ended up finding the last insignificant part by wandering around town, stumbled in to some dusty old parts store and talking to the Jewish owner. "O yeah, I tink I knows whatch ya neet...Lemme run next dowwwr..." He came back several minutes later with a whole handful. I asked what he wanted for the one I needed. "Take 'em all for 5 bucks" I went back to the Firestone garage, slapped that puppy home, and told the mechanic to button it up, paid the $600 bill for a complete brakejob and got the hell out of there. We made it to our last show of the tour in Columbus Ohio...
