Bay City Tribune

Heather, Amanda and I were hot on the trail of a fertilizer spreader Thursday afternoon to find the source of a stench permeating Bay City and Van Vleck when Amanda's vehicle broke down and we got stranded on Skelly Road with a smoking van.

Being the resourceful women we are, we pile out of the van to pour some coolant into the radiator.

While Heather and I back up a respectful distance from the vehicle, OK, so maybe a very respectful distance - Heather had to protect the camera and someone had to be able to call for help if the van blew up after all - Amanda put her oh-so extensive mechanical knowledge to work sloshing some green stuff into the radiator.

Success. We pile back in and start back on the road.

By this time, the vehicle we were pursuing was long gone, so we decided to be safe and head slowly back to the office.

We made it a short way before the van stalled out again.

It started back up again only to stall out again.

By this time Amanda was thinking "Bosworth" had just given up, while Heather was trying to think of ways to cool the van down.

And I noticed the smoke coming out from under the hood.

We all made hurried exits from the van and took off across the street just in case Bosworth decided to go up in flames.

Luckily, the wisps of smoke were all that the van emitted from under the hood.

So, there we were, three women stuck on the side of the road a couple miles from the office.

Amanda called her husband to come and get us.

During the 15 minutes or so we were waiting on our rescue, at least a dozen cars zoomed past.

Not one even bothered to slow down to see why three women were standing on the side of the road.

Actually one did slow down.

The ever-polite driver of a city vehicle slowed down to let Heather cross the road then took off on his way.

He pulled into a drive a little ways down then headed back our way.

We were heartened to think someone was at least going to make sure we were OK, until he just drove right past us without so much as a wave.

OK, I know in today's society you have to be extra careful and stopping for strangers can be dangerous.

I wouldn't stop for strangers either, but I would at least make sure they were ok.

Needless to say, we were unsuccessful in solving the case of the "great stink of 2009," but we did get a tip saying it was coming from fertilizer on a grass farm.

Shelly Gormey is managing editor of the Bay City Tribune.