I sit right now in the parking for Hearth & Home in Colville, WA. I am watching a couple of guys take my car’s passenger door apart. They are looking for a number — a secret number they can use to manufacture a new key for me. At the moment, you see, I have no key.
Just where did that key go? There’s no telling. The number of places it could have gone seems limited; there isn’t much that I did between having the key and not. Not having it has proven to be a more or less permanent situation, however. Fortunately my key is an old-fashioned low-tech one without chips and stuff inside, so given the correct secret code a replacement can be manufactured. But wither the code? Mazda would not give out the code over the phone (a pretty reasonable policy, really), but rumor had it that the code was stamped on the lock cylinder in the passenger door.
The guys from The Key Place are most friendly and helpful. Chalk it up to the small-town vibe (I have honestly not met anyone in this town who is not friendly and helpful), but if you’re going to be stuck and in need of less-than-routine service, this is a good place to do it.
On the road again, and everything’s fine. I now have not one but three keys.
Given the title of the episode, I was half expecting you to claim the guys from the Key Place resembled Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a high-tech key with a ship in it.
Bob
I guess your clever plan of keeping Jer a captive in Colville until he produced a Pirates DVD for you didn’t work out. Pity. You could have posted it on YouTube for the rest of us.
chip, schmip!
I suppose I missed a chance at a blog title when I was in Seattle, but I did have Pokey in Portland.
Having one of those ‘new fangled’ autos with a chip in the key that little story gives me the willies!
But I had trouble getting a key for a 1989 Jeep Cherokee! The man I first talked to was new at the game and couldn’t find either the ignition or the door etc. lock blank. Forgot that we had the original ignition replaced–and it took a GM blank. Finally the regular key guy showed up and he said–“Oh, yeah. You have to look in the Chrysler section.” Ah, yes, Chrysler bought the Jeeps. So I eventually got both.
A guy at the local Ford dealership actually showed us how to reprogram keys for the Expedition — he was supposed to do it for us and charge $74, but he decided to be nice.