Wow! how fortunate that it broke down on the way home!

back in the day that I was driving beater cars, whenever i went on a long trip,
i would take my car to a mechanic and tell him what my plans were. He'd look the car over, tune it, and give me a clean bill of health for the car and a big zap of confidence before I left.
Of course, sometimes it broke down anyway; but never for the routine stuff.

I hope it was just a fuel filter.