Back when I was stationed at FT Huachuca Arizona I took a week of leave for Christmas to visit family in California. I made the drive from the base to the Los Angeles area where I grew up and enjoyed being with my family. It was the drive back however where this story really takes place.
I was heading East on I-10 with plenty of time to get back to base before my leave was over. I was just cruising along in my truck, listening to music and looking at the wide swathes of desert. About halfway between Phoenix and Tucson, just as I was passing a small town called Mesa Grande there was a loud CLUNK from my engine, white smoke started coming out from the hood and my truck list all power. I quickly assessed the situation, turned on my hazard signals and pushed in the clutch so that I could keep enough momentum to find a safe place to pull over. The only way to get onto the shoulder in time was to pass through the on ramp from Casa Grande. Unfortunately for me there was another car just leaving town at that exact moment and I ended up cutting off some poor guy in a Jeep.
The Jeep laid on the horn as it braked and kept honking as it passed me. I coasted to a safe stop on the shoulder and saw that the Jeep had also pulled into the shoulder about 100 feet in front of me. My first thought was "Please don't be a jerk about this. It should be obvious from the white smoke billowing out of my truck that I was not purposely trying to be a bad driver." About 3 seconds later I saw the Jeeps reverse lights come on and it looked like the driver must have floored the gas pedal because the Jeep was approaching the front of my car fast enough that I wondered if he intended to hit me. The Jeep stopped about 5 feet short.
I got out of my truck and saw the Jeep driver getting out as well. I opened my mouth to start profusely apologizing when I say that the driver was smiling at me, and that this smiling face belonged to my absolute best friend in the entire US Army.
He was also from California but had decided to stay on base for the holidays. This was his first Christmas since moving out of his parents house and he was actually looking forward to spending it with just himself. It turns out that he had a change of heart shortly after I left base and decided to drive to California anyway.
We were both driving back to base at that time but he was about 20 minutes ahead of me. He just happened to decide to stop in Casa Grande for gas and snacks even though he had enough gas to get to base. Considering that he wasn't even supposed to have travelling that day it was an amazing coincidence that he happened to be getting back on the road right at the exact time and place my truck broke down.
To make things just a bit more coincidental; my friend drove me into Casa Grande to find a mechanic and tow truck. The was a mechanic right there off the interstate who had a tow truck ready, in fact his tow truck had just gotten back from towing another car that broke down in I-10. That car happened to be another friend of ours who had also driven to California for the holidays and was on his way back to base.