You Can Take the Boy Out of the Ozarks...

This title might be a little too specific. Perhaps any good ol' country boy would have done the same.

Okay, so you've replaced the muffler on your truck with a generic from Auto Zone because you don't want to spend the $500 dollars it would cost to have a professional in the city of Dallas replace the entire system. The truck came from the Ozarks, you see, and a previous owner had already "fixed it" beyond stock specifications. Apparently "professionals" in Dallas have an inherent need to return everything to factory specifications.

Now, due to lack of tools, one of the pipe joints is not completely solid and finally pops apart while pulling onto a major road artery half a mile from my uncle's house. This results in a very loud sound because 1, the muffler is no longer connected to the engine and 2, the muffler is now dragging on the pavement. Question: what do you do?

1: Have it towed to a shop and let the proffessionals handle it?
2: Try to wedge/tie the muffler off the ground long enough to limp back to the house.
Or
3: Strap that sucker to the frame rail with a length of bailing wire untill you have time to duck tape the pipes back together.

My air conditioning at the moment is good old 2-55, so there is not much danger of carbon monoxide building up in the cab due to a much shorter exhaust system. Besides, I've heard louder Honda Civics running "mufflers" than my S10 is without.

Alright, alright... its been a couple years since I've had actual bailing wire in my truck... so I had to use a length of rope. I also rented a pipe flaring tool and clamped the system together the way you're supposed to, no duck tape. Problem solved for $38 dollars, counting original cost of the muffler.