Reminds me of what I went through a couple weeks ago. I decided to go junkyarding at a city about an hour away. (The temps had gotten up to the mid-30s, so I just grabbed my insulated coveralls and figured I'd be OK.) Hit the highway and was driving for about 40 minutes, and just as I'm passing through the only decent-sized town along the 80-mile route, the truck stars spitting and sputtering, dying right in the middle of an intersection at a stoplight. Just as it was dying I looked down at the voltmeter to see it was almost to zero. I got out and pushed it out of the intersection with the help of a couple other guys waiting at the intersection to get through.
I looked up the street and noticed a auto repair shop just a block away. I walked up and got the owner to give me a jump start, thinking that the battery cable was just a little loose. Turns out the alternator had chosen that exact moment to go out. So how lucky was I that just one block the
other direction was a NAPA store...with the alternator I needed in stock. And of course that I happened to have the cash on me to pay for it (which I was supposed to be spending on old parts, not new ones!)
The breakdown could have happened while I was WAY out in the boonies, but this time the inconvenience couldn't have been more convenient.
I felt very lucky!
Just happen to have a new one in my shop. I will wait until the rain stops to change em out. 
