OK, so I'll say I'm even more skeptical and surprised now. You are going on a 2000+ mile journey, including in some of the most remote places in the country, with some of the harshest weather. When asked if you wanted the roadside assistance program, you said that you did not and initialled that you did not.

You also did not look in the truck or inspect the car before you went on this 2000+ mile trip through some of the most remote places in the country, with some of the harshest weather, even considering that you had just moments before turned down a service that would have provided for roadside assistance in a number of situations, from running out of gas to getting a flat to getting locked out.

You thought: I do not need any protection on this journey for 2000+ miles through some of the most remote places in the county with some of the harshest weather. And moreover, I assume everything I would need for that journey is in the trunk.

And when you called the rental car agency, after hitting a nail in the road (not a preexisting condition when they rented you the car), in the middle of the night, in rural Tennessee, and you explained that you intentionally opted out of the roadside assistance program that was designed for these exact situations, the phone representative told you that -- again, despite your intentional refusal of this service upon rental -- the service would be given to you at no cost to you.

You were under the impression that after you opted out of roadside protection, they would deliver you a new rental car in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere -- for free? Simply because there was not a jack in the car. Which you did not look for immediately after opting out of roadside protection.

Cool