on a journey in a rickety...

Some weeks ago myself and my fiancée had to travel to a neighbouring town about 25minutes away, to be able to attend to some pending issues and spend the weekend with our friends residing there.
Well, we packed the things we need and nothing much really, since we would be spending a night there, but really we all know that the overnight bag a lady will pack will equal the bag a guy will pack for 4 days out of town journey. I am not complaining that my fiancée had much to carry compared with me whose major load was my laptop!
We got to the garage (Nigerian parlance for bus point, where passengers board buses travelling to different locations); really you have no choice of which bus to board since they are all on a queue, and each bus as to wait its turn. So you the passenger would have to take the available bus, that is loading at that point, or else you wait for an unpredictable length of time.
So we boarded the available bus, the words to describe it eludes me, but all I can say is that it's lived long past its age of viability. The word rickety hardly describes it; it was a vehicle that had had its initial design altered beyond recognition, the wiring system, its ignition and engine had all being tampered with a one point or the other.
We embarked on this journey in this metal held together by unforeseen forces, and it coughed and spluttered to life. Within 4 minutes of starting the journey, the rear seats which were never part of the original design of the vehicle was filled with smoke emanating from the engine I was sitting atop in front alongside the driver and my fiancée!
As if that was not enough, the driver had to make forward jerking movements whenever we are ascending a hill all in a bid to get the vehicle to the top of the hill. All I could do was hope and pray we arrived at our destination safely. Ha! Nearly forgot to inform you, to get out of that bus you have to do it slow motion style or else your cloth will be caught on the angry looking metals sticking out of the bus frame.