plenty of places to get an alignment
That's the problem, there aren't. Well technically there are, but just about every other place in town has screwed me over in one way or another over the years. I'm talking everything from damaging parts and then denying it, to losing parts, to wheels on family member's vehicles literally falling off.
I know the old saying "if you have problems with everyone, maybe you're the problem" but I swear I'm innocent in this case. There is one other shop in town that used to do alignments I haven't checked into recently, but they've got new owners since I was there last and I'm not sure if they still offer them.