Shut Up and Drive....

Well, until you get a flat tire.

Matt and I decided to leave for vacation right after church on Sunday. He had to teach in the morning, so we loaded up most of the car on Saturday night, made the final adjustments in the morning and headed out after church.

The lake house in only 3 or so hours north and we love this trip. It's my favorite yearly vacation spot...and not just because the lodging is free (Matt's uncle owns the house). It's on a private lake, it's quiet, clean and perfect for our family. My in laws go with us each year and it's a perfect trip....except for the year that O got pneumonia when we were there.

Anyhow, we decided to get in the car and drive for a bit before we stopped for lunch. The kids were whining and complaining that they were starving. After we reminded them that they were NOT in fact starving - just hungry - we decided to start looking for a place to stop. We were looking for signs on the freeway (you know the ones that tell you what gas stations/restaurants are on off the exit), and mile after mile there was nothing. We only 50 miles or so from home so you would think Matt or I would know of somewhere to stop...well, we didn't!

We went mile after mile and found nothing. Matt finally decided to pick an exit and just get off...he choose wrong. There was nothing for MILES! We ended up back tracking two exits, got back on the freeway and finally found something - no thanks to road signage. The children did not, in fact, starve to death, but they did gobble up every bit of their lunch!

We hopped back in the car, drove a mile or so down the road and the tire pressure light came on...hmmmm. It's done that before and the tires just needed air. We looked out the windows and sure enough our back passenger tire was almost flat! We pulled off at the exit and headed to the nearest gas station...which apparently was the only gas station in the Detroit area that didn't sell Fix a Flat.

We filled the tire up with as much air as we could and sped down the street to another station...Matt bought the Fix a Flat...that didn't work and tried to fill up the tire as we figured out a place to go....only this station didn't have a working air hose!! We jumped in the car and sped BACK to the gas station with the air/no fix a flat.

The two attendants at the station didn't have a definite idea of a tire place, but told us they thought one was an exit back...we went an exit back...no tire shop. Not to mention it's a Sunday afternoon....everything is closed.

We pull off at the exit, pull into a gas station and start using the Blackberry to find a Walmart service station....apparently, no one in this area knows where anything is. This proved to be difficult and frustrating.

The decision was made to put the spare tire on...poor Matt, it was at least 1oo degrees with the humidity and it kept raining off and on...it was an odd weather day. After a few minor glitches we had the tire changed.

During the time Matt was changing the tire, I was taking the boys to the bathroom, buying Matt a GIANT water, calling tire places and yelling for the boys to stay out of the massive dirt pile in the parking lot - this last part didn't go well!

I called several places and found a Walmart open that had a service center. One problem...they didn't have the right size tire that we needed. The next Walmart was close to an hour away and the service center would have been closed by the time we got there. The tire they had was only a tad smaller and they said it wouldn't be a problem...thankfully, they were right!

The good news about the smaller tire was that it was a fraction of the prize of the size tire we needed. $150 dollars cheaper in fact! We were finally on the road, crabby kids and all!

Thankfully, the rest of the drive went smoothly and we made it to the house in record time...SEVEN HOURS LATER! The boys actually did quite well and didn't add any stress to an already stressful situation!

We thank to Lord for our safety and for only a flat tire and not a blown tire! He once again had His hand of protection on our family!