My Side of the Story

I feel like I should write about our tire trouble. Adam gave me too much cedit and him not enough. He takes good care of us.

Yes, we had a tire blowout. It was scary and I'm very grateful that the tire was all that was destroyed. Through some combination of being a manly man, capable and strong, Adam was able to fix it. We were prepared enough to have a flashlight in the van but not smart enough to make sure there were batteries in it. I filched some batteries from Braeden's gameboy but then the flashlight had some sort of short in it because it worked sporadically. (Getting a working flashlight with batteries is a new goal of mine.) Our next problem was that the spare tire apparatus that comes down in the back of the van, was stuck. The metal was bent somehow. While Adam was struggling with that, I climbed back in the van to say a prayer with our kids who were more or less awake. I told Braeden to keep praying and got back out to try to get the flashlight working.

That's when the swarm of bugs started to happen. Poor Mark, who was beyond tired, had hundreds of bugs swirling around his head. He was not happy. As time passed, Emma and Mark reached new heights of freaking out so while Adam was applying his strength to the lug nuts and jack, I got back in the van. He was doing what dad's do so I did what mom's do. I tried to soothe. It's amazing how calm you can make your voice when you need to even though you don't feel particularly calm. "No, of course Dad's not going to get hit by one of those enormous trucks whooshing by." "We'll be in our hotel very soon." "The bugs will leave, don't worry." "We're safe." I sort of believed what I was saying and our kids eventually seemed to also.

By the light of the flashing hazard lights and trucks zooming by, Adam was able to get the tire changed and we continued on our merry way. The entire incident managed to give us a big shot of adrenaline and we were in no danger of falling asleep. We made it to our hotel...after 3:00 a.m. The kids stepped out of their sandals and slipped under their covers.

This morning we are in our hotel room and Adam has gone to Costco to get a new tire. I took the kids to the pool to make them happy. I bought myself a diet coke to make me happy. It worked.

I was joking about our new habit being going to Costco on Sunday morning. Maybe. Maybe not.

Tomorrow--assuming I can make myself get out of my comfortable bed, I'll write about some of the happy things that happened on our trip. I'll post some pictures too.