the top's still good

Benny had a play date with one of his buddies this morning and I picked him up after lunch. Driving up the hill from his friend's house I clipped the edge of a pothole along the side of the road and it made a loud bang. The kids asked what the noise was and I told them, and I didn't think anything more of it. About twenty seconds later Sarah is insisting that the tire is making noise and I'm thinking maybe a rock got jammed in the treads. So I pulled over to take a look. It had been about a minute total since I hit the pothole. The back tire was completely flat.

I shut off the engine and opened the doors and the questions start flying.... why are we stopping? what's wrong? why did you turn off the car?

I told them we had a flat tire and, of course, they had to get out and look at the tire. Benjamin, in all sincerity, said to me, "The top's still good." I got a good chuckle out of that one, let me tell you!!!! LOL

So what's a momma with two kids in tow to do? I put a call in to Nana and Pappy and while I was waiting for them I figured I would see what I could do. I have never changed a tire in my life. I got out the car manual and the jack and spread everything out on the pavement behind the car and started reading. I was off the side of the road, in a parking lot, and thankfully a nice man named Norm saw me and the kids and pulled over to help.

It took me, Norm and eventually Pappy, an hour and a quarter to change the dang tire. The first half hour was me and Norm trying to figure out how to get the spare tire out from under the car (and Norm was no dummy.... he pulled up in a tractor trailer and even said to me that he drives all kinds of equipment and that he was man enough to admit that he was flabbergasted about following the directions in the manual to change the tire on my car. LOL). I think they should put red dots where everything should go.... we had to put the crank through a hole in my back bumper and try to find the knob inside that would turn and lower the spare tire to the ground. Riiiiiiiiiiight.

I must say though, that now I know exactly where everything goes and how it works and I am pretty confident that if I got a flat tire again (in this vehicle anyway!) I would know what to do.

So, thanks to Norm for all his help and time, and thanks to Pappy for coming to the rescue and to Nana for keeping the kids in her air conditioned car until we got the spare tire on. You guys rock!!!! :-)

Comments

this is seriously one of my biggest fears!! good thing you had help come... :)
and if this ever happens in my lifetime I will definitely be thinking about (and laughing to myself) Ben's comment!! that is great.

Posted by: Nicole | June 24, 2009 at 10:24 PM