Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Adventures in Road Tripping (Alternate Title: How to Waste Another $119)

Amy and I had a great time going to Seattle today.

She dropped off her camera at the repair shop, and didn't even cry as we walked away and left it behind. I was impressed. We went to Glazer's and drooled over tripods, bags, lenses, and lighting equipment. I did not find my dream lens on sale since lenses don't actually go on sale, but I had to try. I found a diffuser for my flash in a used equipment bin for two bucks, so I was happy. That was my only purchase of the day.

We pucked up the twins from my parents house and headed for home. We got through all the traffic in Everett, I didn't think it was very bad at all, but Amy disagreed. This is the difference between growing up close to Seattle and growing up on a farm. We had a conversation that went something like this: "Hey, this traffic is really not so bad today!" "Um, no, this is bad traffic." "Not really, we have only come to a complete stop once!" "We've been slow for miles. This is bad traffic!" "But we've only stopped once!"

We were somewhere between Arlington and Mt. Vernon when I heard a strange noise. I was not sure if it was the van or the road, so I changed lanes, but the sound followed me. There was an exit right there, and it was obvious by the time I got off that I had lost a tire. I pulled over to the side of the off ramp and found my right rear tire shredded. And when I say shredded, I mean it. I am not just talking about a tire that was a little bare, I am surprised it was as intact as it was. You could see through it.

I was in the process of pulling out my camera to take pictures of the tire (wait, this isn't the first step in changing a tire? Really? I though everyone took pictures for their blog before they pulled out the lug wrench!) when a truck pulled off right in front of us, and a very nice man got out and with a friendly smile, asked me where I kept the spare. He changed the tire for me and did a great job. I never got his name, but he was courteous and kind. Thank you, Mr. Stranger, I appreciate your help today. I am sorry I never got your name, but Amy and I later named you Serge. She thinks you were Russian, but I thought you were Argentinian. However, neither of us are very good at accents, so we might be very wrong. Well, at least one of us is very wrong. But thank you for your help, and I hope someone is there for you when you need help, too.

It was great fun driving home going 55 in a 70 zone for an hour with hazards flashing, on a very old donut spare that was cracked, hoping and praying that it didn't blow out, too.

The trip from my parent's house to mine, that is usually a little past an hour and a half, took three hours. The kids did great, I was so impressed by their patience and I am so blessed that we did not have any meltdowns.

Anywhoo, tomorrow I get to meet my bloggy friend Tiffany in real life! But first I have to go buy a new tire. This one was not done in by the hubcaps like that last one, so I have no idea why it blew. And then I get to go shopping with my bloggy friend and let her fully appreciate how simple life is with only one child let her see what crazy looks like introduce her to my kids.

Oh, and my computer now has another rogue anti-virus software program. I keep getting pop-ups that say that I have an unregistered version of Malware Doctor and my computer is unprotected, and it also says I have the Conficker worm. I think it is lying. I cannot wait till we wipe this thing clean and start over.

Now I'm off to see where I can find $119 for a new tire...

2 comments:

Snow Mommy said...

Wow, what an adventure!

CulyQFun said...

Now, that was an adventure. I was in Seattle yesterday too. We should've met up.
We should plan a day to get together this summer with our kiddos.