After the beautiful weather on New Year's Eve day, New Year's Day brought a return to "normal" January weather in Northern Illinois. Light snow, wind, and near zero windchills swept across the farm. After staying warm and toasty most of the day, I finally decided to face the elements around 2 in the afternoon and head to town for groceries for my family's Christmas celebration.
As I set off my mind was wandering and running through the list of things I needed to pick up. Just two miles from home I heard what must have been a gunshot and my car suddenly jerked to the right - at least I think it went right first. Maybe it went left and then I pulled it back right. It all happened so fast I don't know what happened. Trying to control my now swerving car, I gingerly limped to the shoulder of the road. Glancing in my rearview mirror I saw drivers dodging pieces of plastic that were flying off of my car.
Once safely off the road, I confirmed what I already knew. The front passenger side tire had blown out. Not only had the tire blown, it had shredded itself and the apron under the front fender. My bumper was cracked and the front 1/3 of the running board was missing. Great...now to call Dan and let him know.
Cursing and muttering he made his way out to where I was stranded. He began cussing and muttering under the car and I walked to the gas station to warm up. When I returned with hot chocolate for us to share, Dan's cursing had become even more colorful. Not only was the tire shredded to pieces, but the spare was dead too. It was flat and could not be put on the car in the contition it was in.
Dan called in reinforcements and suddenly two more vehicles joined our little roadside caravan. Dan's friend Jamie arrived with his dad and son to assist with the tire swap.Moments later Jamie's mom arrived to maket he child swap. Within a minute, the tire was in the truck, the child had been transferred to his grandma's car, all adults were loaded back into cars and the three operational cars split off in thier separate directions.
Jamie lead us to his buddy's shop where we discovered that our spare tire was flat due to a large nail in it. The hole was plugged and we were off again. While the boys handled that, I called the insurance company and started the process of filing a claim.
About three hours after I initially set out to Walmart, I arrived there. On the plus side, my car was still driveable and Dan felt bad enough that he came along to help with the shopping.
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