Tire Trouble
Plans do not always go as, well, planned. On Friday, Rob and I headed down south to visit some friends and take me to a Saturday women’s conference at which I would be leading worship. The trip began well: we packed our snacks, got lunch, and headed on our way. We were able to meet Curtis and Cassie for dinner and then stay at their place Friday evening. Saturday, I got a ride to the conference, and Rob met Steve and Kim for breakfast, and then John for lunch.
The conference was good: great planning, great speaker, and an attempt at great music. Unfortunately, the mic stopped working the second I began singing. We had forty-five minutes of worship with basically zero sound system. Oh well, I say. Worship is, afterall, not about the piano or the leader’s voice, but about hearts worshiping God together. (But can I still admit that I was a little bummed? The main point of the trip was for me to lead worship!)
I was wiped out after the women’s conference (and my voice was about done), so we scratched our plans to shop around and decided just to head home. Making it over the grapevine, we realized we would actually be home about dinner time. Fantastic, I thought. We’re usually pulling in about midnight, so this was going to be nice. We came down the grapevine, passed up the usual stop, and then it happened. Our car hit an abyss of a pot-hole and within seconds we realized we had a flat. We quickly pulled over to check things out. We were able to make it to an exit ramp and get on a frontage road.
Rob began to work immediately, pulling out our tire-changing kit and spare donut tire. Here is where we came to problem number 1. The allen wrench was missing. I did remember a time when a ton of dumb tools were rolling around in my trunk, and I decided to do a little cleaning and throw them into the tool kit – which was inside the house. Nonetheless, we began turning the car upside down to find the wrench, which we did not find. That’s okay, because at about this point we came to problem number 2. The key that fit to our particular lock on our fancy pants tires was gone. (Do I need to mention that I have not been particularly fond of these tires since we bought the car? I suppose not.) Again, we turned the car upside down. Again, we found nothing.
Time to call AAA. Here is where began the series of phone calls we would make. After speaking with a nice young lady who discovered we were in Mettler, a town about 20 miles south of Bakersfield, we got the bad news. “Our AAA drivers carry only standard tire removal kits. If you have a special lock, we won’t be able to remove the tire.” Problem number 3 quickly surfaced. “What are our options, then?” I ask. We could be towed to a nearby auto/tire shop who might have the right tools to remove our tire without the key. “Oh I just realized something,” she said. “You have only the classic membership. You only get a 7 mile tow. After that point, you are charged for each mile.” Hmm. Mettler isn’t exactly a town with a number of amenities around. I told the nice young lady I’d call back after figuring something out and let Rob know what she said, to which he let me know that it wasn’t just a popped tire. It was a cracked wheel. Not good news.
At this point, we decided to drive the car about a mile up the road to a gas station, hoping we could get some help there. We made it there and began another series of attempts to get home. The guy at the gas station had a couple of business cards that advertised 24 hour service. We tried them; no answer. We called AAA back, decided we would take the tow afterall (even though we’d be charge $8 a mile after the 7 mile limit), only to realize with their help that no tire/auto shops were open.
And here came my meltdown. We could not get our tire off no matter what we tried, could get towed for a price but had nowhere to be towed and no assurance that help would come, could not go back where we came from, and could not get home. Rob finally gave in, along with me, and recognized that we would have to get someone to come pick us up and deal with this whole mess again the next day. Rob called his dad who was more than willing to come and get us, even though we were at least an hour and a half away from Visalia.
About 9:30, nearly five hours after the ordeal began, Rob’s parents picked us up and brought us home. We walked in at 11:00 and crashed, only to wake up, go to church, and drive back to Mettler to get the tire off and get home.
Now, I have just spent time explaining my ordeal, and (let me be honest), pitying myself a bit for my bad day. But as a good friend of mine recently modeled to me, I do see God’s grace on us. First of all, we never are driving back during the afternoon. We are always driving in the dark, and through God’s grace, we had some light to assess our situation. Secondly, we happened to be right by the gas station and make it to that point. The next gas station probably was about 10-15 miles away. Third, we have wonderful parents who are willing to come and save us out of nearly any situation. And finally, the only real damage (it seems so far, anyway) is that we will have to have our wheels replaced, something we’ve been talking of doing anyway.
I wish I could say I had that super spiritual attitude yesterday, but I did not. I was frustrated, sad, tired, and downright angry. But don’t worry. I completely expect that I will be faced with another situation in the future that will give me the opportunity to respond how I should have. Or at least last longer until the meltdown.
The conference was good: great planning, great speaker, and an attempt at great music. Unfortunately, the mic stopped working the second I began singing. We had forty-five minutes of worship with basically zero sound system. Oh well, I say. Worship is, afterall, not about the piano or the leader’s voice, but about hearts worshiping God together. (But can I still admit that I was a little bummed? The main point of the trip was for me to lead worship!)
I was wiped out after the women’s conference (and my voice was about done), so we scratched our plans to shop around and decided just to head home. Making it over the grapevine, we realized we would actually be home about dinner time. Fantastic, I thought. We’re usually pulling in about midnight, so this was going to be nice. We came down the grapevine, passed up the usual stop, and then it happened. Our car hit an abyss of a pot-hole and within seconds we realized we had a flat. We quickly pulled over to check things out. We were able to make it to an exit ramp and get on a frontage road.
Rob began to work immediately, pulling out our tire-changing kit and spare donut tire. Here is where we came to problem number 1. The allen wrench was missing. I did remember a time when a ton of dumb tools were rolling around in my trunk, and I decided to do a little cleaning and throw them into the tool kit – which was inside the house. Nonetheless, we began turning the car upside down to find the wrench, which we did not find. That’s okay, because at about this point we came to problem number 2. The key that fit to our particular lock on our fancy pants tires was gone. (Do I need to mention that I have not been particularly fond of these tires since we bought the car? I suppose not.) Again, we turned the car upside down. Again, we found nothing.
Time to call AAA. Here is where began the series of phone calls we would make. After speaking with a nice young lady who discovered we were in Mettler, a town about 20 miles south of Bakersfield, we got the bad news. “Our AAA drivers carry only standard tire removal kits. If you have a special lock, we won’t be able to remove the tire.” Problem number 3 quickly surfaced. “What are our options, then?” I ask. We could be towed to a nearby auto/tire shop who might have the right tools to remove our tire without the key. “Oh I just realized something,” she said. “You have only the classic membership. You only get a 7 mile tow. After that point, you are charged for each mile.” Hmm. Mettler isn’t exactly a town with a number of amenities around. I told the nice young lady I’d call back after figuring something out and let Rob know what she said, to which he let me know that it wasn’t just a popped tire. It was a cracked wheel. Not good news.
At this point, we decided to drive the car about a mile up the road to a gas station, hoping we could get some help there. We made it there and began another series of attempts to get home. The guy at the gas station had a couple of business cards that advertised 24 hour service. We tried them; no answer. We called AAA back, decided we would take the tow afterall (even though we’d be charge $8 a mile after the 7 mile limit), only to realize with their help that no tire/auto shops were open.
And here came my meltdown. We could not get our tire off no matter what we tried, could get towed for a price but had nowhere to be towed and no assurance that help would come, could not go back where we came from, and could not get home. Rob finally gave in, along with me, and recognized that we would have to get someone to come pick us up and deal with this whole mess again the next day. Rob called his dad who was more than willing to come and get us, even though we were at least an hour and a half away from Visalia.
About 9:30, nearly five hours after the ordeal began, Rob’s parents picked us up and brought us home. We walked in at 11:00 and crashed, only to wake up, go to church, and drive back to Mettler to get the tire off and get home.
Now, I have just spent time explaining my ordeal, and (let me be honest), pitying myself a bit for my bad day. But as a good friend of mine recently modeled to me, I do see God’s grace on us. First of all, we never are driving back during the afternoon. We are always driving in the dark, and through God’s grace, we had some light to assess our situation. Secondly, we happened to be right by the gas station and make it to that point. The next gas station probably was about 10-15 miles away. Third, we have wonderful parents who are willing to come and save us out of nearly any situation. And finally, the only real damage (it seems so far, anyway) is that we will have to have our wheels replaced, something we’ve been talking of doing anyway.
I wish I could say I had that super spiritual attitude yesterday, but I did not. I was frustrated, sad, tired, and downright angry. But don’t worry. I completely expect that I will be faced with another situation in the future that will give me the opportunity to respond how I should have. Or at least last longer until the meltdown.
Oh Can, I think you are so amazing. I feel like I have dealt with those sort of situations a lot in my life (I have terrible luck with cars and accidents and breaking down). I always get upset and frustrated. It is good to see that you are thinking about how you can respond next time and what to be thankful for. I guess that in and of itself is a good response. I felt like God really took care of me too when I crashed my car a couple weeks ago, but it's still so easy to be upset. I went to Rock Harbor yesterday! It made me miss you and Robby a lot. We need to figure out another time for me to come up. I am glad you are safe and GROWING.
ReplyDeleteCan, what an ordeal! I'm glad you guys are safe...your response was totally normal, I would've been so frustrated too! But you're right, it's good to see the big picture and realize things could've been a lot worse. God protected you!
ReplyDelete