Have you ever been in a place in your life where crap just keeps happening over and over again? I think we’ve all been there several times in a lifetime.

After running some errands and tax and licensing my new car I was driving down the interstate yesterday in heavy but flowing traffic I heard a huge noise. Part bang part explosion. What the heck! Then I felt my new to me car shimmy and knew I had to get it off the road. I am in the center lane approaching my exit, but somehow manage to get all the way left (well my car was taking me that way) and I didn’t hit anyone. I minor miracle. It felt like my wheels came off and I was skidding my way over to the shoulder.

There was no obstruction in the road that I could see, and as I said traffic was moving smoothly, so what happened? I am happy to say traffic continued to move around me at a normal clip why I made an attempt to asses the situation. Gingerly opening my car door I see that yup, I have not one but two flat tires. They are not just flat, one is shredded into a million pieces and the other is barely hanging onto the rim.

With shaking hands I get back in the car and get out my handy dandy roadside assist card and call the number. I get someone in Timbuktu that doesn’t speak English well but, we somehow manage to get the info that each one of us needs.

After sitting on the side of the road for 2 hours the tow truck finally comes. It is one of those flat beds with a lift that allows them to tilt the bed in order to pull the car up onto it. I mention this because you’ll never guess what happened next. Seriously you can’t make this stuff up. After they get the car all chained up he looks at me and says “Do you need a ride?” Well yes I’m only standing there with 70 mile an hour traffic moving around me and about 2.5 miles from my home in 85 degree heat. A nice day! Yes, that would be a good thing. All of these nasty thoughts are going thru my head. I expect that I am going to have to cram myself between these 2 tow truck drivers in the cab. NO! He says to me get in the car. My car? He says YES! Being a good girl and always doing what I’m told, I do! Then he says turn off the car and roll up the windows. The next thing I know I’m being hoisted at an angle onto the flatbed. My head is screaming NO I’m not going to do this. My situation is telling me, yes I am. Luckily they lowered the bed so I was now on a flat plain. What part of this plan was legal?

He starts up the truck and we begin to merge into traffic. My exit is right ahead but of course we have to turn around and take the car into the dealership. I’m beginning to realize the folly of this situation sitting on a tow truck with the windows up on an 85 degree day. Two hours sitting along the side of the road was annoying but with the air running, tolerable. Twenty minutes in a tow truck with no air and the windows rolled up not so much.

As we approach the 80 680 split I have an interesting birds eye view of our humble interstate system and a crazy thought runs through my brain. I felt like I was in a parade and that I should be waiving to all my constituents! Yes I know, I think the lack of oxygen was getting to my brain. Believe me I could feel the oxygen leaving the car.

We arrive at the dealership right at 5:00 and luckily they were expecting me. The driver stops the truck to find out where to dump me and my car off. I open the door and say I have got to get out of this car and the driver just looks at me. I’m thinking I will just jump but quickly realize that I probably better not do that. My replaced knees might not like that. There is a certain amount of what do we do with her, and I am thinking they can just lower the lift so I can get out. No we have to take a tour of the 55 acres of parking lot so they can dump me and my car.

Finally escaping from the hot oven I have been suffocating in for the last 1/2 hour I manage to squeeze open the door. After looking at the remnants of my tires I say to myself yeah, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into.

I walk back to the service department just about a block from where they dumped the car and my service person whom I’ve dealt with before is immediately kind. Do you need water what can I do for you. I tell her I need a ride. It is now just the two of us as they are closed. She decides on the spot that she will give me a car that was reserved for someone else so I can get home. It is the most beautiful XT4 and I sigh thinking to myself there is no justice. This is the car I wanted all along.

So you may ask where was the husband or where was the daughter or any number of other people I could have called for a ride. The husband had duties with his mom and the daughter had duties with the sons. When it came down to it, I was afraid to have anybody rescue me because it was now rush hour traffic and I didn’t want anyone I cared about having to try to pull over, so I just dealt. If you missed the post about my accident you can read about that here. Misconceptions and Challenges of Buying a New Car.

So for now I wait and wonder. Wait to find out if it was something bigger than just flat tires. I know some things are just unexplainable. We’ll see. I think I might be in the market for a good horse and buggy!

I promise we will get back to design and DIY soon.

Thanks for stopping

Shelley