Pam and I had spent 4 days packing the ABF trailer. We were both tired, sore, and drained. Then we had to hit the road in both of our cars. To say that there was a slight amount of apprehension about the three days of driving ahead of us would be an understatement.
Pam had never driven north of Tampa in her entire life. She honestly doesn't like to drive. It goes back to a tragic episode when she was 14 years old.
Within an hour of climbing into our respective automobiles for the long trip ahead, going 70 mph, Pam had a tire blowout. Unfortunately, she hadn't ever changed her tires since buying her Corolla 5 years ago. The tread was still passable (because she drove only 2 minutes a day to her job and back), but the rubber was dry rotted.
She had never experienced a flat tire in her life, and she handled it great. I was watching her in my rearview and just happened to see her start to edge onto the shoulder. I unpacked her stuffed trunk, pulled out her donut spare, and changed out her flat with semi-trailers and roadsters speeding past us at rush hour pace on the interstate.
Luckily, I was using my new Tom Tom gps, and was able to find the nearest tire store and it's phone number. We drove 5 minutes to get there (her donut was flat by the time we were pulling in to the Goodyear tire center in Sarasota. Apparently, it was dry rotted also), and we slapped 4 all-season radials on her Corolla.
What could be seen as a bad harbinger while just getting under way of a momentous trip, we chose to see as a fortuitous occurance. What if Pam had been driving for 8 or 10 hours when that blowout occured? Would she have been so road-weary that her reaction wouldn't have resulted the same way? Three days of 10-hour driving leaves you a little worn, to be sure.
We saw this as God making sure she was riding on safe tires for the long, tough trip ahead. And it was so. Her tires and car safely got us here in one piece.
