changed plans

This weekend I had planned to be in Watertown for a nice weekend away. I had my last 1/2 day Friday to use for the summer and was very excited about leaving town. It just happens that it was also Maranatha's Alumni Weekend and being in Watertown for the event would have been fun! I say would have because I didn't make it to Watertown.

I left work around 11:45 about 15 min later than I would have preferred. I was hungry. I hadn't eaten anything that morning, not even my regular breakfast smoothie! Well, I hit the road and knew I needed fuel for my car as well, so I only drove out of the Mpls traffic before I stopped to get gas and grab a sandwich. I started down the road again and got another 15 min down the road when I heard a strange noise. As soon as I realized it was my car, I started to pull over. The noise was getting louder and louder too! When I stopped, I opened my door and looked back. This is what I saw:

I had pulled over as far as I could, but I could still "feel" the heavy traffic as they whizzed by me. I didn't even get out of my car. I started to making phone calls and sending texts to my sisters (I know, I know...). My knowledge of changing a tire is limited, to say the least, and it would have been best for me to have assistance while endeavoring to get my car back on the road.

Here are the some of the many reasons I didn't want to get out of my car...

When the sisterhood didn't produce immediate results, I began to look up nearby car repair shops/towing companies using my handy-dandy phone (HTC Hero). I found two: one exit up and one exit back. The first place wanted $85 to change my tire. The second place wanted $65. I went with the second place. They did state that they would not change the tire on the side of the interstate, but would tow it to the next exit and then change the tire.

While I waited for the tow truck, my brother-in-law, Luke, called to say he was on his way. Since there wasn't a whole lot he could do for me at this point, I was very relieved to know that he was coming and my spirits were lifted. It really was too dangerous for anyone to change the tire on the side of the interstate, and I knew I would need to be towed regardless of who was coming and when.

I was still on the phone with my brother-in-law when a State Trooper arrived to check out the situation. By this time I had been there about 30 minutes. Basically, he wasn't any help...

...but he did leave me a nice orange sticker on the back of the car to note that he had been there.

Help finally arrived in the form of a tow truck and my car & I got a short ride to the next exit which happened to be a weigh station about a mile away.

So $98 later, I had a changed tire. Luke arrived a few minutes after the tow truck drove off. We then spent the rest of the afternoon searching for new tires in the town of Hudson (exit 2). Three tire stores later (Tires Plus, Fleet Farm, Tire Proz), we settled on the "deal" of the day for four new tires. Two of the

While we waited for the new tires, we went to Wal-mart for some miscellaneous car items for Luke's car and then McDonald's for some ice cream. I found out that Luke had gotten out of work for me! It was very nice of his soon to be ex-manager to let him come help me! Of course, he only has two days left there before he starts his new job (praise the Lord!) so he didn't feel like he would be missing much, I guess.

Lesson of the day: