Flat Tire

This past weekend was an interesting one for me. I planned a Silpada party in Vail, Colorado with my one of my best friend's sister. Chari and I were excited to go and get away for a weekend without children, husbands or boyfriends. So we left on Friday, drove to Grand Junction and spent the night with my grandparents. On Saturday we drove to Vail and had a good time with her family and finally on Sunday we had the party and drove home- well that was the plan. We left Vail, or Edwards, which is right outside of Vail, at 3:00 pm. About 30 miles outside of Grand Junction the car started shaking and I knew immediately that something was wrong. Chari and I looked at each other and she said, "maybe it is just the road?" But as I slowed down it got worse- much worse. So I pulled over and we got out of the car. Sure enough, there was a flat, smoking tire. Shit! I looked at Chari and asked her if she had ever changed a tire? Nope! was her reply. Great! Neither had I. Shouldn't this be something they teach in Driver's Education classes? I was really wishing that had been the case for me. We looked around and nobody seemed to be stopping to help. I opened the trunk and got the necessary tools that one needs to change a tire and started working. Got the jack in its proper position and started cranking. Chari helped with the lug nuts and we both somehow got the shredded tire off and the spare tire on. Woohoo! We did it all by our damn selves! We were very proud. You think the story ends here but ohhh...it does not.
We pulled into Grand Junction safe and sound but hoped to find a service station to get the tire fixed and back on the road. So we pulled into a gas station and asked the clerk of any place. No- nope all of the tire stations were closed on Sunday's. Chari got a phone book anyway and found out that Wal-mart was still open. Only open until 6:00 and it was about 5:15 at the time. We hopped back in the car and headed to Wal-mart as quickly as possible. We pulled in the parking lot at 5:30 and asked the lady to help. "No, it is too late," she said. "We leave in 20 minutes." She was not on my good side and I was not liking her very much. All I wanted was a new tire. It didn't happen. They were mysteriously out of the size of tire that we needed.
Instead of driving home on the spare we stayed the night with my grandparents again, hit the big-o tires in the morning and made it home on Monday around 3:30 pm. And that is all I have to say about that!