#TeamBadAss

Anyone who follows me knows that my life is the farthest thing from quiet or peaceful. This weekend's trip to Kansas City was no exception.

Ann, Brandi and I left KC about 1 o'clock today after a great lunch with some friends and got about as far as Bethany, MO when I decided to pull off and check my tires. I was getting a LOT of vibration and road noise and suspected a tire was low on air. I was right. The back ones were WAY low on air. I'm honestly not sure how I didn't notice it before, but I digress. I filled both back up to where they needed to be and checked the front. With everything registering the way it should, we got back on the road. Unfortunately, things weren't "the way they should" be. I noticed a wiggle in my tires that wasn't there before. The vibrations & noise were gone, but they'd been replaced with wobbling. We decided then to take highways home instead of interstate, that way we'd be closer to a town if we needed to stop and fill up with more air. As we drove a bit, the wobbles evened out once we got to a little higher speeds and we were fine.

Until we got about an hour away and the road noise and vibrations started back up again.

We managed to get as far as the south side of Des Moines and had a blow-out. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with my driving skills. I safely guided the car to the far right shoulder (we were between off/on ramps on a bridge when it blew) and when my hands stopped shaking, the three of us made that tire our bitch. Within seven minutes (from annoying, turn-crank jack up to turn-crank jack down), the donut was put on and the junk tire was thrown in the trunk. (I texted Hubs and told him my pit crew was faster than his pit crew).

We weaved our way through town and I dropped the girls off at Ann's and inched my way home, the whole time not driving over 35 miles an hour. Have you ever driven thirty five miles DOING thirty five mph??! I'm convinced it was my penance for all the times I didn't get busted for speeding in my life.

When I got home, I pulled the tire out and looked at it more closely. We'd known it was going bad and had plans to go this week and get it replaced before I head to Columbus on Saturday, but had we known it was THIS bad, I'd have never left town. So when I examined the tire at home, I was flabbergasted to find exposed radials that had been that way for a while (there was rust under some spots) and several spots where the rubber had come off completely. I don't know how long it has been like this, but I guess this heat wave added to the 400 mile round trip and a car loaded down with people and luggage was just too much for that old tire to take.

I'm just glad a) I wasn't alone, b) my girls are as knowledgeable about cars as I am, c) that we made it as far as we did and d) that I was able to control the car once it blew. If ANY of that was different, this day could've ended much differently. Angels were watching over us today and I am so grateful to God for it.

And yes, as soon as Hubs gets home, the tire is being replaced. Until then? I'm content in not going anywhere.