Thelma & Louise go hubcap hunting.

I'd thought I'd lost the hubcap forever in the 'splosion of ought-7, but Adele saw it on the side of the road on her way to work the next day. She called me to tell me that she thought we could get it, if we went sometime after midnight when the traffic was less likely to kill us. So or course I agree to this and we planned to go last night after she kept her plans with her mother. She was supposed to call me around 11, so I decided to take a nap so I wouldn't be totally exausted for work at 7 this morning. About 8:30, Shannon (my roommate) knocks on my door and says that Adele is here and she has a surprise. I get dressed and come out and lo & behold she and her mother have my hubcap. Seems that she had told her mother about our plans for the late evening, and her mother got excited and decided they ought to go get it themselves. Something about being in the mood for an adventure. So there I am, half awake, and Adele, her mom and a severly beaten hubcap are in my kitchen. I laughed so hard. I laughed even harder when I heard the whole story about it being her mom's idea, her mom driving out there and pulling over to where she can get it, Adele getting out of the car, running down the freeway to pick it up, running back to the car and mom peeling out back onto the freeway. Kinda like that scene in Thelma & Louise when they blow up the gas truck, without the explosion. Cool.

'Splodin tires and replacements.

This afternoon I headed over to Danny's house to see what I could do with the LTD. He had all the tools I needed set out in the garage, including the compressor. Took me about an hour to get the two stuck bolts off, put on the spare and even reinflate it. Bring it down to Discount Tire and get 3 new tires put on (I replaced the front ones a couple months ago, but I did get a new spare) the car. Took about an hour and $300, but the car rides much better now. And I can trust it on the freeway again, 'though I didn't drive it home on the freeway because it was 5:00. Never would have made it up to speed anyway. Well, if you want to see the pictures of the exploded tire and the pictures I took while waiting for the tires, click HERE.

Blowout on I-80.

The other day I call Adele (also known as Pam, the Spanish teacher I met my first year teaching) to tell her that the LTD is not only legal and insured, but that I had just had a bunch of work done on the front end and I had deemed it road-trip worthy. So we decide to take it for a drive up to Ogden and get dinner at a little place across from where she works. Today we stop at the Tesoro on 33rd and 23rd, grab a couple of drinks for the road (just soda) and head out. Everything's going great, it's not too hot anymore (this is around 7 pm), the car is running great and Adele is having fun with the camera. We head up 23rd, enter the freeway heading west and cruise past 7th east. I'm in the middle lane as we get to the State Street exit, so we can veer left and merge into I-15 north. Ever wonder why it's referred to as a "tire blowout"? 'Cause when it blows out, it's an explosion. I thought the whole back end of the car had been blown off. Happened right as we got onto the bridge over State. After I said it, I did it, and then took my foot off the gas, (without slamming on the brakes) and started moving over to the right side. Completely, utterly on cruise control, running on instinct because I don't remember thinking anything until we got stopped in the break-down lane. But we made it safely. I got out on the passenger side, found out that the tire that blew was also on that side, meaning I'd at least have the car between me and traffic when changing the tire. Except that when I got the spare out, although in excellent condition, it was flat. So I called Rae, who came to our rescue and brought us, and the tire, to the Chevron to fill up the spare. Stroke of good luck : the tire held the air, it's flatness was due to sitting for so long, not a leak. We get back to the car and I start to take off the lug nuts, which are on there pretty tight. Real, real tight. I have to stand on the lug wrench to loosen the lug nuts, and 2 of them still refused to loosen, just started rounding the nuts. This is where I decide "F" this, I'm not fighting these lug nuts on the side of the freeway, with the sun already setting, cars whizzing past us at 70+ and honking their horns like we've chosen to be there. (Yes, like I was happy to be there). Called a tow truck and had it towed up to Dan & Rae's house (anyone that knows my driveway knows why I had it towed there). So, now it's sitting down at their house, I have to figure out a way to get the tire off (shouldn't be too bad there), then take it somewhere to get new tires put on the back (don't trust the other one now) and figure out what I'm going to do about the damage to the car - click HERE to see the pictures. And thanks to Dan, Rae and Adele, who all made what could have been a disastrous experience not so bad. It's great having a family and friends that I know I can count on, love ya all.