Blow out on 75 N ... crossed 6 lanes to get to shoulder
SO... I blew a tire. My right front totally blew. I was listenting to 99x and thier recap of FatKids Brazilian wax the other day, laughing my ass off in his time of pain when I started to feel a pretty good tremble. I thought, This doens't feel right. Then I realized I am haivng a flat and I need to get over. I was in the far left lane going about 75 when this happened and so I immediately slowed down and put my indication on. Luckily there was a huge gap in north bound trafiic which allowed me to move over the 6 freaking lanes to the shoulder with realative ease. As I was pulling off to the side, there was extra divet of a minuature lane that I skooted over to. There I parked the car. I sat inside not knowing what to think about what I should do. I kinda panicked and went through the list in my head of "Who can I call?!" I thought of people that had just gotten off work like I did and who lived my way, but the list was very bare. Then I thought of who might be home so I called Wally - left message. Reality settling in. Then I thought of Alex and I was like - PERFECT - I think he goes to work later the Ed. (side note - I was wrong on that assupmtion)... Anyway - I had woken Alex up and he was ever so nice and was immediately going to rush to my rescue. Me.. a Girl, I can't change a tire... ! Never in my life have I had to do it myself, I either had my brother, boyfriend, towtruck or a co-worker do it. Now I know everyone says it is easy to do, but when you have had someone else do it for you, it seems pretty heavy. I was so unsure about whether or not I would put the jack in the wrong place and make it even worse so I bailed on the idea that I would do it. Well after I got off the phone with Alex, Wally called me and he said he would come right away. Traffic south was bad so I knew it would take awhile. So I called Alex back to say that Wally was coming and he didnt' need to come because he had to work and Wally theortically was closer and was already dressed. Okay - I left this part out - this is 7:30 am that I start calling. So I had it covered, Wally was on his way and I would have him change my tire to the spare. Well... I sat. Turned on the radio and sat some more. Battery is dying on the phone so I need to keep the chatting down. I call my friend Amy and tell her, I have to of course... this is excitement and I have to share! She is my girl and must know my delima. Well, she getting her daughter off to school so I let her go. I was very panicky, but I had a little voice in my head going "you can do it, it isn't that har, you watched dad do it to mom's truck 2 months ago, it can't be that hard" well as soon as that thought ran through my head, I took it upon my self to attempt to change my tire. So I moved everything from the trunk to the back seat(which by the way - ws over due for a serious cleaning) I think my flat tire was my muse.. ;-) so I pull out the spare, lay it beside the completley chewed tire. find the jack, and tools, and start finding where I need to place the jack. I get belly-down and start looking. There is this little notch on the welding frame thing that fit the jack so I took a chance and I was right that where I placed it was accurate. So I start turning and the car raises. I feel hope. I am actually in the process of changing a tire and I am doing it by myself. Granted it was freaking cold and I was tired and needed to get home to let the pups out, but I had no choice. To wrap it up, I did everything right and was in the process of putting the lugnuts back on as a HERO Truck stopped by to say Hello! Nolan - Mr. Hero himself - walked over as I was putting the last lugnut on and asked if everyhting was okay! I said it great, I just changed my first tire! Well, his response did not suprise me as he stated, "Most women would throw their hands up and afraid to get dirty". Well this could be true for most but not all and I find thatI am not afraid to get a little dirty! How do you like that boys? *grins So to wrap it up, Nolan helped make sure that the pressure was good on the spare and he just tightened the nuts to be sure. That is all the help I had. So I called Wally and said I am okay to go, and he informed me that he was happy and could now go teach his class, which I didn't knwo he had. For all involved, I thank you very much and I am thankful that if I wasn't able to do it myself, I had you guys! Okay - I drove home, well in that direction and went to Kauffman Tire by my house and I am now at home as my car is in the shop getting two new tires. YEAH! - Odin and Tamora were very happy to take a walk and it was nice to think of the blessing I had in that I was safe, unharmed and over all in good spirits with the luck I received!