Remember this book from when your kids were young? Well, I had one of those days last week, but I, with a little help from my friends, turned it around. It was a Wednesday, and I was driving myself and three friends to the meeting place for our wanderers event. In all there would be about 20 of us who were planning to tour Mt. Hope Cemetery with guide Patty from Urban Safaris, then lunch at The Big Kitchen with owner Judy, and hear stories about old San Diego. It was one of those days when what can go wrong will go wrong.
We started our drive to the cemetery, me, Regina, Carol and Angela. Everything was fine until we're on the 805 near the 52 when we heard a terrible noise. At first I thought I ran over something, and then a few seconds later I heard the noise again. I thought something was falling off from under the car. I carefully pulled over to the side. There were no off ramps, so I pulled as far over as I could on the 52. I got out, surveyed the car, looking under the chassis, but could find nothing. Luckily I didn't get blown away. Everytime a big truck passed it felt like I might be picked up and swept away. Within a minute or two the Highway Patrol came to the rescue. The first thing he did was signal us to get back in the car. Obviously it's very dangerous to get out of the car on the freeway which I knew, but I had to examine the car. I showed him my AAA card, he called the dispacher, and within about 10 minutes our AAA truck showed up. In the meantime, a group of 20 was waiting for us at the cemetery. I called and told them we would not be joining them. I had no idea at that point what was wrong with the car. The only thing I knew for sure was that we would not get to Mt. Hope. No way.
The AAA guy was great, and in two seconds told me I had a flat tire on the front left. Why couldn't I see that? I guess I should have figured it out as we smelled rubber burning when we pulled off the freeway and saw remnents of tire just a few feet behind the car. The next project was emptying the trunk to get the spare tire out. I am prepared for anything, and my trunk is proof of that. Three yoga mats, a set of golf clubs, a golf cart, packages of golf balls, tees, shoes and sweatshirts, bottled water, bridge supplies for marathon bridge (boards, bidding boxes, etc), canvas bags for shopping of every conceivable size and shape, CD's, and my gym clothes. We removed all of this so the AAA guy could change the tire which he did in short order, and we were set to go. Unfortunately the spare tire is not meant for driving long distances, so we went directly to the Discount Tire Store in Encinitas. $547 later I had four new tires.
While the tires were being fixed, the four of us went to Souplantation for a wonderful, relaxing lunch. Thanks, Angela for lunch. That helped soothe the wound of the $547. Everyone was a great sport, and we turned what could have been a tragedy into a fun adventure. When I saw the shredded tire I felt lucky to be alive. It was wonderful to have three friends to share this experience with. Finally, three hours after we started out, I had everyone back to their cars, safe and sound. One of my friends asked when we would go back and see the cemetary, and I told her, "In my next life." No more Mt. Hope for me. I said goodbye to Regina, Carol and Angela, and decided to make it a "car" day. I drove to Carlsbad and had the pit in my windshield fixed. The car looks great, drives beautifully and I'm ready for the long drive to Los Angeles and Taft that I will make tomorrow.
No, that picture is not of any of us changing the tire. If it were, we wouldn't have been waiting 10 minutes for help, but probably just 10 seconds.
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