We were set to leave on Friday afternoon…However, Sweet Hubby could not tune up the Tank until late that day. We decided to leave out early on Saturday morning. After ten years of devoted service the Tank threw us a curve. His hinder parts (rear brakes) were cracked and hurting. It took some tender loving care and new shoes to make Tank all better. We hit the road at 12 noon. We made a quick stop at our friend’s home to open some presents for Mimi’s brood and Franklin. We grabbed some lunch very quickly and set off. We encountered our first slow down outside of Lonoke. A semi trailer caught fire and traffic was at a standstill. We finally made it through that mess and enjoyed the wide open freeways. All was well with our little excursion until we hit Jackson, TN. Then we encountered something that has never happened before in 20 years of traveling together. The Tank had a blowout! We quickly pulled over and found that only a rim remained. What to do? We were packed to the gills, weren’t sure that we even had a good spare since we have never used it, and the wind was biting cold. A good Samaritan (he looked like our cousin Mike 20 years ago) stopped to give us a hand. He had to suffer through the cold, find a jack big enough to lift Sherman the Tank, and we had to unpack the back to get to our spare. The spare was in good shape, just needed a little air.
The blown out tire --- separated from the wheel all the way around!!
The Good Samaritans!!!! 
Chicken Little trying to keep Franklin warm!!
The unloaded loot (for Sarah) so that we could get to the spare tire.
The loaded car....without the extra loot!
Ok, we have to get a BIGGER jack....this thing is too heavy!!!
Once all was packed back in we drove to a WalMart Tire Center just down the road and decided to buy 2 new tires for the back wheels. (Sweet Hubby had already put new tires on the front and saw that the back tires were fairly new so he did not change them) We were able to get to the tire center about 30 minutes before it closed for the evening! We decided to eat some dinner and because it was getting late, we found a hotel and stayed in Jackson for the night.
Dr. Mom and Mimi are quite impressed with the kind citizens of Jackson. We encountered good will throughout this city. Everyone was so helpful and kind to us. It now goes on one of our favorite places to be stranded in. Hopefully this list will remain small.
So…we are back on the road again suffering through all the little spats from the kids and the hundred million “are we there yet?” questions. Let’s hope we can continue the trip without any further happenings of the bad kind and stil keep our sanity.
For now the Doctor is out contemplating the fact that there are still good Samaritans in this world. Mimi is confessing that driving can still be more pleasant than flying, right???
1 comment:
Good luck with your trip! Give all the kids a big hug for me and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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