Half the Battle

I'm hoping that getting here was half the battle I'll face this summer.

I left early on Wednesday morning with plans to arrive in Laurel in the early afternoon. All was going according to plan until I was about half an hour away. I felt like I had driven my car over something in the road, but when I looked in the mirror, I couldn't see anything in the road. I continued to drive. Soon the car began to shake. This began to concern me, but I continued to drive. (I really wanted to get to Laurel and be done with the trip.) Then the car began to shake violently and I pulled off at the next exit.

This exit had nothing ... no fast food restaurants ... no gas stations ... nothing as far as I could see. I pull over on a patch of dirt and get out of the car to try and figure out what's wrong. I notice that my back left tire is no longer completely whole and decide it's not wise to continue the journey on that tire.

I call the church I am serving this summer and they send someone out immediately. In the meantime, I've called my dad to get his opinion on it all. Eventually a gentleman arrives and we get my spare tire out. The pastor arrives shortly and puts my spare tire on the car.

I begin to head to Laurel with the pastor following me, but he signals that I should pull over as we head onto the freeway entrance ramp. My spare tire is extremely low and needs more air. So we drive down the freeway at 35 mph ... with our hazards on ... barely missing getting hit by a semi truck ... until the next exit. There's actually signs of life at this exit and we put more air in the tire.

We get back on the freeway and make our way to Laurel. I am able to drive 55mph now, but still keep my hazards on because the surrounding traffic is traveling much faster than this. Finally, I make it to the place I'm staying for the summer, exhausted.

Needless to say, it was a long day and I was so happy to just be here.