Preparing for the Road Ahead

First it was a chore to wake up this morning. I'm not sure why but for the past four or five days I've felt like I was glued to my bed and trying to get out of it has been extremely hard. But that wasn't the teeth gritting part of my day.

I woke up to a flat tire. Yeah, I was not happy about that seeing as how I just got that tire replaced. It only leads me to believe that they guy who changed the tire was totally inept at his job. I mean, he had to keep getting another guy to help him and when I pulled off from the shop, I was about a mile away when the indicator came on that the tires needed more air. I was thinking to myself, didn't he even know how much air to put in the tires? Arrgghhh! I think my teenage daughters could have done a better job and they've never changed a tire a day in their lives. So anyway, I woke up with the flat. I live too far to go back where I got the tire from and my funds are dedicated to another purpose so I had to figure something out. I called my bank and found out I had more funds that I previously thought so I was okay. I had the feeling that things were still working for the better good and so I wasn't tripping out about it.

I walked to the nearest gas station and bought some Fix-A-Flat. After I put that in the tire I drove the van to another gas station a little farther away. You see, when you use that stuff you have to drive the car for a couple of miles so that the liquid can spread evenly within the tire and then you add more air to it. So that's what I did. I filled up my gas tank and headed back home to pick up my daughter.

An hour later, maybe a little more, we head out to take care of some more business and my car won't start because the battery had run down. Wha...well that was a bit much at the moment and I said some things I probably shouldn't have said but really I was totally and utterly shocked by this occurrence. Up until that point I was positive, no matter what but that tripped me up and all I could do was walk around the car in disbelief. Here it is, three days until I have to make a road trip and my vehicle is seemingly rebelling against the idea. I made sure I had tires, I had my oil and other fluids checked, my belts are fine and so I thought my battery was ok and then that? Wow. In the end I had to assess that it was better to have all these problems at home rather than on the road.

So we see a neighbor and my daughter asks if he could give us a jump. Good thing I have cables. He does and we went on our way. Vehicle didn't have a problem starting at any of the other places I stopped at today and my tire pressure was holding steady. Tomorrow I'll take it to my TRUSTED mechanic and have him give me a once over, tires and all. I'll never go the cheaper route again, I don't want any more surprises. I also need to finish my list so that I can make sure I don't leave anything that I might need. I sure do miss the old days when I was just a passenger riding in the vehicle and not the one having to plan the trip. Now I remember why I don't do road trips that much anymore.